ADR-Cli 1.0.1

ADR-Cli

ADR is a command-line tool that is used to create and maintain Architecture Decision Records as described by Michael Nygård in The following blog article.

Installation

The tool is built and packaged as a DotNet Tool. If you just want to install it, then type the following into your console of choice:

> dotnet tool install -g ADR-Cli

Which should set you up with the latest version.

Warning: Slightly opinionated!

ADR is slightly opinionated in that:

• It requires that you have VS Code installed on your system
• It requires that you are using Git as your version control system
• It assumes that you want your ADRs saved to your repository root folder + /docs/adr
• It requires that the index file is named 0000-index.md (it will create this file when required)

If you can live with these requirements and assumptions, then you're set.

Usage

To invoke the command, just type adr, or if you want to manage ADRs in a different folder than your current directory, just provide an absolute or relative path to a folder where ADRs exist.

> adr ./code/myProject

NOTE<br /> ADR will provide an error message if you run it "outside" a git repository folder. However, it does not matter how deep into a repository folder structure you are, it will figure out where to find the docs/adr once started.

Initial run

If this is the first time you're using ADR, and you run the tool, you will be asked whether you would like adr to create the docs/adr folder for you. Once you confirm, adr will create the folder, and also an index file and your first ADR entry (pointing to the decision of using ADRs, to begin with).

Normal operation

Once you have your initial folder and files in place, adr, when invoked, will show you a table over all your ADRs so far in that repository, and provides you with a menu to perform some simple operations:

• Arrow up/down to highlight an ADR. [ENTER] opens it in VS Code.
• Pressing A creates a new ADR, prompting you for a title first, then it opens up a template in VS Code
• Pressing R renames the currently highlighted ADR
• Pressing I Will recreate the 0000-index.md file by looking at the adr folder contents
• Pressing O Will open the entire ADR folder in VS Code. Handy if you want to multi-edit

After every "command", the adr tool exits. It does not return to the menu.

NOTE <br /> It is not possible to delete an ADR using the tool. This is because ADRs are supposed to be a forward-only record of important decisions. However, nothing prevents you from fiddling with the files in this folder. This is not rocket science 😃

Syntax

ADR has very few parameters:

> adr
# with no parameters, assumes the current directory as the operating directory

> adr .
> adr ./code/someRepo/src/
# Accepts relative paths

> adr C:\dev\work\AdrTool\Adr
# Also accepts complete paths

> adr --help
# Should display version and a very rudimentary instruction