ADR014 - Non-Empty Sections

Required ADR sections should have meaningful content, not placeholders.

Why This Rule Exists

Placeholder content:

• Provides no value to readers
• Indicates incomplete documentation
• May mislead about decision completeness

Placeholder Patterns Detected

• Empty sections
• TODO, TBD, To be determined
• ... (ellipsis)
• [Insert here], <Insert here>
• Lorem ipsum
• Fill in, Add content, Write here
• Very short content (< 3 characters)

Examples

Incorrect

## Context

TODO: Fill in context later

## Decision

TBD

## Consequences

...

Correct

## Context

We need to choose a programming language for our new microservice.
The team has experience with Java, Python, and Rust. Performance
and memory safety are key requirements.

## Decision

We will use Rust for the new microservice implementation.

## Consequences

Team members will need Rust training, which will take 2-3 weeks.
Build times will be longer initially but runtime performance will improve.

Rule Details

• Rule ID: ADR014
• Name: adr-non-empty-sections
• Category: Content
• Severity: Warning
• Automatic Fix: Not available

Related Rules

• ADR004 - Required context section
• ADR005 - Required decision section
• ADR006 - Required consequences section