ersatztv/docs/decisions/archive

Archive — superseded / retired decision records

This directory holds decision records whose status is superseded or retired. They are kept verbatim (rationale prose untouched — see docs/decisions.md header and scripts/decisions_lib.py) for history: why we changed our mind is the point, never silently rewritten.

They are out of the active startup path: scripts/decisions_lib.py active_files() / all_active_records() do not glob this directory, docs/decisions/README.md (the active catalog) never lists a record from here, and an agent doing task-router discovery should not need to read this directory to find the current rule — follow a record's superseded-by key to the active successor instead.

The lifecycle validator (scripts/decisions_validate.py) still enforces invariants here:

• a superseded/retired record MUST live under this directory, never in an active file;
• an active record MUST NOT live under this directory;
• supersedes/superseded-by keys must resolve reciprocally to a record in the active set OR here;
• a record moved here must not have its rationale prose changed in the same commit (unless the commit message carries the [decisions-edit] token, reserved for genuine rationale edits).

One file per topic cluster (e.g. ci.md, release-ci-governance.md), mirroring the active docs/decisions/*.md topic-file split. See docs/decisions/migration-map.md for the legacy heading → key → status → location mapping produced during the #521 lifecycle migration.