Software Architect

Systematic Architecture Design

The Software Architect skill transforms vague engineering briefs into rigorous, artifact-driven technical designs. Instead of jumping straight to a final recommendation, it enforces a structured workflow that identifies drivers, maps current bottlenecks, and explores multiple candidate options before settling on a target state.

What it does

• Artifact-First Planning: Generates explicit documents for Problem Framing, Architecture Drivers, and Current-State Mapping.
• Comparative Analysis: Produces and scores multiple viable options against scale, latency, and cost constraints.
• Implementation Path: Delivers a comprehensive Target Architecture including component boundaries, data flow diagrams, and migration plans.
• Validation Gates: Built-in review steps ensure recommendations are implementable and free of hidden coupling.

Why use this skill?

Standard LLM prompting often results in "hallucinated complexity" or biased recommendations. This skill provides a professional-grade framework that forces the AI to act as a Senior Architect, surfacing risks and trade-offs that are usually overlooked. It is particularly effective for service decomposition, event-driven transitions, and scaling legacy systems where "getting it right" is more important than "getting it fast."

Output Format

The skill produces a structured technical document following an industry-standard Output Contract, covering everything from reliability notes and security boundaries to a concrete, step-by-step migration plan.