Ideas

Things that might be worth building and are not decided. No records, no specs, no backlog items until one is approved - a Proposed decision record means "a fork awaiting ratification", not "something we might do", and dressing speculation as a record implies a choice was made when none was.

Each idea lives in one file and carries its whole shape - the itch, who it serves, a provisional technical and business sketch, and the unknowns that decide it. Speculation is welcome there and nowhere else.

Statuses run idea → exploring → approved | parked | dropped. An approved idea graduates into the normal flow (a backlog intent, then a spec, then records) and its file flips to graduated with links. Parked and dropped files stay: the reason something was not built is worth more than the absence of a file, and the next person to have the same thought finds out what happened rather than starting over.

The index moved. Every idea above is a type: idea row in backlog.md now (per ADR-046), so the dashboard's Backlog tab shows it alongside build work and open questions without opening this file. The backlog.md row links back to the idea's file here for the whole shape - the itch, who it serves, the sketch, the unknowns.