architecture-decision-records

architecture-decision-records is a skill for Claude Code from Data-Wise/craft. It costs 41 tokens per session (2,909 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of architecture-decision-records, MIT.

A written record of an important software-architecture decision, including the situation, the choice made, and its effects. It is intended to be kept with the project for future readers.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to document choices such as adopting a framework, selecting a database, defining an API pattern, or setting a security architecture.
Why use it?
It prevents important reasoning from being lost in conversations or forgotten after the original team changes. It helps developers understand why the system was designed a certain way.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the craft plugin — 42 skills, 22 commands, 2 agents, 1 MCP server shipped together

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/data-wise/craft/architecture-decision-records
Any agent
npx skills add Data-Wise/craft --skill architecture-decision-records
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Data-Wise/craft

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install craft, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 42 skills, 22 commands, 2 agents, 1 MCP server.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

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agentmods badge for architecture-decision-records

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/data-wise/craft/architecture-decision-records.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/data-wise/craft/architecture-decision-records)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/data-wise/craft/architecture-decision-records"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/data-wise/craft/architecture-decision-records.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 41 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,909 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 92% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00041 $0.02909
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.01455
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00582
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00291

Measured 6d ago against content hash 63f74c5837e9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

architecture-decision-records scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

92% identical to architecture-decision-records — 60 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

skills/docs/architecture-decision-records/SKILL.md · 434 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 434 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Architecture Decision Records

Comprehensive patterns for creating, maintaining, and managing Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) that capture the context and rationale behind significant technical decisions.

When to Use This Skill

  • Making significant architectural decisions
  • Documenting technology choices
  • Recording design trade-offs
  • Onboarding new team members
  • Reviewing historical decisions
  • Establishing decision-making processes

Core Concepts

1. What is an ADR?

An Architecture Decision Record captures:

  • Context: Why we needed to make a decision
  • Decision: What we decided
  • Consequences: What happens as a result

2. When to Write an ADR

Write ADR Skip ADR
New framework adoption Minor version upgrades
Database technology choice Bug fixes
API design patterns Implementation details
Security architecture Routine maintenance
Integration patterns Configuration changes

3. ADR Lifecycle

Proposed → Accepted → Deprecated → Superseded
              ↓
           Rejected

Templates

Template 1: Standard ADR (MADR Format)

# ADR-0001: Use PostgreSQL as Primary Database

## Status

Accepted

## Context

We need to select a primary database for our new e-commerce platform. The system
will handle:
- ~10,000 concurrent users
- Complex product catalog with hierarchical categories
- Transaction processing for orders and payments
- Full-text search for products
- Geospatial queries for store locator

The team has experience with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. We need ACID
compliance for financial transactions.

## Decision Drivers

* **Must have ACID compliance** for payment processing
* **Must support complex queries** for reporting
* **Should support full-text search** to reduce infrastructure complexity
* **Should have good JSON support** for flexible product attributes
* **Team familiarity** reduces onboarding time

## Considered Options

### Option 1: PostgreSQL
- **Pros**: ACID compliant, excellent JSON support (JSONB), built-in full-text
  search, PostGIS for geospatial, team has experience
- **Cons**: Slightly more complex replication setup than MySQL

### Option 2: MySQL
- **Pros**: Very familiar to team, simple replication, large community
- **Cons**: Weaker JSON support, no built-in full-text search (need
  Elasticsearch), no geospatial without extensions

### Option 3: MongoDB
- **Pros**: Flexible schema, native JSON, horizontal scaling
- **Cons**: No ACID for multi-document transactions (at decision time),
  team has limited experience, requires schema design discipline

## Decision

We will use **PostgreSQL 15** as our primary database.

## Rationale

PostgreSQL provides the best balance of:
1. **ACID compliance** essential for e-commerce transactions
2. **Built-in capabilities** (full-text search, JSONB, PostGIS) reduce
   infrastructure complexity
3. **Team familiarity** with SQL databases reduces learning curve
4. **Mature ecosystem** with excellent tooling and community support

The slight complexity in replication is outweighed by the reduction in
additional services (no separate Elasticsearch needed).

## Consequences

### Positive
- Single database handles transactions, search, and geospatial queries
- Reduced operational complexity (fewer services to manage)
- Strong consistency guarantees for financial data
- Team can leverage existing SQL expertise

### Negative
- Need to learn PostgreSQL-specific features (JSONB, full-text search syntax)
- Vertical scaling limits may require read replicas sooner
- Some team members need PostgreSQL-specific training

### Risks
- Full-text search may not scale as well as dedicated search engines
- Mitigation: Design for potential Elasticsearch addition if needed

## Implementation Notes

- Use JSONB for flexible product attributes
- Implement connection pooling with PgBouncer
- Set up streaming replication for read replicas
- Use pg_trgm extension for fuzzy search

## Related Decisions

- ADR-0002: Caching Strategy (Redis) - complements database choice
- ADR-0005: Search Architecture - may supersede if Elasticsearch needed

## References

- [PostgreSQL JSON Documentation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-json.html)
- [PostgreSQL Full Text Search](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/textsearch.html)
- Internal: Performance benchmarks in `/docs/benchmarks/database-comparison.md`

Read the full file on GitHub · 434 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 434 lines · 41 tokens per session scan A 63f74c5837e9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

architecture-decision-records is a skill published in the GitHub repository Data-Wise/craft (4 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 41 tokens to every session and 2,909 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 92% identical to architecture-decision-records, differing in 60 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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