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+# ADR-001: Matchmaking control-plane platform
+
+- Status: Accepted
+- Date: 2026-08-31
+- Scope: Phase 8 matchmaking, ranked play, and per-match server allocation
+
+## Decision
+
+Build the matchmaking control plane as independently runnable Go roles backed
+by PostgreSQL and Redis, deployed on provider-portable Kubernetes:
+
+- API: authenticated REST and revisioned WebSocket state delivery.
+- Matcher: queue candidate selection and proposal creation.
+- Allocator: Agones `GameServerAllocation` and assignment delivery.
+- Maintenance: expiry, repair, outbox delivery, rating and result processing.
+- PostgreSQL: durable identities, sessions, queue ownership, proposals,
+  participants, matches, ratings, results, penalties, audits and outbox.
+- Redis: expiring presence and candidate indexes only; it is never an
+  ownership or allocation fence.
+- Agones: game-server readiness, allocation and lifecycle.
+- Steam Hosted Dedicated Server SDR: production player-to-server routing.
+
+EU and NA are the first regions. Provider-specific networking, edge, secrets,
+SDR POPs and certificates live in deployment overlays. Application code must
+not call a cloud-provider allocation API directly.
+
+The existing Godot ENet server remains a supported direct-IP/community-server
+path. Allocated matches use the same authoritative simulation, but are a
+separate lifecycle: one match per server process, assignment only after the
+server is genuinely ready, and shutdown after result delivery.
+
+## Boundaries and invariants
+
+1. PostgreSQL is the source of truth for ownership, participation fences,
+   legal state transitions and idempotency. Redis indexes may be rebuilt.
+2. Steam identity is verified by the secure backend. A client-supplied name or
+   Steam ID is never an identity or rating key.
+3. The backend issues match-scoped, expiring authorisations bound to identity,
+   match, server, slot, protocol and connection generation.
+4. Agones `Ready` means process-ready only. Assignment-ready additionally
+   requires the allocated manifest, signed roster and backend registration.
+5. ENet/SDR carries simulation traffic; REST/WebSocket carries control-plane
+   traffic. No simulation state is routed through the backend.
+6. Provider failure must not be represented as a player fault. Result delivery
+   and match-integrity failure remain separate states.
+
+## Rejected alternatives
+
+- **C#/.NET backend:** not consistent with the shipped GDScript-only project
+  and adds no required capability over Go.
+- **Redis as the durable queue fence:** Redis failover can lose an acknowledged
+  write; using it as authority can split a player across proposals.
+- **Provider-specific allocation SDKs in application code:** couples matching
+  policy and correctness to one cloud and prevents the second-provider
+  migration gate.
+- **A custom game-server scheduler instead of Agones:** duplicates readiness,
+  allocation, drain and lifecycle behavior that the project needs to verify.
+- **Replacing the community ENet path:** direct-IP ENet remains necessary for
+  LAN, CI and self-hosted servers and must not become a silent fallback for a
+  failed production SDR assignment.
+
+## Consequences
+
+This introduces the first non-Godot service in the project and requires
+versioned API contracts, database migrations, operational security and
+concurrency testing. It also gives queue ownership, ratings, reconnects and
+allocation a durable authority instead of extending the Godot server with
+cross-match responsibilities. SLOs and wire contracts are separate follow-up
+decisions (tasks 8.2 and 8.3).
+
+## References
+
+- [`docs/MATCHMAKING.md`](MATCHMAKING.md)
+- [`docs/TECH_STACK.md`](TECH_STACK.md)
+- [`multiplayer-next.md`](../multiplayer-next.md)
diff --git a/multiplayer-next.md b/multiplayer-next.md
index 5d556874..ccafaa6e 100644
--- a/multiplayer-next.md
+++ b/multiplayer-next.md
@@ -29,8 +29,9 @@ product policy are in [`docs/MATCHMAKING.md`](docs/MATCHMAKING.md).
 
 ## Phase 8 — architecture, contracts and durable data
 
-- [ ] Lock the Go/PostgreSQL/Redis, Kubernetes/Agones, SDR, EU/NA and
-  provider-portability ADR; define measurable launch SLOs.
+- [x] Lock the Go/PostgreSQL/Redis, Kubernetes/Agones, SDR, EU/NA and
+  provider-portability ADR ([ADR-001](docs/ADR-001-matchmaking-platform.md));
+  measurable launch SLOs remain task 8.2.
 - [ ] Publish versioned OpenAPI/WebSocket contracts, stable IDs, legal state
   transitions, revisions and idempotency semantics.
 - [ ] Add PostgreSQL queue ownership/active-participation fences, durable