Decision records

All 144 decisions behind this system, in the order they were made. Each one lists the options that were rejected and why.

Phase 0

5 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0001	Attention as a budget in three channels	Accepted	Wolf-Rayet treats attention as a budgeted resource allocated in three channels — light, language, and motion — governed by one shared five-level intensity ladder (0 Substrate, 1 Ambient, 2 Marked, 3 Directed, 4 Demanded) and enforced in CI.
0002	Layer names	Accepted	The five layers are Substrate, Emitter, Arbiter, Scope, View.
0003	Four named themes on one axis	Accepted	Four resolved, named themes on a single axis: `interior-light`, `interior-dark`, `field-day`, `field-night`.
0004	Emission load formula	Accepted	Emission load for a Scope is the mean absolute perceptual deviation from its substrate, normalized by available headroom:
0009	The content-pixels rule	Accepted	The budget governs chrome, not content.

Phase 1

3 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0006	field-night palette strategy	Accepted	`field-night` is strict long-wavelength-only.
0007	Density: independent collection, not a theme axis	Accepted	Density is an independent collection with two enumerated modes, `comfortable` and `compact`, orthogonal to the theme axis.
0011	Emission ceiling: value and shape	Superseded by ADR-0030	One ceiling per theme, at the values in the table above.

Phase 2

3 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0012	Spatial primitives live in the Primitives collection	Accepted	The Primitives collection carries both sets: the chromatic ramps and the raw spatial scales.
0013	Stacking contexts replace elevation	Accepted	Elevation is replaced by an enumerated set of stacking contexts — `base`, `raised`, `overlay` — encoded structurally, not luminously.
0014	The scrim occludes by alpha	Accepted	The scrim is a single alpha mechanism in all four themes: one scrim color role resolving near-black everywhere, composited over the covered scene at a scrim alpha token's opacity.

Phase 3

7 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0005	Salience share threshold at level 3	Accepted	Directed is a relative property, not an absolute share.
0010	View demand cap and cross-scope arbitration	Accepted	A View owns a demand cap, default 1, declared as a token like the Scope emission ceilings.
0015	Scope ground derives from stacking context	Superseded by ADR-0016	A Scope's ground is derived from its declared stacking context — the declaration ADR-0013 already requires — never stated as a free value.
0016	Floor ground and emission origin are two different grounds	Accepted	The two jobs split.
0119	A list answers for what its surface renders, not for the whole roster	Accepted	A list declares the population it answers for, and that population is derived from the surface itself: the components that surface renders.
0120	A grouped story names a group, and a scan that checked nothing has not passed	Accepted	A grouped story names a group, so no story makes an identity claim about one component, and the self-description position that read one is retired.
0121	The component tier describes components the rewrite replaced	Accepted	A component tier entry is a claim about a component this system ships.

Phase 4

6 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0017	One flat custom-property namespace, one owner per name	Accepted	The `--wr-*` namespace is one namespace, and a name in it belongs to exactly one tier.
0023	Type families, three families resolved on the theme axis	Superseded by ADR-0035	Three families enter the Primitives collection, mode less, alongside the ramps and the spatial scales, and two semantic roles resolve them per theme.
0037	Occlusion reorders the demand queue, and the scrim suspends a demand rather than hiding one	Accepted	The scrim dims light.
0038	An overlay is charged for what it covers, and its sheet fills the view	Accepted	A pixel covered by an occluding Scope belongs to that Scope's budget and to no other.
0047	A file must name the component it is for	Accepted	A file must name the component it is for, in the positions that exist to say so; and prose that counts the set is checked against the set.
0049	A narrative may not be checked wholesale, and one section of it must be	Accepted	A narrative's historical claims are not checkable and must not be checked.

