Step 04 of 9 30 min· intermediate
Step 4: Make Key Architecture Decisions
Document database, hosting, and auth choices as Architecture Decision Records.
Recommended prompts
Use one of these to do the work in your IDE
Open the template to read it in full. Click Copy prompt to grab it (with your stack values pre-filled where they apply) — then paste into Claude Code, Cursor, or wherever you build.
When you're done
Verify these in your own work before moving on
This is a checklist for you to mentally tick off in your repo and IDE — the site doesn't track it, you do.
- ADR for database choice, with alternatives considered
- ADR for hosting / deployment platform
- ADR for authentication approach
- Each ADR has a 'Status: accepted' header and a date
- ADRs committed to /docs/adr/ in your repo
Common pitfalls
What goes wrong at this step
- Documenting only the chosen option — the alternatives section is the load-bearing part
- Skipping the date — without it, you can't tell stale ADRs from current ones