Architecture Decision Record
← Home

Claude Code skills for ADRs

The architecture-decision-record repository ships two Claude Code skills under skills/. A skill is a packaged set of instructions Claude Code loads for a particular kind of task — here, writing an ADR, or maintaining this project.

architecture-decision-record-skill

General purpose — for anyone writing an ADR in any project, not just this one.

Given a decision to document, it helps decide whether the decision even needs an ADR, finds or sets up an adr/ or decisions/ directory, names the file using the present-tense-imperative convention (choose-database.md), picks a template from the eleven bundled skeletons (Nygard, MADR, Tyree & Akerman, ITD, business case, Alexandrian, Planguage, EdgeX, arc42, Gareth Morgan, GIG Cymru NHS Wales — see Templates), and writes solid Context/Decision/Consequences sections. It also covers superseding an old ADR and pointers to PR guardrail tools.

View the skill's source

architecture-decision-record-maintainer-skill

For maintainers of this repository specifically — not for writing an ADR elsewhere.

Documents the repo's layout (README.md, locales/<lang>/{documents,examples,templates}), the <div class="include"> mirroring pattern between README.md sections and locales/en/documents/, and the exact steps for adding a new template, example, or tool/guardrail link — including which files need to change together, based on how past contributions (like the ADR Guard addition) actually shipped. It also gives a PR-review checklist.

View the skill's source

Installing a skill

Claude Code discovers skills under a skills/ directory. Copy the one you want:

  • Just this project: copy the skill folder into .claude/skills/ at the root of the repository you're working in.
  • Every project: copy it into ~/.claude/skills/ in your home directory instead.
git clone https://github.com/architecture-decision-record/architecture-decision-record
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r architecture-decision-record/skills/architecture-decision-record-skill .claude/skills/

Then ask Claude Code to write or review an ADR — it loads the skill automatically when the request matches.