Phase 5

8 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0008	Next.js for the docs site	Accepted	The docs site (`apps/docs`, serving r136.dev) is a Next.js application.
0018	Length ceilings are bootstrapped from real shipped copy, not chosen freehand	Superseded by ADR-0019	Each level's ceiling is the longest real string the real-copy scan measured shipping at that level, rounded up to the next multiple of ten.
0019	Length ceilings refreshed with real level-1 through level-3 copy	Accepted	The derivation method is unchanged from ADR-0018: each level's ceiling is the longest real string the real-copy scan measures shipping at that level, rounded up to the next multiple of ten.
0114	A Scope is `data-wr-layer="scope"`, a demand is level 4, and the first real page measures 0.023	Accepted	A Scope in markup is `data-wr-layer="scope"`, and it goes where ADR-0073's test says a Scope goes.
0115	The ration engine was carrying ADR-0005's retired clause, and the rung it needs is derivable from this system's own ladder	Accepted	The dominance margin returns to ADR-0036's rule, denominated in a rung derived from this system's own neutral ladder.
0116	The intensity ladder's band boundaries come from the theme, and the dark theme had been scored against the light one's	Accepted	Both boundaries are derived, per theme, from quantities the system already derives.
0117	A block is pixels, the Scope's ground is out of the contest, and both were already accepted	Accepted	A block reports the deviation measured across its pixels, not the deviation of its ground.
0118	The docs shell declares what it carries and what it draws, and the ground is synthesized rather than found	Accepted	On this site the system is Wolf-Rayet, so chrome is what it draws and content is what it carries.

Phase 6

8 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0020	The live demo reaches the real engine server-side only	Accepted	Client-native pixel capture is rejected as a permanent path.
0086	The only check that looks at the page, and what it found when it was finally read	Accepted	`.specimenMount` becomes a scroll container.
0087	Emphasis nests, and so does everything else the inline renderer was flattening	Accepted	Emphasis and link labels recurse.
0088	A backtick on the page is a render site, and the check found four in the record that fixed the last one	Accepted	`docs:check-site` gains a sixteenth check: no visible text node may contain a backtick.
0090	The check that looks at the page can look at the served one	Accepted	`DOCS_CHECK_ORIGIN` selects the origin the page checks read.
0094	Focus is drawn by the system, and the fixtures are build output	Accepted	One ring, drawn by the system, on every component that accepts input.
0095	The site is a product, and its centrepiece is built from the system	Accepted	The shell.
0096	An icon set, a grid, and no em dash in a headline	Accepted	### The icon set

