Objective
Architecture Decision (template) is a memo template designed to document technical choices, system design patterns, and infrastructure decisions within BrianBot (Local) made by the collaboration with Brian Swichkow. The template provides content team members with a structured framework to capture: the technical problem or constraint that necessitated a decision, the chosen solution pattern or approach, specific implementation details that make the solution concrete, and the underlying rationale explaining why this particular path was selected over alternatives. This format transforms ephemeral technical discussions into durable institutional knowledge that helps future developers understand not just what was built, but why it was built that way.
Subjective
When documenting an architecture decision, begin with the constraint or problem that made a decision necessary. Was it a scaling bottleneck? A security requirement? A developer experience issue? State this clearly and concretely. Next, describe the solution pattern chosen—whether it's a caching strategy, a service architecture, a deployment approach, or an infrastructure choice. Be specific about the implementation: what tools, services, or code patterns were used? Include enough technical detail that someone could understand how to apply the same solution. Finally, and most importantly, explain the reasoning. What alternatives were considered and why were they rejected? What trade-offs were accepted? What constraints or values drove the decision? The goal is to create a record that prevents future developers from relitigating settled questions while still preserving the context that might justify revisiting the decision later.
Contexts
#template