A Java based command-line tool for working with Architecture Decision Records (ADRs). More information about what ADRs are and why to use them can be found in this article.
ADR-J is based on the script based tools from Nat Pryce. It has been extended so that custom ADR templates can be created.
Use the adr
command to manage ADRs. Try running adr help
.
ADRs are stored in your project as Markdown files in the doc/adr
directory.
-
Create an ADR directory in the root of your project:
adr init doc/architecture/decisions
This will create the first ADR recording that you are using ADRs to record architectural decisions and linking to Michael Nygard's article on the subject.
To use a different template to the standard, specify the path of a template:
adr init -t ~/standards/madr.md doc/architecture/decisions
A guide to writing templates can be found here.
-
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 supersedes 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 superseding ADR 9. It then opens the new ADR in your editor of choice.
To create a new ADR that references another ADR, use the -l option.
adr new -l 4:"Links to" Use JMS interface for messaging
This will create a new ADR that references ADR 4 and inserts the message "Links to" in the new ADR.
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For further information, see the man pages or use the built in help:
adr help
The decisions for this tool are recorded as architecture decision records in the project repository.
This project uses Gradle for compilation. Execute following command to generate build/release/adr-j.jar
.
gradlew releaseJar