Phase 4, reopened

52 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0021	The component set reopens to Carbon's published roster	Accepted	The component set expands from seven to Carbon's full published roster.
0029	Themed coverage is the roster, and a scene with no baseline entry fails	Accepted	Themed coverage is the roster, not a phase.
0032	A baseline is recorded per platform and gated exactly; the cross-platform bound is retired, not widened	Accepted	`themed-baseline.json` holds one record per platform, keyed by `${process.platform}-${process.arch}`, each carrying its own `node`, `playwright`, `chromium` and `recordedBy` alongside its scenes.
0033	The unthemed path comes under ADR-0032 before it comes due, and `PLATFORM_TOLERANCE` survives as a noise floor that gates nothing	Accepted	`baseline.json` holds one record per platform, keyed by `${process.platform}-${process.arch}`, each carrying its own `node`, `playwright`, `chromium` and `recordedBy` alongside its scenes — the same shape `themed-baseline.json` has carried since ADR-0032.
0034	A step reports only what its own job measured; committed evidence must say so	Accepted	A step that reports on work which did not run in the current job must either not run, or must state that its evidence is committed rather than measured.
0035	The shipped subset is a decision, and the fall-through is its boundary	Accepted	The faces are subset, and the subset is declared in the token source.
0036	The dominance margin comes from the ladder, and `PLATFORM_TOLERANCE` keeps only the use that is about rasterisers	Accepted	The salience dominance margin is one rung of the theme's own lightness ladder, spread over the area the claim is made about.
0039	Two roles on one lightness is the ladder; a state told apart by hue alone is the defect	Accepted	Two roles resolving to one lightness is not, by itself, a defect, and the check this ADR adds does not report it as one: roles declared at one level are required to share a lightness, because the level is the lightness.
0043	The ladder's first rung, and the check that could not see it missing	Accepted	The ladder is repaired by rebinding roles to steps, not by moving a ramp.
0044	Quiet is what "fine" looks like, and a condition may not be whispered	Accepted	Two rules.
0045	A turned corner says you may act, and costs the budget nothing	Accepted	The spatial tier acquires a `radius` scale, and a turned corner means exactly one thing: this component accepts input.
0046	Chrome that outlives a route may not demand	Accepted	A Scope that persists across routes is chrome, and chrome may not hold a demand.
0048	A claim has an age, and a screen that cannot vouch may not look calm	Accepted	A component that renders a claim about an external condition declares whether it can vouch for that claim.
0050	Acknowledgement descends a demand, and is a rule rather than a component	Accepted	Acknowledgement descends a demand one rung, from Demanded to Directed, and does not touch the condition.
0051	Acknowledgement is serialized, and the tick joins the vocabulary	Accepted	`data-wr-acknowledged` is a serialization-surface attribute, written in both states by the three components that can carry a demand a human could acknowledge, and the engine refuses level 4 with it.
0052	The Lightning reconciliation, and three counted claims the roster got wrong about itself	Accepted	All 91 Lightning components are reconciled: 61 covered by rows the roster already has, 6 carried onto it as 5 new rows, and 24 dropped by name with a reason.
0053	A route's header may hold what the shell's may not	Accepted	`page-header` is a Scope that belongs to one route, and its subtree may hold the View's demand.
0054	An Arbiter grants, and this is the first one that does	Accepted	`button-group` is an Arbiter that grants a level to each action it holds.
0055	Good news may not be distinguished, and a blank is three sentences	Accepted	`empty-state` is an Emitter whose subject is an absence, and its `reason` is required.
0056	The battery is a list, or it is a habit	Accepted	`tools/battery.js` is the battery: the artifacts every component has and the checks every component must pass, in one place, read by three consumers.
0057	Carbon separates these on quantity, and this system has no quantity	Accepted	`list`, `contained-list` and `structured-list` are removed from the roster.
0058	`tile` is a Scope, and it is the one every scene has been typing by hand	Accepted	`tile` becomes `region`: a Scope, in section E, at "none — allocates", and it is built.
0059	Disclosure is a property, not a component, and for one of them it is the resting state	Accepted	ADR-0040's rule is restated on the property: a component that removes an element from the frame may not remove a Demanded one.
0060	A lower hierarchy is a lower rung, and `content-switcher` is `tabs` at one	Accepted	`content-switcher` is removed from the roster.
0061	`breadcrumb` is the pattern `navigation-item` was built for, and this is where the collapses stop	Accepted	`breadcrumb` is removed from the roster and enters Not carried, with the reason.
0062	An obstruction is not an alarm, and the states are the fields	Accepted
0063	The themed set catches up, and a list that stopped is worse than one that never started	Accepted	The ten scenes join `RETHEMED`, and the three declared must-fail among them join the themed set's own `MUST_FAIL` list.
0064	One derivation per list, and the check that joins two of them	Accepted	Both lists move into data modules that their tools import, and the check imports the same modules rather than parsing anything.
0065	The two expectations meet, and the last list leaves the CLI	Accepted	`THEMED_MUST_FAIL` moves to `packages/budget/src/themed-must-fail.js`, verbatim with its comments, and `cli.js` imports it.
0066	A bar that counts what is not there, and the second layer the roster got wrong	Accepted
0067	A failed upload ranks nothing, and section B's own example was wrong twice	Accepted	`file-uploader` is removed from the roster and enters Not carried, with the reason.
0068	A tree is a machine for hiding demands, and §5 is right for a different reason than it gives	Accepted	`tree-view` is removed from the roster and enters Not carried, with the reason.
0069	A countdown reports a prediction, and its level is the only one this system computes	Accepted
0070	The oldest decision gets its first component	Accepted	`code-snippet` declares two slots, and the split is ADR-0009's.
0071	The test was one axis short, and `presence` is the row it would have cost	Accepted	`presence` stands and is to be built, declaring `vouches: true`.
0072	The retraction is the component, and both defects were found by the machinery rather than by the argument	Accepted
0073	A Scope is a place, `timeline` is not one, and the test has a layer it was never run against	Accepted
0074	Three checks were owed, one of them was already done, and the claim had been carried forward twice	Accepted
0075	A container retracts its own claim, and a Scope's retraction has one half	Accepted
0076	A toggletip is a popover and a button, and the hosting question answers them the same way	Accepted
0077	The roster's last Scope comes due on §5's second depth, and the engine has no word for it	Accepted	`popover` is a `raised` Scope at §5's second depth, rendered inside its anchor's Scope and never portalled.
0078	The same rule for containing, and the second thing nesting breaks	Accepted
0079	A frame carries properties, never identities, and two of the three symptoms were not a gap	Accepted
0080	The roster's last Scope, and the two things its depth changed that nothing predicted	Accepted	`popover` is built: a `raised` Scope at §5's second depth, rendered inside its anchor's Scope and never portalled, one rung, one variant, one governed part, non-interactive, disclosing.
0081	Section C is where the tier axes decide nothing, six rows refused, and the collapse is already inside the built half	Accepted	The six candidate rows are refused and move to the exclusion table with their reasons.
0082	Sections D and G audited: four refused, one kept, and the roster is one row from complete	Accepted	`menu`, `overflow-menu`, `avatar` and `combobox` are refused.
0083	A closed select's options were never in the frame, and ADR-0081 was wrong about it	Accepted	ADR-0081's `select` finding is retracted.
0084	The affordance is the perimeter, and a corner is what a perimeter has when there is a box	Accepted	ADR-0045's rule generalises rather than gaining an exception: an interactive component says so on its perimeter, and there are three carriers.
0085	The roster's last row, and a ladder the scene took away	Accepted	`link` declares one rung, Marked, and it is the first single-rung Emitter in the system.
0091	Three fields are one field, and the first built component leaves the set	Accepted	`text-area` and `select` leave the set.
0092	A removal does not renumber the past, and a set is counted once	Accepted	An ordinal is build order, and a removal is recorded rather than renumbered.
0093	A meter's state is a shape, and there is no exemption	Accepted	`meter` draws its state as a shape.

