CYCLE Calibration position — Active Development This page is a conceptual instrument under Permanent Beta. It declares a real calibration position, not a finished product waiting to ship. Checking continues; an edit is only required when evidence demands it. Stage: Seed to Fruit. Feedback welcome — especially clarity, failure modes, and calibration gaps. Use discussion or Contribute.

Decision Records: Governance Memory

Calibration Reports record how a page’s content or status changed in one event. Decision Records record why a governance rule, taxonomy choice, or structural convention exists — including rejected alternatives — so a later contributor can tell “considered and chosen” from “never questioned.” A Decision Record is governance memory, not a second cal-report archive and not objective final truth. Treating it as “debate closed forever” would itself be Reality Override.

Sovereign-Games-OG-Image.jpg

Principles

Preserve reasoning; do not advocate.
State rejected alternatives fairly enough that their appeal is understandable.
Separate observed facts from judgment calls.
Enable later recalibration; do not freeze debate by archival theater.
Stay short enough to be read.
Open — Unresolved is a valid complete status when disagreement is deliberately preserved.

What it captures (one decision)

Unique ID (DR-NNNN)
What was decided
Significant contributors / positions (not every chat participant)
Alternatives considered and why set aside
Consequences (what else must follow)
Status and date
Superseded-by only when applicable (append-only; never delete old content)

When required

Trigger: Would a future contributor reasonably ask “why does this rule exist?” from the page alone? If yes → Decision Record. If the change is wording, sequencing, formatting, or error correction → no. Typically yes:

Establish, rename, or retire a taxonomy category or controlled Type
Adopt or reject a rule, threshold, or formula other pages must follow
Resolve a real disagreement where the losing side had merit worth preserving
Change a structural convention (e.g. static dates only, report tiers, log vs Talk)

Typically no: typos, clarity edits, routine field updates, single-page content cal already explained by a Calibration Report.

Where it lives (hybrid, keep thin)

Layer	Role
Decision Records: Governance Memory/Index	Chronological scannable list: ID, date, title, primary page(s), link to full text. No long-form.
`PageName/Decision Records`	Full write-ups for decisions primarily owned by that governance page. Optional sibling of `/Calibration Log` — not required on every content page. See Calibration Log: When to Create One and Template:Calibration Template.
Talk only	Acceptable for a single short decision on an infrastructure page that stays Talk-only — still register the ID on the Index so it is findable.
This page	Defines the standard; may host early records only until Index + per-page homes exist — prefer Index + owner page.

Multi-page decisions: full text on the page that enforces the rule; Index lists all affected pages; cross-link others. Do not triple-log: Decision Record = why the rule exists. Do not paste full cal reports here. Scars may point here in one line (Calibration Failure Log).

ID format

Sequential DR-0001, DR-0002, … assigned at creation, never reused if superseded or rejected. Cite by ID once registered (“see DR-0004”).

How to write

=== DR-XXXX: [Short specific title] ===
'''Decision:''' [One sentence]
'''Status:''' Proposed / Adopted / Superseded / Rejected / Open — Unresolved
'''Significant contributors:''' [Positions and who held them]
'''Reasoning:''' [Why the adopted path won — or why left open]
'''Alternatives considered:''' [What else, and why set aside]
'''Consequences:''' [Pages, conventions, follow-up]
'''Date:''' YYYY-MM-DD
'''Primary page:''' [[…]]
'''Superseded by:''' [DR-XXXX — only if applicable]

Superseding: mark old status Superseded; add new ID/date; leave original text intact (same append-only discipline as cal reports).

Relationship to other mechanisms

Mechanism	Question
Versioning / page history	When did the text change?
Calibration Report	How did this pass change content or status?
Calibration Log	What is the maintained current-state hub (when one exists)?
Decision Record	Why does this rule/convention exist?
Breadcrumb	What intentional incompleteness is still open?
Calibration Failure Log	What design scars taught a reusable lesson?
Known Site Issues	What is technically broken?

Creating a /Decision Records subpage

Most pages never need one. When the when test says a dedicated home is warranted (hub owns ongoing governance decisions), create PageName/Decision Records from the preload seed:

Template:Decision Records Seed — starting structure only; do not transclude on live content pages.

Register every new DR on Decision Records: Governance Memory/Index in the same edit. Hub children (e.g. diagnostic game subpages) link to the hub Decision Records or Talk via transparency menus — they do not each get their own DR subpage by default.

Worked precedent

Standards: Types and Calibration Obligations/Decision Records predates this standard. Treat as early per-page home; retrofit IDs / Consequences / Status when practical — not a blocker for new DRs.

Seed candidates (file on Index + owner page; not all need subpages)

Use these as the first Index rows when building Decision Records: Governance Memory/Index:

Static dates only on Last Updated / review_date (no magic words)
instrument_grade five-level scale; AI round-robin ≠ Confirmed standing
Calibration Type param name retained (display may say Functional Layer)
Official cal report shape + procedure tiers (pre-cal / Development / Confirmation / Ripple)
Talk vs `/Calibration Log` decision procedure
Decision Records optional sibling — not every page
Calibration Failure Log = thin scar index, not full archive
Maintenance Dashboard = queues + links, not report host
NCR vs breadcrumb vs developmental alignment routing

Assign DR-0001… in the order you actually write them; do not reserve numbers for “planned” rows.

Open Calibration Items

Create Index page and register first adopted DRs from seed list
Retrofit Standards: Types…/Decision Records when touching that area
Point Checklist “Decision Index” link here / Index

See the Page Transparency & Calibration section above for this page's Calibration Log / Decision Records / Talk links.

