Contemporary records establish what was stated and available when a decision occurred. Later recollections and outcomes can clarify or challenge that record, but they need their own dates and labels so hindsight does not become the original explanation.
Classify claims by when and how they entered the record
For every rationale, capture the statement date, source type, speaker, and evidence available at that date. A cost limit in a signed budget differs from a remembered concern in an interview two years later. A benchmark recorded before implementation differs from an incident discovered after launch. Preserve both, then label the first as contemporary and the second as retrospective or outcome evidence.
Avoid upgrading repeated language into proof. If several later documents copy the same unsourced claim, trace them to the earliest occurrence and treat them as one lineage. When a participant's memory conflicts with an issue or commit, record the conflict and ask whether the discrepancy affects the present decision. Attribution matters more than producing a smooth single story.
Show how the weight of a rationale changed
A useful timeline states the original constraint, the choice it supported, and each later event that strengthened, weakened, or superseded it. If a provider limit disappeared, record the dated change. If scale grew beyond the forecast, preserve both the forecast and observed workload. This lets a reviewer distinguish a bad original premise from a premise that was reasonable within a former operating envelope.
Mark inference explicitly. A commit near a meeting date can support chronology, but it does not prove who approved the change or why. The dossier should carry confidence, missing evidence, and the next source to seek. Honest uncertainty makes the reconstruction safer to use than a definitive narrative built from circumstantial alignment.
Where the service stops
Reality Contact, LLC reconstructs and organizes the available record, but does not determine legal liability, perform M&A diligence, value a company, resolve personnel disputes, or make the buyer's architecture or management decision. The buyer verifies sensitive facts and source access, chooses which unresolved questions require stakeholder review, and owns any decision to preserve, reverse, or retest the prior choice. This is technical research and document preparation; it does not replace legal, financial, investment, employment, M&A, compliance, or management advice. The dossier reflects the supplied record, labels inference and missing evidence, and does not establish motive, fault, approval, or the correct decision.
Sources: GitHub file history documentation; AWS ADR lifecycle guidance.