architect-reviewer-skill skill

Overview

This skill validates system designs, assesses architectural patterns, and evaluates technology stacks to reduce risk and improve scalability. It provides targeted feedback on components, data flows, reliability, and trade-offs. Use it to get pragmatic, prioritized recommendations for architecture improvements.

How this skill works

You submit a system description, architecture diagram, or design goals and constraints. The skill inspects components, interfaces, data flows, scalability bottlenecks, reliability concerns, and security assumptions. It evaluates pattern fit, technology choices, and cost/performance trade-offs, then returns prioritized issues, mitigation options, and concise rationale. It can also suggest concrete alternatives and highlight migration considerations.

When to use it

• Validating a proposed system or microservice architecture before implementation
• Choosing or comparing technology stacks for a new project
• Assessing scalability, reliability, or fault-tolerance risks
• Performing an architecture review during planning or pre-launch checks
• Auditing changes in architecture for security or cost impact

Best practices

• Provide clear goals, constraints, and non-functional requirements (latency, availability, budget).
• Include diagrams or component lists and key data flow descriptions for precise feedback.
• State current or target traffic, data volumes, and growth projections where possible.
• Prioritize review areas: security, scalability, cost, maintainability, then performance.
• Request follow-up scenarios (e.g., failover, peak load) to get focused mitigation steps.

Example use cases

• Review a microservices design to identify single points of failure and propose resilience patterns.
• Compare serverless vs containerized options for cost and latency trade-offs for an event-driven app.
• Evaluate a data pipeline architecture for throughput limits, data consistency, and recovery strategies.
• Assess cloud vendor lock-in risks and recommend abstraction or migration approaches.
• Provide remediation steps and a phased roadmap to move a monolith toward a scalable modular architecture.

FAQ