Structural Connections

Page Transparency & Calibration

Calibration Log & Decision Records (via Talk Page) — This page uses Talk-only calibration tracking. Full history of reviews, version changes, calibration decisions, and any governance reasoning behind structural decisions all live on the same Talk page, per Calibration Log: When to Create One and Decision Records: Governance Memory. Not every Calibration Log entry is a Decision Record — scan the Talk page's headings for entries specifically marked as decisions; the link itself being active only confirms this page has calibration history, not that a formal decision was ever recorded.
View Current Page History — Complete edit history.

This page is under continuous calibration in line with the Permanent Beta principle.

Public Discussion Welcome

Questions, suggestions, feedback, disagreement, and proposed improvements are welcome on the Talk page.

Light rules:

Prefer evidence and concrete examples over slogans.
Apply Diagnostic Inversion Test when criticizing — the same standard to this page that you would apply elsewhere.
Distinguish observation from conclusion.
Calibration entries and Decision Records are maintenance records; public discussion belongs in ordinary Talk threads.
This framework remains in Permanent Beta. Better calibration is always in scope.

Calibration Dependent

Pages that list this page as a load-bearing dependency:

Page	Priority	Instrument Grade	Last Updated	Cycle Status	Drift Status
Insights and Future Layers	Core	Experimental	2026-07-14	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
Calibration Report Standard Format	Core	Experimental	2026-07-20	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
Decision Records: Governance Memory/Index	Core	Development	2026-07-14	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
Standards: Types and Calibration Obligations	Core	Development	2026-07-20	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
Page Structure Calibration Checklist	Core	Development	2026-07-14	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
Calibration Failure Log	Supporting	Experimental	2026-07-24	Current	Breadcrumb-Open
Standards: Types and Calibration Obligations/Decision Records	Supporting	Development	2026-07-14	Current	None open

If this page is edited substantively, review the list above per the Ripple Review rule — see Calibration Dependencies: Standards and Process#Rule: Core-Priority Changes Trigger Mandatory Ripple Review.

Calibration Dependencies

Pages this page relies on as load-bearing dependencies: Breadcrumb Philosophy • Calibration Log: When to Create One • Calibration Report Standard Format • Page Structure Calibration Checklist If incorrect, edit the `depends_on` field in Admin Page Status — do not edit this section directly, it is auto-generated.

Calibration References

This page is calibrated against the following core standards and reference materials:

The Sovereign Games Framework — Overall framework philosophy and operating principles
Permanent Beta — Core maintenance and continuous improvement standard
Reference Standards — Principles for traceable, confirmed standards
Calibrating Conceptual Instruments — Methodology for evaluating and refining pages
Civilizational Traceability Hierarchy — How standards should connect to reality across levels
Diagnostic Inversion Test — Mandatory self-application standard
Reality Game — Foundational reality-alignment tool
Reality Override Game — Standing discipline against protecting an existing model rather than updating it
Observable Behavior Rule — Standing principle that diagnostics evaluate observable actions, mechanisms, and consequences, not internal motive, belief, or intent
One-Way Nature of the Sovereign Games — Anti-capture design principles
The Royal Cubit Civilization (Strategy) — Long-term civilizational vision and metrology metaphor
Conceptual Instruments — Overall direction and metrology metaphor
Breadcrumb Philosophy — Standing discipline for making unresolved questions and provisional decisions explicit
Calibration Dependencies: Standards and Process — Rule that visible and hidden dependency lists must match, and that dependencies describe genuine reliance

Page Construction & Maintenance References

How we construct, maintain, and utilize each page as a self-admin control panel.

Distributed Instrumentation — the architectural principle behind why this page (and every page) carries its own live instrumentation, rather than relying on a separate central dashboard.
Page Structure Calibration Checklist — the Step 0 structural pass every page should pass before content calibration begins; this page's own structure should be checkable against it.
Template:New Page Seed — the seed template this page's basic structure was built from.
Calibration Log: When to Create One — the decision procedure this page's own Talk-only vs. dedicated-log status was decided against.
Framework Features Reference — maintains consistency and traceability across the framework's structural features while avoiding unnecessary maintenance overhead; consult before introducing a new structural pattern this page might otherwise duplicate.

Calibration Procedure

In development. See Calibration Procedure for current status. No formal step-by-step procedure exists yet beyond the practices demonstrated across individual pages developed during the initial creation of this project.

Tracking & Log Pages

Admin:Maintenance Dashboard - This dashboard shows pages that require calibration or review.
Nonconformance Reporting Procedure — What counts as a nonconformance and where it routes.
Known Site Issues & Fixes — Technical/mechanism bugs.
Calibration Failure Log — Calibration-design failures.
Breadcrumb Tracking — Live index of open Development Breadcrumbs.
Decision Records: Governance Memory — Why governance/structural decisions exist, plus its Index.
Insights and Future Layers — Unexpected benefits and project-wide future ideas.
Feature Request Log — Genuinely desired features that were attempted and confirmed not currently possible with available tools. Index-only; full write-ups and discussion live on Talk.
Calibration Report Standard Format - Standardrized reporting formatting.

Page Reference

Title	Decision Records: Governance Memory
URL	https://www.thesovereigngames.com/wiki/Decision_Records:_Governance_Memory
Description	Governance memory standard: what a Decision Record is, when required, where it lives, how to write one — why rules exist.
Category	Meta & Framework

Decision Records: Governance Memory

Decision Records: Governance Memory

Meta

Menu

Principles

What it captures (one decision)

When required

Where it lives (hybrid, keep thin)

ID format

How to write

Relationship to other mechanisms

Creating a /Decision Records subpage

Worked precedent

Seed candidates (file on Index + owner page; not all need subpages)

See also

Open Calibration Items

Structural Connections

Page Transparency & Calibration

Calibration Dependent

Calibration Dependencies

Calibration References

Page Construction & Maintenance References

Calibration Procedure

Tracking & Log Pages

Page Reference