architect
Comprehensive system architecture design, review, and documentation with ADR creation
Best use case
architect is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.
Comprehensive system architecture design, review, and documentation with ADR creation
Teams using architect should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.
When to use this skill
- You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.
When not to use this skill
- You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
- You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.
Installation
Claude Code / Cursor / Codex
Manual Installation
- Download SKILL.md from GitHub
- Place it in
.claude/skills/architect/SKILL.mdinside your project - Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill
How architect Compares
| Feature / Agent | architect | Standard Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Support | Not specified | Limited / Varies |
| Context Awareness | High | Baseline |
| Installation Complexity | Unknown | N/A |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this skill do?
Comprehensive system architecture design, review, and documentation with ADR creation
Where can I find the source code?
You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.
SKILL.md Source
# Architecture Skill Router
You are routing architecture operations using the **10x-fullstack-engineer** agent for expert architectural guidance.
## Request Parsing
**Received**: `$ARGUMENTS`
Parse the first word to determine the operation:
- `design` → Read and execute `.claude/commands/architect/design.md`
- `review` → Read and execute `.claude/commands/architect/review.md`
- `adr` → Read and execute `.claude/commands/architect/adr.md`
- `assess` → Read and execute `.claude/commands/architect/assess.md`
**Base directory**: `/home/danie/projects/plugins/architect/open-plugins/plugins/10x-fullstack-engineer/commands/architect`
Pass all remaining arguments (after the operation name) to the selected operation file.
## Operation Overview
### design - Design New Architecture
Create comprehensive system architecture for new features or projects. Covers database, backend, frontend, and infrastructure layers with trade-off analysis and implementation phases.
**When to use**: New features, new projects, major architectural changes, greenfield development
**Typical parameters**: `requirements:"description" [scope:"area"] [constraints:"limitations"] [scale:"load"]`
### review - Review Existing Architecture
Analyze existing architecture for quality, security, performance, scalability, and maintainability issues. Provides scored assessment and actionable recommendations.
**When to use**: Architecture health checks, pre-production reviews, security audits, refactoring planning
**Typical parameters**: `[path:"directory"] [focus:"security|performance|scalability"] [depth:"shallow|deep"]`
### adr - Create Architectural Decision Record
Document significant architectural decisions with context, alternatives, and rationale in standard ADR format.
**When to use**: After major design decisions, technology selections, pattern adoptions, architectural pivots
**Typical parameters**: `decision:"what-was-decided" [context:"background"] [alternatives:"other-options"] [status:"proposed|accepted|superseded"]`
### assess - Architecture Health Assessment
Comprehensive assessment across technical debt, security, performance, scalability, maintainability, and cost dimensions with scoring and trend analysis.
**When to use**: Quarterly reviews, baseline establishment, improvement tracking, executive reporting
**Typical parameters**: `[scope:"system|service|component"] [focus:"dimension"] [baseline:"ADR-number|date"]`
## Usage Examples
**Example 1 - Design Real-Time Notification System**:
```
/architect design requirements:"real-time notification system with WebSockets, push notifications, and email delivery" scale:"10,000 concurrent users" constraints:"must integrate with existing REST API, AWS infrastructure"
```
**Example 2 - Review Security Architecture**:
```
/architect review focus:"security" depth:"deep"
```
**Example 3 - Document Microservices Decision**:
```
/architect adr decision:"migrate from monolith to microservices architecture" context:"scaling challenges and deployment bottlenecks" alternatives:"modular monolith, service-oriented architecture" status:"accepted"
```
**Example 4 - Assess Architecture Health**:
```
/architect assess scope:"system" baseline:"2024-Q3"
```
**Example 5 - Design Multi-Tenant SaaS**:
```
/architect design requirements:"multi-tenant SaaS platform with real-time collaboration, file storage, and analytics" scale:"enterprise-level, 100k+ users" constraints:"TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, horizontal scaling"
```
**Example 6 - Review Performance Architecture**:
```
/architect review path:"src/services" focus:"performance" depth:"deep"
```
**Example 7 - Document Database Selection**:
```
/architect adr decision:"use PostgreSQL with JSONB for flexible schema" context:"need relational integrity plus document flexibility" alternatives:"MongoDB, DynamoDB, MySQL" status:"accepted"
```
**Example 8 - Focused Tech Debt Assessment**:
```
/architect assess scope:"service" focus:"tech-debt"
```
## Error Handling
### Unknown Operation
If the first argument doesn't match `design`, `review`, `adr`, or `assess`:
```
Unknown operation: "{operation}"
Available operations:
- design Design new system architecture
- review Review existing architecture
- adr Create architectural decision record
- assess Assess architecture health
Example: /architect design requirements:"real-time notifications" scale:"10k users"
```
### Missing Operation
If no operation is specified:
```
No operation specified. Please provide an operation as the first argument.
