The rejection rationale is published as structured data

Context

Raised on 2026-10-17, while the gate on reject was being changed to judge a document with its rationale in place.

Under ADR-0020 a document's questions and its Changelog are published as structured data and left out of contents, because they record the document's process rather than its design, and archdoc.dev shows a document's contents as the document. Another section receives the same treatment only by a decision that names it, and the sections named leave contents in one release. ADR-0020 names Rejection rationale among the sections a rule for every process section would have left open.

reject appends Rejection rationale to a document, as archdoc new does to one it creates rejected, and L08 requires it on a rejected document and forbids it on any other RFC or ADR. It records why the proposal was turned down: the verdict, not the design. A required section that leaves contents is still named among the document's required sections, so under ADR-0020 its presence has to be recorded elsewhere, or the requirement lifted.

Under ADR-0019, before ArchDoc 1.0, a change that removes a field, or changes a field's type or meaning, moves schema to the next integer, at most once between two tagged releases. schema: 3, which takes the question sections and the Changelog out of contents, has not been in a tagged release.

Decision

Rejection rationale is added to the sections ADR-0020 names: it is published as structured data and left out of contents, in the release that takes the question sections and the Changelog out. L08's requirement of it on a rejected document stays, and the structured form records whether the section is present.

Alternatives

• Leaving it in contents. The heading is fixed, so a consumer can find the section by its title. Lost because a consumer showing the design from contents would show the verdict as part of it.
• Leaving contents in a later release, at schema: 4. Lost because under ADR-0019 a second break costs every consumer the change again, where joining schema: 3 before it is released costs nothing beyond the break already made.
• Lifting the requirement. L08 would no longer require the section on a rejected document. Lost because a rejected document could then freeze with no reason for its verdict.

Consequences

Easier:

• A consumer will show why a document was rejected without searching contents for its heading.

Harder:

• Rejection rationale will be the first required section absent from contents, so a consumer checking a rejected document's required_sections against contents will find it missing, and will have to read its structured form.
• A fix merged where the code emits schema: 3 will not be released until the section's structured form is built, unless it is released from code still emitting schema: 2.

Constrained:

• No release will carry schema: 3 until the section's structured form is built.