# RFC: [Title]

**Status:** Draft | Review | Approved | Rejected | Implemented
**Author:** [Name]
**Created:** [Date]
**Updated:** [Date]

## Summary

One paragraph explanation of the proposal.

## Motivation

Why are we doing this? What problem does it solve?

## Detailed Design

Technical details of the implementation.

## Drawbacks

What are the cons? Why should we *not* do this?

## Alternatives

What other approaches were considered? Why were they not chosen?

## Adoption Strategy

How will this be implemented? What's the migration path?

## Unresolved Questions

What parts are still unclear? What decisions are left to make?

# RFC-0042: Migrate from REST to GraphQL

**Status:** Under Review
**Author:** Jane Smith
**Created:** 2024-01-15
**Updated:** 2024-01-20

## Summary

Migrate our public API from REST to GraphQL to provide clients 
with more flexible data fetching and reduce the number of roundtrips.

## Motivation

### Current Problems:
1. **Over-fetching**: Clients receive more data than needed
2. **Under-fetching**: Multiple requests needed for related data
3. **API versioning**: Managing multiple API versions is complex
4. **Documentation**: Keeping REST docs in sync is challenging

### Benefits of GraphQL:
- Clients request exactly the data they need
- Single request for related data
- Self-documenting via schema
- Strong typing with TypeScript
- Better developer experience

## Detailed Design

### Schema Definition
```graphql
type User {
  id: ID!
  name: String!
  email: String!
  posts: [Post!]!
}

type Post {
  id: ID!
  title: String!
  content: String!
  author: User!
  comments: [Comment!]!
}

type Query {
  user(id: ID!): User
  users(limit: Int, offset: Int): [User!]!
  post(id: ID!): Post
}

type Mutation {
  createPost(input: CreatePostInput!): Post!
  updatePost(id: ID!, input: UpdatePostInput!): Post!
  deletePost(id: ID!): Boolean!
}

## RFC Process

### 1. Draft

### 2. Review

### 3. Decision

### 4. Implementation

### 5. Retrospective

## RFC Best Practices

### Writing

#### Be Clear and Concise
- Use simple language
- Avoid jargon when possible
- Explain technical terms
- Use examples

#### Be Thorough
- Address common questions upfront
- Explain trade-offs
- Consider edge cases
- Think about migration

#### Be Open
- Invite feedback
- Consider alternatives
- Acknowledge limitations
- Be willing to change

### Reviewing

#### Ask Questions
- "What about X scenario?"
- "Have you considered Y approach?"
- "How does this scale?"

#### Provide Constructive Feedback
- Explain your reasoning
- Suggest alternatives
- Be respectful
- Focus on improving the proposal

#### Consider Perspectives
- User experience
- Developer experience
- Operational impact
- Business value

## Common Sections

### Problem Statement
What problem are we solving?

### Goals & Non-Goals
What is in and out of scope?

### Success Metrics
How do we measure success?

### Dependencies
What needs to happen first?

### Timeline
When will this be done?

### Risks
What could go wrong?

### Rollout Plan
How do we deploy this?

### Rollback Plan
How do we undo this if needed?

## Tools

### RFC Management
- **GitHub Discussions**: For public RFCs
- **Confluence**: For internal documentation
- **Google Docs**: For collaborative editing
- **Linear/Jira**: For tracking implementation

### Templates
Create and maintain RFC templates that fit your team's needs.

### Automation
- Auto-create RFC tickets
- Track RFC status
- Notify stakeholders
- Archive old RFCs

## Benefits of RFCs

### For Individuals
- Clarify thinking
- Document decisions
- Build communication skills
- Gain visibility

### For Teams
- Improve collaboration
- Share knowledge
- Align on direction
- Reduce surprises

### For Organizations
- Document history
- Enable async work
- Scale decision-making
- Improve quality

## RFC Anti-Patterns

### ❌ Too Early
Writing RFC before exploring the problem space.

### ❌ Too Late
Writing RFC after making the decision.

### ❌ Too Long
Creating 50-page documents that nobody reads.

### ❌ Too Short
Leaving out critical details.

### ❌ Too Rigid
Treating RFC as unchangeable once written.

### ❌ Too Many
Creating RFCs for trivial changes.

## Examples of RFC Topics

- Adopting a new framework
- Database migration
- API redesign
- Authentication system
- Observability strategy
- Testing approach
- CI/CD pipeline
- Team structure
- On-call policy
- Code review process