Available operations:
- design Design new system architecture for features/projects
- review Review existing architecture for quality/security
- adr Create architectural decision records
- assess Assess architecture health with scoring
Examples:
/architect design requirements:"feature description" scale:"expected load"
/architect review focus:"security" depth:"deep"
/architect adr decision:"technology choice" alternatives:"other options"
/architect assess scope:"system" baseline:"previous assessment"
```
### Invalid Arguments Format
If arguments are malformed, guide the user:
```
Invalid arguments format. Each operation expects specific parameters.
Design operation format:
requirements:"description" [scope:"area"] [constraints:"limitations"] [scale:"load"]
Review operation format:
[path:"directory"] [focus:"security|performance|scalability"] [depth:"shallow|deep"]
ADR operation format:
decision:"what-was-decided" [context:"background"] [alternatives:"options"] [status:"proposed|accepted"]
Assess operation format:
[scope:"system|service|component"] [focus:"dimension"] [baseline:"reference"]
See /architect for examples.
```
## Agent Integration
All operations MUST invoke the **10x-fullstack-engineer** agent for:
- 15+ years of architectural expertise
- Pattern recognition and best practices
- Trade-off analysis and decision guidance
- Production system experience
- Technology stack recommendations
- Scalability and performance insights
- Security and reliability patterns
Ensure the agent receives complete context including:
- Current operation and parameters
- Relevant codebase information
- Existing architecture if available
- Business and technical constraints
- Scale and performance requirements
## Routing Process
1. **Parse** `$ARGUMENTS` to extract operation name
2. **Validate** operation is one of: design, review, adr, assess
3. **Construct** file path: `{base-directory}/{operation}.md`
4. **Read** the operation file contents
5. **Execute** instructions with remaining arguments
6. **Invoke** 10x-fullstack-engineer agent with full context
## Notes
- Sub-operation files have NO frontmatter (not directly invokable)
- Only this router skill.md is visible in slash command list
- All operations integrate with 10x-fullstack-engineer agent
- Scripts in .scripts/ provide utility functions
- ADRs are saved to `docs/adr/` directory by convention
- Architecture reviews produce scored assessments
- Design operations generate comprehensive documentationRelated Skills
specification-writing
Core reference for EARS requirement patterns, Given/When/Then acceptance criteria, RFC 2119 language, requirement ID conventions, and specification quality checklists. Background knowledge for the spec-writer agent. Preloaded by spec-writer via the skills frontmatter field; not user-invocable.
refine
Unified specification refinement plugin. Single entry point for all spec operations: greenfield architecture pipelines (principles → design → stack → spec → plan), feature spec creation in existing systems, iterative convergence loops, quality reviews, drift detection, finalization, ticket decomposition, traceable updates, and lifecycle archival. Detects pipeline state from existing artifact frontmatter and routes intelligently. Use whenever you need to create, refine, validate, or evolve a technical specification.
validation-orchestrator
Intelligent validation orchestrator with auto-detection and progressive validation workflows
security-scan
Comprehensive security scanning for secrets, vulnerabilities, and unsafe practices
schema-validation
Validate JSON schemas, required fields, and format compliance for marketplaces and plugins
quality-analysis
Deep quality analysis with scoring, recommendations, and actionable reports
documentation-validation
Validate documentation completeness, format, and quality for plugins and marketplaces
best-practices
Enforce OpenPlugins and Claude Code best practices for naming, versioning, and standards compliance
message-generation
Generate conventional commit messages following best practices
history-analysis
Analyze git history to learn project's commit style and conventions
commit-error-handling
Handle git errors and edge cases gracefully
commit-best-practices
Enforce git commit best practices and workflow guidance