Mitchell Agentic Sprint

AI-led 6-step sprint that walks an AI builder through validating one idea — vertical, buyers, framework, positioning — to a sales deck, outreach plan, and pre-seed investor deck. Adversarial by default. Output is artifacts, not product.

View project on GitHub

ADR-001: Adopt Enhanced WH(Y) ADR Format

Field Value
Decision ID ADR-001
Initiative Build foundation for v0.1.0
Proposed By Chris Barlow
Date 2026-05-08
Status Accepted

WH(Y) Decision Statement

In the context of building Mitchell Agentic Sprint v0.1.0 under the protocols vendored at docs/protocols.md (Protocol 1: every architectural decision must be captured as an ADR; Protocol 2: every implementing ADR must have a spec),

facing the choice of which ADR format to adopt — and the cost of writing a format ourselves when a battle-tested one already exists in cgbarlow/iris,

we decided for porting the enhanced WH(Y) ADR format from iris’s ADR-001, with docs/adrs/ for ADRs and docs/adrs/specs/ for specs,

and neglected rolling our own minimal format (would diverge from established practice across cgbarlow projects), Michael Nygard’s classic four-section ADR (lacks separation of decision from implementation; conflates rationale with code), and a TOGAF-style enterprise framework (excessive ceremony for a solo build),

to achieve consistency across cgbarlow projects, separation of stable decision records from evolving specifications, and reuse of the dependency-tracking and governance metadata already proven in iris,

accepting that porting introduces a one-time learning curve, requires SPEC files to live separately from ADRs, and ties this project’s documentation conventions to a sibling project.

Options Considered

Option Verdict
Port iris’s enhanced WH(Y) format (Selected) Proven format; consistent with sibling cgbarlow projects; Protocol 1 in docs/protocols.md already references the WH(Y) format by name
Nygard four-section ADR Rejected — conflates decision rationale with implementation; no rejected-alternatives discipline
Custom minimal format Rejected — divergence cost; reinventing existing solution; Protocol 12 (DRY) violation
TOGAF / heavyweight enterprise framework Rejected — adoption friction; misfit for a solo build

Dependencies

Relationship ADR ID Title Notes
Enables ADR-002 onward All other ADRs in this project They use the WH(Y) format defined here

References

Reference ID Title Location
SPEC-001-A WH(Y) Statement Format and Section Structure specs/SPEC-001-A-WHY-Format.md
Source ADR iris ADR-001 (canonical format definition) github.com/cgbarlow/iris/…/ADR-001
Protocol docs/protocols.md Protocol 1 — Architecture Decision Records ../protocols.md

Status History

Status Approver Date
Accepted Chris Barlow 2026-05-08