# What is a decision log?

A decision log is a running record of a team’s decisions, each with its date, who decided, why, and the options set aside.

Updated on 22 October 2026.

## How it works

Where an architecture decision record gives one technical decision a document of its own, a decision log keeps every decision, large or small, as a line in one place, often with a link to the fuller record.

It answers the questions that otherwise cost meetings: when did we decide this, who decided, and what did we know then?

## An example

A launch team logs that it moved the date to 12 March on 3 February, decided by the product lead, because the payment provider needed two more weeks, and links the line to the revised plan.

## Common mistakes

- Logging the decision but not the reason, so it gets reopened.
- Leaving decisions in meeting notes and chat, where nobody finds them.
- Never marking a decision as reversed.

## In Nodary

In Nodary, a decision log can be a sheet in a document, or a live view that lists every decision document of a project as a table, filtered by its properties. Each decision can be reviewed and approved by a named person, and Studio AI can draft entries from meeting notes for you to check.

**What Nodary does not do:** it does not pick decisions out of chat or meetings by itself: someone writes them down, or asks Studio AI to draft them.

- [Sharing and permissions](https://nodary.ai/docs/sharing-and-permissions)
- [Decision log template with ADRs](https://nodary.ai/templates/decision-log)

Try it on your own documents. The Free plan needs no card. [Create a free workspace](https://nodary.ai/sign-up)

## Sources

- [Maintain an architecture decision record, Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/architect-role/architecture-decision-record)
- [Architectural decision, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_decision)

## Related terms

- [Architecture decision record (ADR)](https://nodary.ai/glossary/architecture-decision-record): An architecture decision record (ADR) is a short document recording one significant technical decision: its context, the choice made and its consequences.
- [Canon document](https://nodary.ai/glossary/canon-document): A canon document is the version a team has agreed is true: when documents disagree, it decides and the others defer to it.
- [Burn-up chart](https://nodary.ai/glossary/burn-up-chart): A burn-up chart plots finished work against total scope over time, showing progress, pace and any change in scope on one chart.
- [Single source of truth: keep one version of every decision](https://nodary.ai/guides/single-source-of-truth): Why documents drift, and seven practices that keep one current version for people and AI agents.

https://nodary.ai/glossary/decision-log