/decision-trace

name: "decision-trace"
description: "Trace a decision to its records: what was decided, when, who decided, the options considered, and whether it was revisited or reversed. Uses Teamwork Graph to find decision pages, DACIs, registers, meeting decisions, Jira work items, project and goal highlights, Loom summaries and public chat, then reads records and version history. Answers in the conversation first with source wording, a dated timeline, deciders and gaps. Offers the existing HTML report on request and publication only when Atlassian Artifacts is available and requested. Use for why did we decide, who decided or signed off, what was decided, is it still current, or /decision-trace. For a period's changes, use catch-up. For behaviour in code, use how-it-works. For an expert, use whos-the-expert."

Decision trace

Answer "why did we decide X?", "who decided?" or "what did we decide about X?" in the conversation for someone who wasn't there: a new team member, a stakeholder who's been asked to defend the decision, or a lead deciding whether to reopen it. In a few minutes they get what was decided in the record's own words, when, who the record names as the decider, the options it weighed, and whether anything since has reopened it.

Decisions are scattered. The record might be a decision page, a DACI table, one row in a register, a list in meeting notes, a Jira work item or a highlight on a project, and the discussion that led to it is somewhere else again. The value of this skill is the judgement a search results page can't make. It tells a recorded decision apart from a proposal and from talk, takes the decider only from a field that names one, dates when a status or the decision text actually changed, keeps a chain of related decisions apart instead of merging them, and says plainly when no record exists.

Load the `teamwork-graph-context` skill first and follow it for gathering context, labelling sources, keeping sensitive content out and optional publishing. Its "Content lost in markdown" and "Loom lists come back short" notes under "Product tools" matter most here. This file adds what's specific to tracing decisions.

This skill selects "Answer-first delivery" in `teamwork-graph-context`: gather and assess, answer in the conversation, then ask whether the user wants an HTML report. Do not write report data, run a renderer or create an artifact unless the user requests an export, HTML report or publication. Use the existing report layout only for that optional export. Offer Atlassian Artifacts publication only after confirming availability; exporting does not authorise publishing.

What this skill will and won't do

• **It reports what the records say.** The decision, its reasons and its options appear only as a record states them, quoted or closely paraphrased, with a link. It never fills a gap with what the decision probably was, and never quotes a decision from a search snippet: snippets can carry text that no version of the page holds.
• **It never infers who decided.** The decider comes only from an Approver, Decider or Accountable field, a register's approvers column, or a record that names who decides. Never from the page's author or owner, the person who edited the status or moved the work item, the most senior person in a meeting, or the exec sponsor. A process page that says "the approver moves it to Decision Made" doesn't make whoever moved it the approver. When no record names one, say "No decider recorded".
• **It doesn't judge the decision.** No view on whether it was right, and no recommendation to reopen it.
• **Sensitive decisions stay out.** Decisions about people (hiring, levels, reorgs, performance) and anything "Sensitive content" in `teamwork-graph-context` covers are never traced, even when the user names one. Say that this skill doesn't cover that kind of decision, and stop.

Sensitive content for decisions

These add to "Sensitive content" in `teamwork-graph-context`.

• **Where decisions happen privately.** Real decisions are often made in direct messages, group messages and leadership channels. Leave them all out, even when they hold the answer: a Slack direct message (URL contains `/archives/D`, or a title with no channel name), a group message (channel name starts with `mpdm-`), and a channel whose name says leadership, exec, staff or board, or uses a word or abbreviation for them (`leaders`, `leads`, `lt`, `elt`, `slt`, `exec`), whether or not it shows as private: search results don't say. A Slack URL with `/archives/G` is a private channel, so its name needs the check too. Don't read, quote or count them. When any were left out, the footer says "Some results weren't used", and nothing more.
• **Documents written for leadership** (a leadership-team DACI, an exec review page) are usable decision records, unless they're marked confidential or restricted, or hold a category "Sensitive content" lists. The exec-only rule covers restricted channels and material marked as such, not every page a leader reads.
• **Comments and meeting notes** on a decision often carry customer revenue, deal sizes, headcount or named customers' staff. Drop those parts and keep the rest.
• **Calendar events** found by search are pointers to a meeting. Their snippets can hold dial-in passcodes, and their links encode an email address. Use the meeting's recording or notes if there are any. Otherwise name the event and its date in plain text, with no link or snippet.
• **One-to-one recordings:** a Loom meeting recording between two people counts as a private conversation, like a direct message. Leave it out. The list doesn't return participants, so judge by the title: "1:1", "1-1", "one on one", "mentorship", "coaching", or two names joined by "/", "|", "&", ",", "<>" or "and". The leadership words above apply to recording and event titles too.
• **Account labels:** drop "(Deactivated)" and similar suffixes from names.
• **Rejected options can name people** ("move Sam