/decision-lifecycle

name: decision-lifecycle
description: Author and track Architecture Decision Records. Routed to when the user invokes /adr to record a new decision or /adr-status to list ADR health. Authors numbered, dated, user-attributed ADRs under .codearbiter/decisions/, maintains supersede chains, and reports status read-only. Never authors an ADR as its own judgment — every ADR carries explicit user attribution.

decision-lifecycle

Author and track ADRs. Routed to when the user invokes `/adr "<title>"` (author a new ADR) or `/adr-status [--adr N]` (list ADR health, read-only). Every ADR is user-attributed — this skill never records a decision the user did not explicitly make.

The append-only decision-log format (entry fields, supersession protocol) lives in `{{PLUGIN_ROOT}}/includes/smarts/decision-log-format.md`. Read it before writing a log line; do not restate it here.

**Boundary with `decision-variance`.** This skill owns ADR *authoring* and *status* (`/adr`, `/adr-status`) — recording a decision the user has already made, and reporting ADR health. `decision-variance` owns *arbitration* — detecting variances between artifacts and the scaffold, scoring options via SMARTS, and the decision log itself. The two share the canonical SMARTS reference under `{{PLUGIN_ROOT}}/includes/smarts/` (`core.md` for scoring, `decision-log-format.md` for the log) and one ADR template (`references/adr-template.md`); they are one domain split by responsibility, not duplicated. When a decision needs *making* (competing options), route to `decision-variance`; when it needs *recording* (already decided), stay here.

Pre-flight

Read these, or STOP and surface the gap — never guess a path:

• `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/decisions/` — the ADR directory and existing records. Create it on first `/adr` if absent.
• For `/adr`: confirm the user explicitly authorized this decision and supplied (or confirmed) its content. An ADR is never authored as the disposition of a routine finding.

Phase 1 — Index · gate: BLOCK

Scan `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/decisions/` for existing `NNNN-*.md` ADR files. Record each by **filename stem** (`0014-githook-shim-dropin-fail-closed`), title, and status. Determine the next sequential number (no gaps) for `/adr`; for `/adr-status` this is the working set.

**The stem is the identifier; the number is only a sort key.** Two ADRs may already share a number — this repository holds two numbered 0014 — so a bare number can name more than one document. Index by stem, and never assume `NNNN` resolves to one file until you have checked.

Gate: the existing ADRs are indexed by stem and, for `/adr`, the next number is fixed and **unused** — a number already taken by an existing stem is not available, even for an unrelated decision.

Phase 2 — Author (/adr) · gate: STOP

Confirm the decision content with the user — context, the decision itself, alternatives, consequences. MUST NOT fill these from inference. Surface any unknown as an inline `[CONFIRM-NN]` placeholder; do not resolve it by guessing.

**Drop the authoring marker first.** The `pre-write`/`pre-edit` hooks block any write to `.codearbiter/decisions/NNNN-*.md` unless a fresh authoring marker is present — that block is the mechanism enforcing "ADRs only via `/adr`" (ORCHESTRATOR §3), so the sanctioned path must arm it itself. Immediately before writing, create the marker at the path the hooks check (project root = git top level):

mkdir -p "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.codearbiter/.markers"
touch "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.codearbiter/.markers/adr-authoring-active"

The marker is honored for 30 minutes. Then write `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/decisions/NNNN-<slug>.md` using the canonical ADR template — `{{PLUGIN_ROOT}}/skills/decision-lifecycle/references/adr-template.md` (the single source of truth for the ADR shape, shared with `decompose`). Author it with `status: proposed`. If this decision supersedes an existing one, set `supersedes:` to that ADR's **full filename stem** — `supersedes: 0014-githook-shim-dropin-fail-closed`, never `supersedes: 0014` — and leave the prior ADR's file untouched (forward-only chain — do not edit it to add a back-reference).

If the new ADR supersedes only *part* of the prior decision, say which part in the body. `supersedes:` names a document, not a clause, so a chain may legitimately fork — two ADRs can each supersede different clauses of one predecessor. That fork is correct and must not be "repaired"; only the prose can carry the scope.

After writing the ADR, append a corresponding entry to the decision log per the format in `{{PLUGIN_ROOT}}/includes/smarts/decision-log-format.md` — `Decided by:` names the user. Status transitions (`proposed → accepted → superseded | rejected`) require explicit user instruction; never advance status on this skill's own judgment.

**`governs:` makes the decision live.** When an ADR names path globs in `governs:`, the post-write hook surfaces a one-line notice on any Write/Edit touching a matching file — "this file is governed by ADR-NNNN" — so a recorded decision pushes back at edit time instead of waiting for a checkpoint sweep. Offer the field whenever a decision constrains identifiable files; omit it for decisions without a file footprint. Globs are fnmatch-style against repo-relative forward-slash paths.

Once the ADR file and its log entry are written (and any user-instructed status edit is applied), remove the marker — it exists only for one authoring pass:

rm -f "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.codearbiter/.markers/adr-authoring-active"

Gate: the ADR file is written with a real `decided-by` user attribution, numbered without a gap, and its log entry is appended. An ADR with no user attribution, or authored as the disposition of a finding, does not pass — STOP.

Phase 3 — Status (/adr-status) · gate: BLOCK

Read-only. For each ADR (or the `--adr N` target), report: stem, title, status, date, and su