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Principles

Principles are the durable statements of intent behind how your teams build: the "we always" and "we never" that keep hundreds of small decisions pointing the same way. In ArchForge each principle has a clear statement, the reasoning behind it, and goes through review before it becomes official.

Principles are available on the Pro and Enterprise plans. You need the Member role or higher to create one.

1. Create a principle

  1. Open Principles in the sidebar and choose + New Principle.
  2. Enter a Title, for example Buy, then build.
  3. Add any co-authors under Authors.
  4. Fill in Body (Markdown). It starts from your workspace's principle template, which by default has these sections:
    • Statement: a concise, memorable statement of the principle.
    • Rationale: why you hold it, and the value it protects.
    • Implications: what teams must do, stop doing, or trade off as a result.
    • Exceptions: when the principle may be set aside, and who decides.
  5. Choose Create draft.

Your principle starts in Draft. Choose Edit, then Save draft, to keep refining it.

2. Get it approved

Principles use the shared review flow:

  1. Choose Propose for review and pick a reviewer.
  2. The reviewer chooses Publish, Reject, or Request changes.
  3. If changes are requested, work through the checklist, then choose Resubmit for review. It goes straight back to the same reviewer.

See Reviewing and approving for the full flow, including notifications and the weekly reviewer digest.

3. Keep principles current

When a principle is overtaken by events, don't delete it. Open the published principle and choose Supersede or Deprecate. The record and its history stay in place, so you can always see when and why your thinking changed.

Every save creates a new version; the version number is shown next to the reference ID at the top of the page.

Tips

  • Keep the Statement short enough to quote in a design review.
  • Write the Rationale to persuade, not to dictate. People follow principles they understand.
  • Use Exceptions to say who can grant one. A principle with no way out tends to be quietly ignored.