Engineering Process

strata's approach to engineering. We write docs to think, document, share, and collaborate — design is a structured process, and writing it down means everyone knows what to do (including me on a bad day).

Document types

ADR — Architectural Decision Record. A decision and its reasoning.

ADR Template

Tech Doc — Technical Design Document. How something is built.

Design Doc Template

Problem Brief (frame the problem) → spike / research → ADR (decide) → Tech Doc (build)

Problem Brief

When to write what — scale to the change

• Big (new subsystem, on-disk format, anything that moves the design) → an ADR, plus supporting Tech Docs.
• Medium → usually one Tech Doc.
• Small (bug fix, focused change) → skip it; a PR is enough. A Tech Doc is welcome if it clarifies.

Where docs live

• Active proposals begin as Design doc / ADR issues in the repo — discussion happens there.
• Once decided, they graduate into Design Documents (the durable record).
• Reference for the built system lives in Technical Documentation.

Document lifecycle

Draft → In Review → Accepted → Implemented (branches: Rejected, Superseded — link the successor).

Ownership & metadata