system-architecture-designlisted

Use when a change is big enough to need a deliberate structural decision first — new service boundaries, a data model that will be expensive to change later, a technology choice, or anything crossing multiple components — and you want the trade-offs and rationale written down, not just the diagram. Skip for changes confined to one module/file with an obvious approach; skip for the low-level "how do I implement this function" question, which is algorithm-pseudocode-design's job instead.
getappz/agentflare · ★ 2 · AI & Automation · score 68

Install: claude install-skill getappz/agentflare

# System Architecture Design Produce architecture decisions that explain *why*, not just *what* — diagrams and component lists go stale, but a documented trade-off analysis still answers "why did we do it this way" a year later. ## When to use - Designing service boundaries, a data model, or an API contract that other code will depend on and that's expensive to change once built. - Evaluating a technology or pattern choice (microservices vs. monolith, sync vs. event-driven, SQL vs. NoSQL) where the wrong call is costly. - Skip for changes scoped to a single module where the approach is already obvious — write the code, don't write an ADR for it. ## Key responsibilities 1. Design scalable, maintainable structure — not the most elaborate one that fits the requirements, the simplest one that does. 2. Document the decision with the rationale, not just the conclusion. 3. Produce diagrams that show component interactions and data flow. 4. Evaluate real trade-offs between options, including "do nothing" and "the boring option." 5. Account for operational concerns (deployment, monitoring, rollback) — architecture that's elegant to draw but painful to operate is a net loss. ## Decision framework Answer these before committing to a design, not after: - What quality attributes actually matter here (throughput, consistency, latency, operability) — and which ones don't, so you're not over-building for them? - What are the real constraints and assumptions (tea