ADR glossary and further reading

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Glossary

Term	Meaning
Architecture decision	A choice with significant effects on a system’s structure, quality attributes, dependencies, interfaces, operations, or construction.
ADR	Architecture Decision Record: a durable account of one decision and its context and consequences.
Canonical format	ADR Guard’s default format, with Status, Context, Decision, and Consequences level-two sections.
Decision category	The domain affected by a decision, such as data, security, or infrastructure. It does not determine the file format.
Decision driver	A requirement, quality attribute, constraint, or priority used to compare options.
MADR	Markdown Architectural Decision Records, an external ADR template family. ADR Guard supports an explicit MADR 4.0 validation subset.
Template	The starting document shape and guidance used to author a record. ADR Guard generates canonical Minimal, Extended, or structurally compliant Custom records.
Validation	A deterministic check of structure and relationships. It is not architectural review or approval.
Supersede	Replace a historical decision with a newer ADR while preserving both records and their relationship.

Further reading

• Michael Nygard’s Documenting Architecture Decisions, the original short-form ADR proposal.
• The community Architecture Decision Records site for practices, templates, and tooling.
• The ADR template catalog for educational comparison. A listed template is not automatically supported by ADR Guard.
• The MADR project and its 4.0.0 templates.
• ADR Guard’s format selection guide for the exact supported boundary.