# Record Architecture Decisions

* Status: accepted
* Date: 2025-11-30
* Deciders: Billy Davies
* Technical Story: Initial setup of homelab documentation

## Context and Problem Statement

As the homelab infrastructure grows in complexity with AI/ML services, multi-GPU configurations, and event-driven architectures, we need a way to document and communicate significant architectural decisions. Without documentation, the rationale behind choices gets lost, making future changes risky and onboarding difficult.

## Decision Drivers

* Need to preserve context for why decisions were made
* Enable future maintainers (including AI agents) to understand the system
* Provide a structured way to evaluate alternatives
* Support the wiki/design process for iterative improvements

## Considered Options

* Informal documentation in README files
* Wiki pages without structure
* Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
* No documentation (rely on code)

## Decision Outcome

Chosen option: "Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)", because they provide a structured format that captures context, alternatives, and consequences. They're lightweight, version-controlled, and well-suited for technical decisions.

### Positive Consequences

* Clear historical record of decisions
* Structured format makes decisions searchable
* Forces consideration of alternatives
* Git-versioned alongside code
* AI agents can parse and understand decisions

### Negative Consequences

* Requires discipline to create ADRs
* May accumulate outdated decisions over time
* Additional overhead for simple decisions

## Pros and Cons of the Options

### Informal README documentation

* Good, because low friction
* Good, because close to code
* Bad, because no structure for alternatives
* Bad, because decisions get buried in prose

### Wiki pages

* Good, because easy to edit
* Good, because supports rich formatting
* Bad, because separate from code repository
* Bad, because no enforced structure

### ADRs

* Good, because structured format
* Good, because version controlled
* Good, because captures alternatives considered
* Good, because industry-standard practice
* Bad, because requires creating new files
* Bad, because may seem bureaucratic for small decisions

### No documentation

* Good, because no overhead
* Bad, because context is lost
* Bad, because makes onboarding difficult
* Bad, because risky for future changes

## Links

* Based on [MADR template](https://adr.github.io/madr/)
* [ADR GitHub organization](https://adr.github.io/)