claudegoodies
Skill

documentation-and-adrs

From addyosmani

Records decisions and documentation. Use when making architectural decisions, changing public APIs, shipping features, or when you need to record context that future engineers and agents will need to understand the codebase.

Facts

Repository
addyosmani/agent-skills
Status
Actively maintained
Last commit
Source file
skills/documentation-and-adrs/SKILL.md

Source preview

The instructions Claude Code reads when this skill runs.

# Documentation and ADRs

## Overview

Document decisions, not just code. The most valuable documentation captures the *why* — the context, constraints, and trade-offs that led to a decision. Code shows *what* was built; documentation explains *why it was built this way* and *what alternatives were considered*. This context is essential for future humans and agents working in the codebase.

## When to Use

- Making a significant architectural decision
- Choosing between competing approaches
- Adding or changing a public API
- Shipping a feature that changes user-facing behavior
- Onboarding new team members (or agents) to the project
- When you find yourself explaining the same thing repeatedly

**When NOT to use:** Don't document obvious code. Don't add comments that restate what the code already says. Don't write docs for throwaway prototypes.

## Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)

ADRs capture the reasoning behind significant technical decisions. They're the highest-value documentation you can write.

### When to Write an ADR

- Choosing a framework, library, or major dependency
- Designing a data model or database schema
- Selecting an authentication strategy
- Deciding on an API architecture (REST vs. GraphQL vs. tRPC)
- Choosing between build tools, hosting platforms, or infrastructure
- Any decision that would be expensive to reverse

### ADR Template

Store ADRs in `
View full source on GitHub →

Other skills