machine .toml source > generated view > drift gate

Record index

pending_decision.index.toml

Pending decisions, namespace PD, at .working/toml/pending_decision.index.toml.

About

A pending decision is a question that must be answered before dependent work settles. It is open until decided or withdrawn, and its resolution is an all-or-none bundle: an open decision carries none of decision, decided_at, decided_by; a decided one carries all three.

Why

Half-recorded decisions are worse than none: a decision with no decider, or a decider with no decision text, cannot be audited or relied on. The all-or-none bundle makes a partial resolution a validation failure rather than a lurking ambiguity, and the supersession chain keeps exactly one current effective resolution per question.

Description

The shared index shape with the standard envelope plus the resolution bundle fields: decision, decided_at, and decided_by. A decided record may be superseded by a new decision linking supersedes; the decision-resolution join walks that chain to find the current effective resolution.

How it works

States: open to decided or withdrawn, both terminal and both proposable (an assistant-recorded resolution lands with the /proposed qualifier until a maintainer ratifies it). Overturning a decided question is a new record that supersedes the old; the old record is never edited back to open.

Generated view

Two: the composed DECISIONS.md (drawing on all four decision types) and the machine projection DECISIONS.toml, both byte-drift-gated, plus the optional PENDING_DECISION-INDEX.md mirror.

Value

Decisions with provenance: who decided, when, and what exactly, with the current answer always derivable by machine. This helps prevent stale or contradictory decision records from steering later work.

Usage

  • Created by: opf init (empty index); records whenever a question is parked for decision.
  • Updated by: the deciding transition with its full bundle; supersession by later decisions.
  • Read by: opf render (DECISIONS.md, DECISIONS.toml, the mirror); opf doctor (schema, the all-or-none bundle, exactly one effective resolution per chain).