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To preserve why an OpenSpec proposal was rejected, keep its investigation with archived work and add a short decision.md that records the outcome, reasons, alternatives, and conditions for reconsidering it. This is a repository convention—not a built-in OpenSpec artifact or validation requirement—and it keeps a rejected idea from being mistaken for current behavior.
What belongs in an OpenSpec proposal, and what happens when it is rejected?
OpenSpec’s documented change workflow uses proposal, specs, design, and tasks artifacts. The proposal comes first; specs describe behavior changes, and archiving completes a change. The conventions specification describes changes as deltas to specifications and says that archiving applies those deltas to the current specifications. See the OpenSpec schema instructions and OpenSpec conventions specification.
A proposal can preserve the context for a possible change, including why it was considered and what alternatives were discussed. A repository-specific README, for example, asks contributors to structure proposals around Context, Why, What Changes, and Impact when a reviewer could reasonably challenge a design choice. That README calls the decision “Author judgement, not a gate”; this is that repository’s policy, not a universal OpenSpec rule. See the repository README.
Rejection has a different disposition from acceptance. An accepted change can be archived with its spec deltas applied to the current specifications. A rejected proposal should remain available as history, but its hypothetical behavior should not be presented as current truth. The official materials cited above do not define a universal rejected-change lifecycle or a built-in decision.md artifact.
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How can you record why an OpenSpec proposal was rejected?
One practical local convention is to retain the rejected investigation alongside archived work and add a concise decision.md. Leave the proposal in place as context and alternatives; make the decision file state the disposition plainly. The filename and location can be adapted to the repository’s own organization.
# Decision
Status: Rejected
## Decision
State what was rejected and what the team will continue doing instead.
## Reasons
Record the decision criteria, trade-offs, and material constraints.
## Alternatives considered
Summarize realistic options that were discussed.
## Revisit conditions
Name evidence or changed conditions that would justify reconsidering the decision.This is a suggested outline, not an official OpenSpec template. Its purpose is to make the result scannable without replacing the proposal’s fuller context.
What should the decision record say?
State the outcome and the continuing approach
Use an explicit status such as Rejected, then identify the proposal being rejected and what the team will do instead. Avoid wording that could be mistaken for a decision to defer or leave the change open.
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Record why the proposal did not meet the team’s needs, rather than merely repeating its description. For example, the article proposing this convention illustrates a rejected service-boundary proposal with concerns about tighter compile-time coupling and an implicit persistence contract. Those are illustrative reasons for that example, not general findings about service boundaries.
Capture alternatives and revisit conditions
Summarize the credible alternatives considered so a future contributor can see what was compared. Then name the concrete evidence or changed constraint that would make reopening the question worthwhile. “Revisit if requirements change” is less useful than specifying which requirement or evidence would change the decision.
Where should rejected OpenSpec changes go?
Keep the record where contributors already look for completed or archived change investigations, if that fits the repository’s layout. Storing the decision with its proposal keeps the rationale discoverable; a clear rejection status distinguishes it from accepted changes. The repository can choose another location or filename if its established workflow makes that easier to find.
Keep the rejected rationale separate from current behavior specifications. OpenSpec’s schema instructions say, “A spec is a behavior contract, not an implementation plan.” A rejected proposal’s hypothetical behavior is not a contract the system currently promises, so preserving its history should not mean applying its unaccepted delta to the current specs.
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Compare possible storage patterns against the repository’s actual workflow rather than treating any one layout as mandatory.
| Consideration | What to check |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | Can a future contributor find the rejection record from the proposal or archive location they already use? |
| Unambiguous disposition | Does the record make clear that the proposal was rejected, rather than accepted or left undecided? |
| Decision memory | Does it preserve reasons, alternatives, and conditions that could justify reconsideration? |
| Workflow fit | Does keeping it with archived changes match the repository’s existing organization? |
These are practical comparison criteria, not a published OpenSpec evaluation framework. No measured statistic establishes that decision files reduce repeated proposals or improve project outcomes; the value of the convention is that it makes a past decision and its reasoning explicit for readers.
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