# Decisions

> The major, cross-cutting choices behind the system, what they were weighed against, and the questions still open.

Source: https://raft-design.botiverse.build/decisions. Generated from the current release; where it differs from what you remember, this page is right.

A decision record writes down a major choice that cuts across the system: one that changes a principle, a material or the meaning of a color, applies across products, or overrides what the product does. Each record says what the situation was, what was decided, what follows from it and what it was weighed against, so the choice can be revisited without guessing why it was made.

Smaller rules don't get a record. Their reason is written next to the rule, in the page that owns it: a foundation, a pattern, a component doc, the content section, people and agents, or the principles.

- Numbers are never reused or renumbered. A gap in the numbers is a record whose rule now lives, with its reason, in the page that owns it; its old address redirects there.
- A record that a later choice overrides is marked `superseded` and links the record that replaced it.
- A choice that isn't made yet goes in [Open questions](https://raft-design.botiverse.build/decisions/open-questions.md), with the default to use until it is made.

How to write a record is in [Authoring](https://github.com/botiverse/raft-design/blob/main/design/authoring/README.md) and the [decision template](https://github.com/botiverse/raft-design/blob/main/design/authoring/templates/decision.md).