Your organization requires that every AI agent's autonomy level (and the permissions granted to support it) be formally documented with a rationale that can be audited during a compliance review. Where and how should this documentation be created?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
You need a formal Architecture Decision Record for each agent because it captures the autonomy tier, permissions, business justification, risks, and compensating controls in an auditable trail. It gives compliance reviewers a versioned, reviewable record instead of scattered notes or messages.
Full Explanation
Architecture Decision Records are the industry-standard format for documenting architectural and governance decisions in a way that is versioned, reviewable, and auditable. For agent autonomy assignments, an Architecture Decision Record should contain the decision, such as the assigned autonomy tier and the specific permissions granted; the context, including what the agent does and why that autonomy level is needed; the alternatives considered, such as lower and higher autonomy tiers and why they were rejected; and the consequences, including risks introduced and compensating controls implemented, such as required status checks, CODEOWNERS rules, and environment protection rules. These records are typically stored in the repository as .adr/ or docs/decisions/ files, making them version-controlled, linkable, and accessible to compliance reviewers without needing access to email or verbal accounts. Documenting the autonomy level in the agent repository README file is documentation, but it is not at the right level of formality or structure for compliance review because README files are frequently updated and are not designed to capture point-in-time decisions with rationale. Adding a comment in the workflow YAML file explaining why certain permissions are granted provides proximity to the configuration, but it is limited to a comment field with no structured format, no alternatives discussion, no risk register, and no formal approval record; comments are implementation notes, not decision records. Sending an email to the security team explaining the agent's autonomy configuration is not version-controlled, not discoverable without email search, cannot be formally approved through a review mechanism, and does not constitute a formal record in most compliance frameworks. Architecture Decision Records stored in the repository provide the auditable, structured, version-controlled record that compliance frameworks require for agent governance decisions.