ADR Tools

Command-line tools for working with Architecture Decision Records
Under Other
By npryce

architecture markdown documentation architecture-decision-records

ADR Tools

A command-line tool for working with a log of Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).

Quick Start

Install ADR Tools.

Use the adr command to manage ADRs. Try running adr help.

ADRs are stored in a subdirectory of your project as Markdown files.
The default directory is doc/adr, but you can specify the directory
when you initialise the ADR log.

Create an ADR directory in the root of your project:
```
adr init doc/architecture/decisions
```
This will create a directory named doc/architecture/decisions
containing the first ADR, which records that you are using ADRs
to record architectural decisions and links to
Michael Nygard's article on the subject.

Create Architecture Decision Records
```
adr new Implement as Unix shell scripts
```
This will create a new, numbered ADR file and open it in your
editor of choice (as specified by the VISUAL or EDITOR environment
variable).

To create a new ADR that supercedes a previous one (ADR 9, for example),
use the -s option.
```
adr new -s 9 Use Rust for performance-critical functionality
```
This will create a new ADR file that is flagged as superceding
ADR 9, and changes the status of ADR 9 to indicate that it is
superceded by the new ADR. It then opens the new ADR in your
editor of choice.

For further information, use the built in help:
```
adr help
```

See the tests for detailed examples.

The decisions for this tool are recorded as architecture decision records in the project repository.