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Record design decisions so nobody asks why later
A short decision record from a design meeting or chat thread, with the options considered, the choice made and its trade-offs, stored with the project.
When to use it
After any meeting or thread where a design choice is made
Step by step
Get the discussion text
Use the meeting transcript or recap from Teams Copilot, Zoom AI Companion or Google Meet if your plan includes it, or copy the chat thread or your own notes.
Ask for a decision record
Paste it into your AI assistant with this prompt.
Prompt to copyBelow is a discussion between engineers about [topic]. Write an architecture decision record with these sections: Title, Status (Proposed/Accepted), Context (the problem and constraints in 3-5 sentences), Options considered (each with pros and cons as raised in the discussion), Decision, Consequences (trade-offs, risks, follow-up work), Open questions. Use only what was said; if the final decision isn't clear, set Status to Proposed and say what still needs agreeing. Discussion: [paste transcript or thread].Confirm with the team
Share the draft in the team channel and ask people to correct anything misremembered before marking it Accepted.
Store it with the project
Save it in your team's Notion decisions database (or in the repository's docs folder) with a number and date so it's easy to find.
What you get
ADR-014: Use a message queue for order emails. Context: sending emails during checkout slows the page. Options: send inline; background job; message queue. Decision: message queue. Consequences: one more service to monitor.
Tips
- Link the record from the related ticket and pull request so the 'why' is one click away.