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If your team already keeps decision records, for example architecture decision records in a repository or notes in an Obsidian vault, you can bring them into a room. Each file becomes a draft decision. An import never approves anything: a draft becomes binding only when the decider for its type accepts it.

What makes a file a decision file

A decision file is a Markdown file (.md) that starts with a header block between two lines of three dashes. Ainomos treats it as a decision file when it can tell the decision type: ADR (architecture), BDR (business) or SDR (security). It looks for the type in this order:
  1. The type or decision_type field. Long names such as “Business Decision Record” work too.
  2. A key such as BDR-025 in the key, id or aliases field.
  3. A tag that names the type.
  4. A file name or title that starts with such a key.
If these sources disagree, the first one wins, and the draft is flagged with an unclear type so that nobody accepts it in bulk before checking it. A Markdown file whose type Ainomos cannot tell is imported as a document instead.

Header fields

All fields are optional as long as Ainomos can tell the type. The text below the header is the decision’s body and is kept word for word. Links in the body that name another decision key, such as [[ADR-012]], are proposed as links too.

Example

This file becomes an ADR draft titled “Customer data stays in Swiss data centres”. Its source status “accepted” is recorded, but the draft binds nothing until a decider accepts it. If the room has a decision ADR-009, Ainomos proposes a “supersedes” link to it.

Import decision files

Who can do this: room owners and curators of the room.
1

Pick the room

Choose the room in the room picker at the top. The drafts land in this room.
2

Drop the files

Open Knowledge, then Import. Drag the files onto Drop any file to add it, or choose Choose files. Decision files and documents can go in the same import.
3

Open the drafts

When the import is done, the Decisions column shows how many drafts arrived. Choose Review the drafts to open the decisions that wait to be decided.

What Ainomos creates

  • One draft per file, in the room you picked, with you as its owner.
  • A key. The file’s key becomes the decision’s key when it is free in the room. Otherwise the draft gets the room’s next number for its type, and the file’s key stays attached as another name, so search and links still find it.
  • The source status, recorded for reference. It does not set the draft’s status.
  • Proposed links to decisions the header or body names, when Ainomos finds them in this room or in the same import. A person confirms each link.
  • An evidence record of the import.
The Import page has no preview step. The result lists what was created and what was left out, and Undo in the Import history takes the whole import back while nothing in it has been decided.

Duplicates and files left out

  • A file whose key was imported into this room before is left out as “already there”.
  • A file without a key is left out when the room already has a decision with the same title and type.
  • A file that cannot be read as a decision record is listed as “it could not be read”.
Accept or reject the drafts on the Decisions page. See Decisions.

Decisions imported by a connected app

A connected app, for example a coding tool working in your repository, can send many historical decisions at once. They do not arrive as drafts one by one. They arrive in the Inbox as one import batch, such as “12 imported decisions”. The batch shows, for each entry, Key in the room, Status in the source, Enters as and Notes, before anything binds. Deciders select entries and choose Accept selected or Reject selected. Select all I may decide picks every entry of the types you decide. Accepting gives an entry the status its source gave it. An entry accepted in its source becomes binding, while a superseded or deprecated one never binds. Rejecting closes the entry and creates nothing. Who can do this: the decider for each decision type in the room.

Data import for platform admins

Settings, then Data import (under Advanced) loads prepared content into the organisation. It is meant for demonstrations and for moving prepared content, not for everyday imports. Who can do this: platform admins.
A bundle sets the status its files declare. A decision marked accepted in a bundle is created as accepted, and a rule is created in force, without a decider’s approval. For your organisation’s own records, use the Import page, which creates drafts.