/archcore:document

Record a technical decision or document existing code. The skill classifies the request, then executes one gated track: the decision track for ADRs and RFCs, or the describe track for specs, docs, and guides. Write affinity: knowledge types; the decision cascade can add a plan (vision) or cpat (experience).

Command tense: /archcore:plan declares a future canon delta, /archcore:document records the present state — including work that shipped without a plan — and /archcore:review reconciles a past declared delta. Δ vocabulary: skills/_shared/delta-routing.md.

Load skills/_shared/gate-contract.md and skills/_shared/elicitation-contract.md before executing any gate.

When to use

• "We decided to go with microservices" — settled decision
• "Record the decision to use PostgreSQL"
• "Document why we chose JWT over sessions"
• "Make this our team standard for error handling"
• "Draft an RFC for switching from REST to gRPC"
• "Should we switch to Kubernetes?" — open proposal
• "We accepted the proposal — resolve the RFC" — proposal resolution
• "Document the auth module"
• "Capture how the payment system works"
• "Create reference docs for the config system" — reference material
• "Write a guide for the release process" — how-to instructions

Not document:

• Planning a feature or initiative → /archcore:plan
• Checking documents against code, reviewing branch changes, or docs health → /archcore:review
• First-time setup → /archcore:init

Routing table

Signal	Route
The invocation names a type — adr, rfc, spec, doc, guide, rule	→ expert form, no routing (Step 2)
Decision signals: "we decided", "record this decision", "document why we chose X", "make it our standard", "draft an RFC", a "should we switch to Y" proposal. A bare "compare X vs Y" with no proposed target belongs to /archcore:plan's research track; a proposal to add a new capability with no named technical target ("should we add caching?") is feature framing → /archcore:plan, sdd track	→ decision track — skills/_shared/tracks/decision.md, entry at decision.classify
Resolution signals: "resolve the RFC", "we accepted the proposal", "reject the RFC" — an rfc draft exists on the topic	→ decision track — skills/_shared/tracks/decision.md, entry at decision.resolve
Code-doc signals: "document the auth module", "capture how the payment system works", reference material (registry, glossary, lookup), how-to instructions	→ describe track — skills/_shared/tracks/describe.md, entry at describe.read
Unclear	→ git investigation, then one classifying question (Step 3)

Execution

Step 1: Ground

Search .archcore/ on the request topic across all three categories — vision, knowledge, experience. Do not exclude a category from reads. Pass a type filter matched to this command's moment (adr, rfc, spec, doc, guide, rule, plus rnd as decision evidence) instead of relying on the global type ranking. When a found document carries implements or related relations, pull the linked documents one hop across categories. Duplicate handling lives in the tracks' check-existing gates — do not resolve duplicates here.

If .archcore/ does not exist, announce initialization in one line and call mcp__archcore__init_project without asking a question. If .archcore/ exists but contains no documents, proceed on outer-context grounding and report that zero documents were found.

Global sources. If a mcp__archcore__list_documents / mcp__archcore__search_documents result has global: true / read_only: true / source_kind: "global", load skills/_shared/globals.md. Also load it when a search_documents response's coverage names a source other than "local" — even when results is empty: the empty page is exactly where that file's retry ladder applies. Never modify a global document and never target one with add_relation. Absent any global match, proceed as usual.

Step 2: Expert form

If the invocation names a type, execute the named path without routing:

• adr → decision track at decision.adr
• rfc → decision track at decision.rfc
• spec, doc, guide → describe track at describe.read; the named type settles describe.draft's type question, so its elicitation trigger does not fire. describe.read's own skip_when fast-paths a request that already carries the evidence.
• rule → decision track, creation at decision.cascade; a missing upstream document routes per skills/_shared/gate-contract.md

Then go to Step 4.

Step 3: Classify

Classify the target as resolution, decision, code-doc, or unclear:

• Resolution — the request names a verdict on an existing open proposal (resolution signals above) and an rfc draft on the topic exists → decision track at decision.resolve. Check this before Decision: wording that also reads as a settled-decision signal ("we accepted the proposal") routes here whenever a matching rfc draft exists.
• Decision — the request records a settled choice or an open proposal (decision signals above) → decision track at decision.classify.
• Code-doc — the request describes existing code, reference material, or a procedure (code-doc signals above) → describe track at describe.read.
• Unclear — inspect git state and the working tree first: recent commits and changed files are evidence of what the user has been working on. If the evidence still supports both readings, ask one classifying question — "Is this a decision to record or existing code to document?" — with the recommendation drawn from the git evidence.

Step 4: Execute the track

Run the selected track gate by gate per skills/_shared/gate-contract.md. The track owns check-existing, per-gate elicitation, composition, and relation wiring.

Question budget: per skills/_shared/elicitation-contract.md — auto mode draws from the shared per-invocation ceiling; expert invocation raises to the track's per-gate maxima.

Result

Report the produced documents grouped by category:

• knowledge — adr, rfc, spec, doc, guide, rule
• vision — plan (architecture cascade)
• experience — cpat (standard cascade opt-in)

List each document's path and relation edges. Close with one recommended next action naming only /archcore:plan, /archcore:review, or a repeat /archcore:document invocation.