Phase 2, reopened

1 decision.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0022	Three type families, self-hosted, legibility governs the hostile themes	Superseded by ADR-0023	Three family roles join the type scale, in `generator.config.json`'s `spatial.family` — beside `spatial.type`, not inside it.

Phase 4, reopened by ADR-0021

7 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0024	A pending state carries no motion; the block form is a Pending message	Accepted	Neither pending component declares motion beyond the ambient grant, and the block form renders §6's Pending pattern in full.
0025	A tag's encoding is its label; there is no category ramp	Accepted	A tag's primary encoding is its label.
0026	A tooltip is an Emitter; transience is a presence property, not a layer	Accepted	A tooltip is an Emitter.
0027	Emphasis is the level; a button has no emphasis variant	Accepted	Emphasis is the level.
0028	Shape carries the rule of a set, and the shape vocabulary splits in two	Accepted	Shape may carry the rule of a set as well as a meaning for attention, and the two are different vocabularies.
0040	A collapsed panel is absent rather than exempt, and a demand may not be the thing that is hidden	Accepted	A collapsed panel's children are absent from the frame, not exempted from the budget.
0042	A toast reports an event; a demand is a live condition, and arrival is not escalation	Accepted	A toast is an Emitter, and its legal levels are Marked and Directed.

Phase 1, reopened

2 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0030	The ceiling derives from the theme, not from the scenes it judges	Superseded by ADR-0031	Each theme's emission ceiling is derived from that theme's own ramps and role floors, and reads no scene.
0031	The ceiling's independence is of its inputs, not of its selection	Accepted	A ceiling's independence is a property of its inputs, not of the process that selected it.

Phase 4, continuing ADR-0040

1 decision.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0041	A declaration must reach the frame, and the check that says so may not be an absence	Accepted	A state declared in markup must reach the frame, and "reaches the frame" is measured by ablation rather than argued from the cascade.

Phase 4, reopened for one component

1 decision.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0089	A numeric field owes its unit and its bounds, and the scene caught the scene	Accepted	`number-input` declares a third governed part, `range`, required, whose role is the unit it collects it in and the values it will accept.

