uphold is the one of the owner's three repositories still recording decisions as ADR files and citing issue numbers in a tracked ROADMAP; freeze docs/adr at 0012, adopt the Design record issue template, and add a status vocabulary with an age check

[HackingGate]

Measured

Research read 2026-09-30 on the system-design stack that replaces ADR files, filed in full in the owner's private workspace tracker (five layers, dated, cited). uphold's rows, against the other two repositories the owner runs:

• uphold still records decisions as ADR files, docs/adr/0001 to 0012, with 0012 merged Proposed on 2026-09-30 (73dd288). the owner's other two repositories record a decision as a GitHub issue on a Design record template (Goal, Today, Decision, Design, Plan, Done when, Open; research as a comment) and keep tracked files free of issue links, dates and status lines; the private workspace froze its 72 ADRs on 2026-09-29 behind an adr-freeze gate.
• ROADMAP.md cites issues by number inside a tracked file, which the other two repositories forbid.
• The ADR file tooling is dormant: adr-tools last commit 2020-03-30, log4brains last commit 2024-12-17 with open is-this-maintained issues, MADR 4.0.0 (2024-09-17) with only a Dependabot push since. The format stays at Adopt on the Thoughtworks Radar; the tools do not.
• The field's file-first organisations (Oxide RFDs, Rust RFCs, Kubernetes KEPs) each keep a machine-readable status and a renderer; each pays for that with a database, a site or a tracking issue per record.
• REFERENCE.md already plays the role the Rust reference plays: the durable current-state spec a reader reads cold.
• The engine already has what the field calls "prove a rule can fire" only per engine elsewhere (conftest verify, ast-grep test); uphold has scratch-repo CLI tests, a corpus and mutation testing, but no built-in "this rule must fire on its invalid fixture" declaration a consumer can write beside a rule.

Why it matters

Three repositories with three decision shapes is the fact-with-two-homes defect at the level of process. uphold is the engine the other two run their rules through, so its own decisions are the ones most often cited from outside; a Proposed ADR in a file has no gate on its age here (the age gate the private workspace had was its own), and a ROADMAP with issue numbers goes stale the day an issue closes.

Done when

• ADR 0012 is ruled (Accepted or Rejected with the reason), then docs/adr is frozen at 0012 by a rule written in uphold's own principles.toml that refuses a new file under docs/adr with the remedy "file a Design record".
• .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/design.md exists with the seven headings and the design label; AGENTS.md or CONTRIBUTING.md says where a decision goes, in the same words the other two repositories use.
• A status vocabulary on design issues (label set or project field) and an "open without a ruling for N days" check, the KEP lesson, so the age gate the file shape had is not lost.
• ROADMAP.md carries no issue numbers; milestones or a project hold the live state.
• Watch, not now: a per-rule "must fire on" fixture declaration in the rule schema, modelled on ast-grep test and conftest verify; ast-grep as a backend for code-shaped rules, whose root-anchored glob semantics match uphold's.
• Wheel named: GitHub issue templates and labels, uphold's own rule engine for the freeze; no new tool.