BDD, ADR, PRD, WTF: Capturing Decisions for Humans and AI Alike — Michal Cichra, Safe Intelligence
Jun 3, 2026 · 12:49
Michal Cichra from Safe Intelligence argues that teams using AI agents must capture architectural and product decisions in structured documents—ADRs, PRDs, and BDD scenarios—to compensate for LLMs' limited context and prevent the 'why did we do this' confusion. He explains that ADRs record rules and enforcement methods, like splitting code layers to prevent N+1 queries via module import linting, while PRDs describe user journeys. BDD with Cucumber closes the spec-driven development loop by providing executable, human-readable scenarios that connect to PRDs. Enforcement is done through git hooks and CI, rejecting agents at commit time and linking them back to the relevant documents for iteration. Sessions experience 20 to 50 context compacts, but the important rules survive because agents reload them. Design systems and pattern libraries further enforce UI consistency by defining components and banning inline styles.
