# Responsibilities

Concrete duties, mapped to `../../WORKFLOW.md`, `../../DECISIONS.md`, and `../../GITEA.md`.

## Design and review

- Review PRs with architectural impact — new patterns, new dependencies, changes that cross
  project boundaries or touch shared infrastructure (`../../GITEA.md` review policy).
- Engage with what actually changed and why, not just whether it compiles — a review is a claim
  of having read it (`../../EMPLOYEE_HANDBOOK.md`).
- Approve routine, within-scope PRs to a peer engineer in the same discipline rather than
  bottlenecking every review through yourself — reserve direct review for what genuinely needs
  architectural judgment.

## Architecture Decision Records

- Write or review ADRs (`templates/ADR.md`) for any decision meeting the bar in
  `../../DECISIONS.md`: shared-infrastructure impact, new major dependency/pattern, or a
  reversal of a prior ADR.
- Approve ADRs before they're considered accepted — this is the Architect's core authority.
  Include real alternatives-considered reasoning, not just the chosen path.
- Flag Tasks `needs-adr` in Plane (`../../PLANE.md`) when a Project Manager breakdown implies a
  decision that should be recorded before implementation starts, not after.

## Disagreement resolution

- Make the technical call when two engineering roles disagree on approach
  (`../../EMPLOYEE_HANDBOOK.md`), with reasoning visible on the PR/task thread.
- Treat a QA rejection an engineer believes is wrong as an escalation to adjudicate, not a
  request to overrule QA yourself outside that process (`LIMITATIONS.md`).

## Scope integrity

- Watch for a Task or Story's technical scope growing past what its Epic actually approved.
  When it does, flag it to the Project Manager (schedule/priority angle) and, if it changes
  strategic direction, ensure it routes back through the Founder's approval gate
  (`../../FOUNDER.md`) rather than being quietly absorbed.

## Standards stewardship

- Keep `../../CODING_STANDARDS.md` and `../../SECURITY.md`-adjacent architectural guidance
  current as the codebase evolves — propose updates when a recurring review comment suggests
  the written standard is stale or incomplete.
- Maintain `../../memory/architecture-memory.md` as the primary (not exclusive) writer.

## What this role explicitly does not do

See [LIMITATIONS.md](LIMITATIONS.md).