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Decision Log Entry

Convert a decision into a compact durable record with rationale, owner, date, and review trail.

Purpose

Keep important decisions findable and auditable without writing a long memo every time.

When to use it

  • A meeting or email confirms a project decision.
  • A recurring operational rule needs a durable record.
  • A future agent will need to know why a path was chosen.

Inputs

  • Decision evidence
  • Project context
  • Decision owner

Outputs

  • Decision entry
  • Rationale
  • Review trail

Steps

  1. State the decision in one sentence.
  2. Record date, owner, affected scope, and source evidence.
  3. Separate rationale, alternatives, and implementation tasks.
  4. Add reconsideration triggers if the decision is provisional.

Quality checks

  • The decision is distinct from tasks and discussion.
  • Evidence includes the approving source.

Failure modes

  • A recommendation is logged as an approved decision.
  • The entry omits conditions that make the decision valid.

Privacy notes

  • Decision logs may expose internal strategy.
  • Use sanitized summaries for public docs.

Example prompt

Create a decision log entry from this evidence. Include decision, owner, date, rationale, alternatives, source, confidence, and reconsideration triggers.

Example structured output

{"decision":"Use source-agnostic transcript ingestion","owner":"Atomic Bible","date":"2026-06-02","confidence":"high","reconsiderIf":["Need recorder-specific API features"]}