architecture-decision-record

architecture-decision-record is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from fattain-naime/engineering-docs. It costs 54 tokens per session (2,877 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A template for recording one important software architecture decision, including its context, alternatives, chosen option, and consequences. An Architecture Decision Record, or ADR, is a lasting note about why a design choice was made.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to document choices such as authentication methods, database technologies, service boundaries, or other decisions that affect the system's architecture.
Why use it?
It preserves the reasoning behind decisions so future developers can understand the trade-offs instead of repeating the same investigation.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Part of the engineering-docs plugin — 22 skills, 7 agents, 1 hook, 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/fattain-naime/engineering-docs/architecture-decision-record
Any agent
npx skills add fattain-naime/engineering-docs --skill architecture-decision-record
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fattain-naime/engineering-docs

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install engineering-docs, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 22 skills, 7 agents, 1 hook, 1 MCP server.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for architecture-decision-record

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fattain-naime/engineering-docs/architecture-decision-record.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/fattain-naime/engineering-docs/architecture-decision-record)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/fattain-naime/engineering-docs/architecture-decision-record"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fattain-naime/engineering-docs/architecture-decision-record.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 54 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,877 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found 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 $0.00054 $0.02877
Opus 5 $0.00027 $0.01438
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00575
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00288

Measured 5d ago against content hash e438472cbe06, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

architecture-decision-record 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 5d 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.

skills/architecture-decision-record/SKILL.md · 202 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 202 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Purpose

Produce a single ADR that permanently captures a significant architectural decision. ADRs are append-only: once Accepted, they are never edited. If a decision is reversed, a new ADR is written with Supersedes: ADR-NNN.

Input

Works best with: A clear description of the decision being recorded. Also valuable: The context that led to the decision, the alternatives that were considered, any benchmarks or evidence, and the known trade-offs.

Example invocation: Document our decision to use HMAC-SHA256 request signing for webhook delivery instead of bearer tokens. We chose this because webhooks are server-to-server calls where rotating tokens is operationally complex, while HMAC signing uses a per-merchant secret and validates the payload integrity simultaneously.

Key Concepts

ADR Lifecycle

Proposed → Accepted → (Deprecated) → (Superseded by ADR-NNN)
  • Proposed: Under discussion. May still change.
  • Accepted: Binding. Implementation should follow this decision.
  • Deprecated: The decision is outdated but not actively reversed.
  • Superseded: A newer ADR (referenced) replaces this one.

What Qualifies as an ADR

Write an ADR for any decision that:

  • Is significant enough that you would regret not having documented it in 2 years
  • Affects multiple components, teams, or services
  • Will be difficult or expensive to reverse
  • Requires understanding the "why" to maintain the system correctly

Do NOT write an ADR for: routine implementation details, naming conventions (use a style guide), or decisions that will obviously change soon.

ADR Numbering Guidance

  • Sequential numbering: Use ADR-0001, ADR-0002, etc. Zero-padded to 4 digits for consistent sorting.
  • No gaps: Never skip numbers, even if an ADR is rejected or abandoned. A rejected ADR is still a record that a decision was considered and declined.
  • No reuse: Once a number is assigned, it is never reused — even if the ADR file is deleted. The number is a permanent identifier in the log.
  • Monorepo convention: In monorepos, prefix with the service or domain: ADR-API-0001, ADR-INFRA-0001. Each service/domain maintains its own sequence.
  • Multi-repo convention: Each repository maintains its own independent sequence. Cross-repo decisions reference the originating repo: Supersedes: service-a/ADR-0003.

Read the full file on GitHub · 202 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 5d ago First seen · 202 lines · 54 tokens per session scan A e438472cbe06

Subscribe to this mod's changes

architecture-decision-record is a skill published in the GitHub repository fattain-naime/engineering-docs (4 stars, last pushed 20d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 54 tokens to every session and 2,877 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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