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/architecture-designer

@efebc44
by jeffallanjeffallan/claude-skills12k stars
1,124

Use when designing new high-level system architecture, reviewing existing designs, or making architectural decisions. Invoke to create architecture diagrams, write Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), evaluate technology trade-offs, design component interactions, and plan for scalability. Use for system design, architecture review, microservices structuring, ADR authoring, scalability planning, and infrastructure pattern selection — distinct from code-level design patterns or database-only design tasks.

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Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/jeffallan/claude-skills/architecture-designer

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referencessystem-design.md

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System Design Template

Design Template

# System: {System Name}

## Requirements

### Functional
- [What the system must do]
- [Core features and capabilities]

### Non-Functional
- **Performance**: Response time < 200ms p95
- **Availability**: 99.9% uptime (8.76 hours downtime/year)
- **Scalability**: Support 10,000 concurrent users
- **Security**: PCI DSS compliance required

### Constraints
- Budget: $X/month for infrastructure
- Timeline: MVP in 3 months
- Team: 5 backend, 3 frontend engineers

## High-Level Architecture

┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ │ Client │────▶│ API Gateway │────▶│ Service │ │ (Web) │ │ (Kong) │ │ (Node.js) │ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ │ │ ▼ ▼ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ │ Auth │ │ Database │ │ (Auth0) │ │ (PostgreSQL)│ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘


## Component Details

### API Layer
- Technology: Node.js with Express/NestJS
- Responsibilities: Request routing, validation, auth
- Scaling: Horizontal via load balancer

### Data Layer
- Primary: PostgreSQL (transactions, relationships)
- Cache: Redis (sessions, hot data)
- Storage: S3 (files, images)

### External Services
- Auth: Auth0 (SSO, MFA)
- Email: SendGrid (transactional)
- Monitoring: Datadog (APM, logs)

## Key Decisions

| Decision | Rationale |
|----------|-----------|
| PostgreSQL over MongoDB | Relational data, ACID needed |
| Redis for caching | Sub-ms latency required |
| Auth0 over custom | Reduce security risk |

## Scaling Strategy

### Current (MVP)
- Single region deployment
- 2 API instances behind ALB
- Single RDS instance

### Future (10x growth)
- Multi-region with CDN
- Auto-scaling API (2-10 instances)
- RDS read replicas

## Security Considerations
- All traffic over TLS 1.3
- JWT tokens with 15-min expiry
- Rate limiting: 100 req/min per user
- WAF for common attacks

## Failure Modes

| Failure | Impact | Mitigation |
|---------|--------|------------|
| DB down | Full outage | Multi-AZ failover |
| Cache down | Degraded perf | Fallback to DB |
| Auth down | No new logins | Cache valid tokens |

Quick Reference

Section Key Questions
Requirements What must it do? How well?
Architecture What components? How connected?
Decisions Why these choices?
Scaling How to grow?
Failures What can break? How to recover?

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 alert16d5 checks · Risk CRITICAL
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub16d

    The skill provides a framework for system architecture design and documentation. It contains no executable code, persistence mechanisms, or data exfiltration logic. The documentation link flagged by external scanners is a plain-text reference to the author's official project page on a well-known hosting service.

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    Risk: LOW · No issues

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    6 files scanned · No issues

  • ZeroLeaks5mo

    Score: 93/100 · 2 sections analyzed

Provenance

Signed by skilld at efebc44. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub 2 months ago.

Steadyupdated 5 months ago

Capability

Other metadata
metadata
{
  "author": "https://github.com/Jeffallan",
  "version": "1.1.1",
  "domain": "api-architecture",
  "triggers": "architecture, system design, design pattern, microservices, scalability, ADR, technical design, infrastructure",
  "role": "expert",
  "scope": "design",
  "output-format": "document",
  "related-skills": "fullstack-guardian, devops-engineer, secure-code-guardian, microservices-architect, code-reviewer"
}

Topics

  • Infrastructure
  • architecture
  • system-design
  • adr
  • microservices
  • scalability
  • design-patterns
  • distributed-systems

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What it does

Guides system architecture design by creating diagrams, writing Architecture Decision Records, and evaluating trade-offs across patterns like microservices versus monoliths. Targets high-level design decisions, scalability planning, and technology selection—not code-level design patterns or isolated database choices.

Generated from the current SKILL.md.

Frequently asked

Does this skill help with code-level design patterns or just system architecture?
This skill focuses on high-level system architecture, microservices structuring, and infrastructure patterns. It is distinct from code-level design patterns or database-only design tasks.
What output formats does this skill produce?
The skill generates requirements summaries, architecture diagrams in Mermaid format, Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) documenting trade-offs, technology recommendations with rationale, and risk mitigation strategies.
Can this skill help evaluate technology choices?
Yes. The skill evaluates trade-offs across alternative technologies, considers operational costs and complexity, and provides rationale for technology recommendations rather than selecting options in isolation.
Does this skill address non-functional requirements?
Yes. The skill explicitly considers non-functional requirements as part of the design process, includes an NFR checklist reference, and factors scalability, failure modes, and operational complexity into architecture decisions.

Generated from the current SKILL.md. These answers refresh after source changes.