Tech Lead / Engineer Guide

How Tech Leads and Engineers can use Freshbase to record technical decisions and connect planning with execution.

This guide shows how Tech Leads and Engineers can use Freshbase to record technical decisions, understand feature context, and connect planning with execution.

Your workflow in Freshbase

As a Tech Lead, your focus is on technical decisions and context:

Technical decision arises (meeting, discussion, analysis)
    ↓
Record it in Freshbase (Chat or Inbox)
    ↓
Document trade-offs and alternatives
    ↓
Connect with tasks in Linear
    ↓
Team has context to implement

1. Record technical decisions (ADRs)

Architecture Decision Records are essential for traceability. Freshbase makes it easy:

Creating an ADR via Chat

“Create an ADR about the decision to use PostgreSQL instead of MongoDB for the reporting module. The factors were: need for complex queries, team already knows SQL, and transactional consistency requirement.”

The assistant generates a structured document with:

• Problem context
• Decision made
• Alternatives considered
• Consequences

From meetings

When a technical decision is made in a meeting:

1. The transcription is processed automatically
2. The decision appears in the Inbox
3. When you approve it, you can ask the assistant to expand it into a full ADR

Record decisions at the moment they are made. After a week, the context and reasoning become harder to remember.

2. Understand context before implementing

Freshbase centralizes all context for a project:

Exploring the Base

“Give me a summary of everything that was decided about the payments module” “What requirements exist for the advanced search feature?”

Understanding past decisions

“Why did we decide to use gRPC instead of REST for inter-service communication?” “What were the trade-offs discussed when choosing the database?”

Identifying gaps

“What non-functional requirements have not yet been defined for the authentication module?”

The assistant has access to all documents in the Base and can cross-reference information from different meetings and specifications.

3. Explore trade-offs with Chat

Chat is ideal for thinking through technical decisions before implementing:

Alternative analysis

“Compare caching approaches: Redis vs Memcached vs in-memory cache for our session use case”

Impact assessment

“If we migrate the notification service to event-driven, what are the impacts on existing services?”

Implementation planning

“Break down the monolith-to-microservices migration into incremental phases”

Use Pro mode in Chat for detailed technical analyses. The output includes more nuances and considerations.

4. Connect with Linear

The Linear integration links planning to execution:

Creating issues from specifications

“Create issues in Linear for the subtasks of the advanced search story”

Referencing tasks in documents

The assistant can search for existing issues in Linear and reference them in Base documents.

Complete flow

Decision documented in Freshbase
    ↓
Tasks created in Linear (via Chat)
    ↓
Devs implement with full context
    ↓
Decisions and requirements always traceable

How to set up integrations

Detailed guide

5. Review technical extractions in the Inbox

The Inbox surfaces extractions relevant to the technical team:

• Technical decisions from meetings — worth recording as an ADR?
• Implementation tasks — create an issue in Linear?
• Dependencies identified — needs attention before starting?

Don’t ignore technical items in the Inbox. A task like “verify SSL certificate on staging” may seem minor, but it’s the kind of thing that gets lost without a record.

6. Maintain context for the team

As a Tech Lead, you are the bridge between decisions and execution:

Constitution for technical standards

If your team has recurring standards (e.g., “always use TypeScript strict mode”, “APIs must follow REST Level 3”), put them in the Base’s Constitution. The assistant respects these rules when generating documents.

Technical Glossary

Register technical terms for the project in the Glossary:

• Names of services, modules, and components
• Acronyms used by the team
• Domain terms with specific technical meaning

Suggested routine

When	What to do
After technical meetings	Review Inbox, approve decisions, create ADRs
Before starting a feature	Explore the Base to understand context and requirements
When making a decision	Record it via Chat immediately
During sprint planning	Use Chat to break down tasks and create issues in Linear
Weekly	Verify that recent decisions are documented

Tips for Tech Leads

• ADRs are an investment. Documenting decisions now saves hours of discussion in the future.
• Ask the Base “why?” Freshbase can cross-reference information from multiple meetings and docs to explain the context behind a decision.
• Use Constitution. Recurring technical rules in the Constitution prevent the assistant from generating documents that fall outside your standards.
• Linear + Freshbase = complete flow. Connecting the two eliminates the gap between “what we decided” and “what we are implementing”.