The Precedent handbook
Inbox and reviews
The inbox collects drafts and decisions that need attention. A review asks you to check a choice; it does not change the choice for you.
Read your inbox
Open Inbox in the sidebar. Your items are grouped by why they need attention. Admins can switch between Mine and Everyone to see the workspace's open items.
| Reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| Awaiting confirmation | Open Review draft, check the reasoning, complete missing details, and confirm when you have authority. |
| Review date reached | Read the decision and check whether the assumptions still hold. Choose the appropriate review action and set a new trigger when keeping it active. |
| Dependency changed | Read the named change and follow Trace impact or the linked record. Decide whether your decision still holds. |
| Condition met | Read the observation and supporting evidence. Decide whether the condition calls for reaffirming or changing the decision. |
Choose the right action
Open Review decision on a current decision when available. Each choice names the lifecycle action it performs.
| Action | Use it when | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Keep (Reaffirm) | The choice still holds. | Set a new review trigger and optionally explain why. The open review is resolved. |
| Update (Revise) | The same choice needs updated wording, reasoning, or assumptions. | Save a revision under the same reference with a change note. It applies immediately, without a new confirmation. Earlier revisions remain available. |
| Replace (Supersede) | A new choice replaces this one. | Create a separate successor. The original stays current until the successor is confirmed, then becomes Superseded. |
| Withdraw (Reverse) | The choice no longer holds and there is no replacement decision. | Record a reason. The record remains available with Reversed status. |
Available actions depend on your role, ownership, node access, and workspace state. Owners and admins can Update; a non-owner approver can Keep or Withdraw but cannot Update. Members can draft a replacement, and confirmation still follows the workspace policy. Drafts retain Edit draft and confirmation; closed records offer their successor or a follow-up where appropriate.
Administrative controls
Archive and Legal hold appear separately under Administrative controls. This includes authorized draft archiving. An admin can also change the owner of a current decision.
Archive removes a record from working lists. Admins can archive current or closed records; a draft's creator or owner can also archive their draft when their node role permits writing. A configured retention policy can later permanently delete an archived record, its revisions, events, evidence and files. There is no unarchive action.
Workspace admins can place or clear a decision's legal hold. It protects the record and its evidence from retention deletion, including after archive. It does not freeze editing or change whether the decision stands. Clearing it allows an eligible archived record to be purged on the next retention run, unless a workspace hold still protects it.
Replace a decision with a successor
- Open the decided record and choose Review decision → Replace (Supersede).
- Describe the new choice and explain why it replaces the old one. Complete its owner, nodes, and review trigger.
- Save a draft successor if the replacement needs review. The original decision continues to stand.
- When an authorized person confirms the successor, it becomes the active decision and the original points to it.
If Acme Robotics later needs search capabilities that justify Elasticsearch, a successor to AR-041 would explain those new requirements. The earlier Postgres reasoning remains part of the history.
Reviews when linked decisions change
Superseding, reversing, or archiving a decision opens a dependency review for the owner of each decided decision with a direct link to it. The inbox names the change, for example “AR-014 was superseded by AR-051”. Drafts and closed decisions do not receive these reviews.
Both inbound depends_on and affects links trigger reviews, following the impact map. An affects review is marked lower urgency; if both link types exist, the dependency takes priority. Only one level is reviewed. Further reviews open when a person changes a dependent decision.
Each decision has at most one open dependency review. Further changes leave its original explanation in place. Reaffirming, revising, or closing the decision resolves it; a later linked change can open a new review.
Check what changed and stay informed
Open Revisions on a decision to inspect earlier versions and compare changes. Open Event log for the sequence of recorded actions and who performed them.
In Settings → Notifications, configure your digest and delivery preferences. Newly opened dependency reviews email the owner when Draft assignments and dependency reviews is enabled. Linked Slack channels can receive notices and digests; restricted records appear there as a reference and link. Check the notification log for delivery attempts.