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commit 59ef9662f1faa210fc022730df8c31b8d6b6ba49
Author: Stephen Mallette <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Sun Aug 9 13:25:19 2026 -0400

    Require rejected-alternative beads to record why
    
    A rejected alternative's --design must say what the option concretely
    was, why it lost, and what settled it — not just that it was rejected.
    
    Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5
---
 .beads/PRIME.md | 9 ++++++++-
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/.beads/PRIME.md b/.beads/PRIME.md
index c27c8b1f21..d4cf0ae68f 100644
--- a/.beads/PRIME.md
+++ b/.beads/PRIME.md
@@ -65,10 +65,17 @@ bd create --type=decision --parent=<root> --title="Chose X" 
--design="why, and w
 # The sibling is the road not taken — an approach you tried and abandoned 
counts, and is stronger
 # evidence than a hypothetical, because someone already walked it.
 bd create --type=decision --parent=<root> --title="Y" 
--labels="rejected-alternative" \
-          --design="why Y was rejected"
+          --design="what Y concretely was, why it lost, what settled it"
 bd dep add <decision> <alternative> -t related    # never put either of these 
on a task bead
 ```
 
+**A rejected alternative's `--design` names three things: what the option 
concretely was, why it
+lost, and what settled it.** The verdict is already in the label, so the 
reason is the whole
+value — give it as a mechanism ("it leaves the shared database with a 
vocabulary no single
+PRIME.md describes"), never a judgment ("rejected as worse"). A mechanism can 
be checked again
+later: when the problem it names no longer applies, the option is worth 
reconsidering. A
+judgment cannot, so the option stays dead by default. The chosen decision 
needs a reason too.
+
 **Record what actually happened.** If you cannot point to the moment, do not 
write the bead.
 When you sense a decision you were not party to, create a bead labelled 
`human` posing the
 question instead of inventing an answer — `bd human respond <id>` turns the 
reply into a

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