Core question: “Why did we choose this over the alternatives?”
A recorded choice with its reasoning, alternatives considered, and consequences. Distinguished from a case (which narrates what happened) by being forward-looking at time of writing. Distinguished from a principle (which states a standing constraint) by being specific and contextual — a decision applies to a particular situation, while a principle applies broadly.
Every decision form requires these sections in order:
Decisions carry a status field in frontmatter (proposed, accepted, deprecated, superseded). The supersedes:: predicate chains decisions when a choice is revisited. Each decision has a descriptive name, not a number.
is_a::[\[\[Decision Form\]\]](Decision%20Form.html)has_status::[\[\[Seed Stage\]\]](Seed%20Stage.html) or [\[\[Growing Stage\]\]](Growing%20Stage.html)in_domain::[\[\[Deep Context Architecture\]\]](../domains/Deep%20Context%20Architecture.html)supersedes::[[Previous Decision]]↑ — chains revised decisionsextended_by::[[Follow-Up Decision]]↑ — marks refinementsextracted_from::[[Source Document]]↑ — provenanceinforms::[[Related Form]]↑ — downstream effectsAction form — captures what to do and what happened.
Definition from [[Deep Context as an Architecture for Captured Reasoning]], lines 90-95.