ADR-0008: Add refs field to RfcSpec for artifact cross-referencing

Status: accepted | Date: 2026-01-17

References: RFC-0000

Context

RFCs are the supreme governance documents in govctl, yet they cannot formally reference other artifacts (ADRs, other RFCs, work items). Meanwhile, ADRs and Work Items both have a refs field for cross-referencing.

This asymmetry creates problems:

1. RFCs cannot declare dependencies on ADRs that informed their design
2. No way to trace which ADRs led to an RFC’s creation
3. Validation cannot check RFC references for consistency
4. Impact analysis for deprecation is incomplete

The existing pattern in AdrMeta and WorkItemMeta is: refs: Vec<String> with validation against known artifact IDs.

Decision

Add refs field to RfcSpec following the same pattern as AdrMeta and WorkItemMeta:

1. Add refs: Vec<String> to RfcSpec model (serde skip_serializing_if empty)
2. Add diagnostic code E0105RfcRefNotFound for validation errors
3. Extend validate_artifact_refs() to include RFC refs validation
4. Support add/remove/get refs operations in edit commands for RFCs
5. Validate RFC supersedes field against known RFCs (currently unvalidated)

This creates consistency across all artifact types and enables complete cross-reference tracking.

Consequences

Positive:

• RFCs can now reference ADRs, other RFCs, and work items
• Complete artifact graph for impact analysis
• Consistent API across all artifact types
• Existing RFCs remain valid (refs is optional, defaults to empty)

Negative:

• Minor schema change to RfcSpec
• Slightly more validation overhead on check

Neutral:

• Existing RFCs do not need migration (empty default)