Phase 7

39 decisions.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
0097	The proof product is five screens, and each is a captured scene	Accepted	Capture is a build step.
0098	Instrument indoors, signal outside, and the palette it sets	Accepted	One system, two voices, chosen by theme family.
0099	Three type roles and five faces	Accepted	A third role, `mono`.
0100	The instrument treatment on components	Accepted	- Corners take the smallest step, and keep their meaning.
0101	A voice per theme family	Accepted	A voice is a family-tier value set.
0102	Archivo for display	Accepted	Display is Archivo in every theme.
0103	Caps for eyebrows only	Accepted	Uppercase is for eyebrows only.
0104	A trend is a meter over time	Accepted	`trend` joins the roster in section F, as the meter over time.
0105	A status colour is two roles, and the palette is authored in P3	Accepted	- Three new roles: `status-critical-bold`, `status-caution-bold`, `status-positive-bold`.
0106	The affordance is a gap, not a corner	Accepted	- Everything with a ground is rounded.
0107	Nothing sustains motion	Accepted	- No component sustains motion.
0108	A stacking context casts	Accepted	- Each stacking context carries a shadow.
0109	The ladder is narrower than it was	Accepted	- `spatial.type.ratio` drops from 1.25 to 1.125.
0110	A shadow resolves where it is declared	Accepted	- The shadow tokens are emitted on `[data-wr-theme]`, not on `:root`.
0111	The site checks its own copy	Accepted	- `content-lint:scan-site` reads `apps/docs/app/site/text.ts` and runs the rules over every string it authors.
0112	The reference is the reference	Superseded by ADR-0113	- `radius-surface` and `radius-control` both select 6px, in both densities, and the affordance gap is retired.
0113	The reference was scaffolding, not the destination	Accepted	The reference is retired as a goal.
0122	The site's own harness answers for the site's surface	Accepted	A check in the site's harness derives both its population and the route it reads from the site's own surface.
0123	The length ceiling retires with the corpus it was bootstrapped from	Accepted	ADR-0018's length ceiling retires, and `scan-real-copy.js` retires with it.
0124	The shell paints in roles, and the ramps floor the pairs it uses	Accepted	The shell paints in the semantic roles, and the ramps declare a floor for every pair it paints.
0125	The cascade is read, and the grouped set consumes the tier generated for it	Accepted	### The cascade is read
0126	The discipline test governs the twenty, and is run	Accepted	### The table is exactly `COMPONENT_LAYERS`
0127	A loop is granted off the ladder, and floored rather than capped	Accepted	A loop is granted, and the grant is not a rung.
0128	A record's levels mean what its layer lets them mean	Accepted	A record's level list is read through its layer, and only an Emitter's is a capability.
0129	The sequenced three, and the ordinal that was never broken	Accepted	### `radio` retires into `checkbox`
0130	A hue is not a classification	Accepted	A hue is not a classification, so the four decorative appearances are neither of the two things ADR-0121 asked about.
0131	Wiring a component to its tier is a record question	Accepted	A component holding a token record reads its own tier and no primitive.
0132	A page header's title is the size the system grants it	Accepted	The record is right.
0133	The grouped nine read their tiers	Accepted	Each component reads its tier for every property the record gives a role to.
0134	Overlays enter and leave on their grant	Accepted	Every overlay enters from where it belongs and leaves the way it came.
0135	The helm display adds one Scope and three meter drawings	Accepted	The helm primary display is built as a proof scene in `field-day` and `field-night`, and it adds one component to the roster.
0136	The field reads at arm's length, and its raises reach the components	Accepted	The field class has a reading minimum of 1rem.
0137	The faces load from beside the package	Accepted	The generator writes a second family stylesheet, `family-local.css`, that loads the faces relative to itself from `../assets/fonts/upstream/`, where the package already keeps them with their licences.
0138	The flat surface yields to the tier where they share a name	Accepted	Where the flat surface and the tier are one role, the tier wins wherever a theme is set.
0139	An instrument states its datum, and its scale states its bounds	Accepted	`range` is removed from the instrument drawings.
0140	The helm's second pass puts each reading on one line	Accepted	A reading is one line.
0141	Selection is a shape, not a hue	Accepted	A selected `Button` is the page ground, the primary ink, and a heavy outline in that ink.
0142	The Figma library is generated from the repo	Accepted	`tools/figma-sync` builds the library.
0143	The Figma library is three files	Accepted	One plugin, one command per file.

Unphased

1 decision.

No.	Decision	Status	What was decided
READ	README	Unknown