Preserve decisions and trigger scheduled reviews

Why use this

1. A team may remember what it decided without retaining the assumptions, alternatives or review date. A later proposal can appear to replace the earlier decision even though nobody has approved that change.

2. A status-aware decision record could preserve the chain of rationale and show what still needs reconsideration. Due-review notices would be useful only when a genuine review condition is met, rather than becoming routine reminders without a decision to revisit.

Why an agent / simpler alternative

Useful judgment

Connect related rationale and distinguish proposed, accepted and superseded decisions.

Simpler alternative

Use a simple decision log when there are few records and no review triggers.

Unsuitable when

Approval authority or the relationship between conflicting decisions cannot be established.

Proposed inputs

1. Name

   Decision evidence

   Owner

   Decision owner

   Minimum scope

   Relevant rationale, alternatives and explicit approval evidence

   Quality check

   Separate discussion from an accepted decision.

2. Name

   Record and review conventions

   Owner

   Team owner

   Minimum scope

   Numbering, status rules, supersession links and review dates/triggers

   Quality check

   Confirm who can approve and which time zone applies.

Access and setup — proposed or unknown

Proposed minimum

1. Read-only existing records and proposed new entries; no scheduled checker initially.

Compatibility unknowns

1. Unknown: exact runtime, file access, search behavior and scheduling support.

External actions requiring approval

1. Writing shared records, changing accepted status or enabling notices to defined recipients.

Expected deliverable and review checks

Proposed artifact

Decision-record drafts, lineage map and proposed due-review queue.

Critical checks

1. Accepted status has explicit supporting approval.

2. A proposed superseding record does not silently deactivate the accepted predecessor.

Missing output evidence

No record creation, schedule activation or review notice is executed here.

Failure signals and proposed responses

1. Signal

   A supportive comment is treated as formal acceptance.

   Why it matters

   The record could misrepresent the team’s authority.

   Proposed response

   Keep it proposed and request the required approval evidence.

2. Signal

   A checker emits a message when nothing is due.

   Why it matters

   Routine noise can obscure meaningful review needs.

   Proposed response

   Return an empty queue and keep the proposed notification silent.

Effort and cost — unknown

Setup work

1. Define status transitions and review-trigger evidence.

Ongoing review

1. Reconcile new decisions and close or reschedule completed reviews.

Unknowns

1. Unknown: scheduling reliability, record volume and governance-review effort.

First check — proposed, unexecuted

Status

proposed_unexecuted

Synthetic fixture

Invented records include an accepted decision, an unapproved replacement and no currently due review.

Acceptance checks

1. The accepted record remains authoritative.

2. No review notification is proposed.

Stop conditions

1. Approval status, recipient scope or a review date must be inferred.

Limits

1. Editorial decision-management aid; no accepted decision or active review automation is created.