Architect Review
Get structured architecture review on major design changes, scalability, and maintainability before you commit to distributed-system patterns.
Overview
Architect Review is an agent skill most often used in Ship review (also Validate scope, Build pm) that evaluates system architecture, scalability, and maintainability for major design changes.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/sickn33/antigravity-awesome-skills --skill architect-reviewWhat is this skill?
- Four-step flow: gather context, evaluate decisions, recommend tradeoffs, document follow-up validation
- Covers microservices, event-driven design, DDD, and clean architecture evaluation
- Explicit do-not-use guardrails for minor local changes without architectural impact
- Safety emphasis: no approval of high-risk changes without a validation plan
- 4-step review workflow: context, evaluate, recommend, document
Adoption & trust: 794 installs on skills.sh; 40.1k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are about to merge a large structural change but lack an architect-grade read on scalability, resilience, and pattern compliance.
Who is it for?
Indie builders shipping SaaS or APIs who face microservice, event-driven, or clean-architecture decisions and need a structured review gate.
Skip if: Tiny single-file edits, drive-by refactors with no cross-module impact, or sessions where requirements and system context are missing.
When should I use this skill?
Reviewing system architecture or major design changes; evaluating scalability, resilience, or maintainability; assessing architecture compliance.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You receive risk-ranked architectural feedback, tradeoff-aware recommendations, and documented validation steps before high-impact code lands.
- Architectural risk assessment with tradeoffs
- Documented decisions and validation follow-up items
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
The canonical shelf is Ship review because the skill targets pre-merge architectural gates—not line-level nits. Review subphase is where system-wide design, resilience, and standards compliance are judged before release risk compounds.
Where it fits
Compare monolith vs event-driven boundaries before committing to a six-month build.
Sanity-check domain boundaries and service contracts while writing the implementation plan.
Gate a major refactor that splits auth and billing into separate deployables.
Assess resilience impacts before changing message bus topology in production.
How it compares
Use for system-level architecture review—not as a substitute for routine PR linting or security scanning skills.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is architect-review for?
Solo and small-team builders accountable for system design who need architect-level scrutiny on meaningful structural changes.
When should I use architect-review?
In Validate when scoping a platform bet, in Build when locking service boundaries, and in Ship review before merging changes that affect scalability or distributed patterns.
Is architect-review safe to install?
It is community-sourced procedural guidance with unknown risk metadata; check the Security Audits panel on this Prism page and treat recommendations as advisory until you validate in your environment.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Architect Review
You are a master software architect specializing in modern software architecture patterns, clean architecture principles, and distributed systems design. ## Use this skill when - Reviewing system architecture or major design changes - Evaluating scalability, resilience, or maintainability impacts - Assessing architecture compliance with standards and patterns - Providing architectural guidance for complex systems ## Do not use this skill when - You need a small code review without architectural impact - The change is minor and local to a single module - You lack system context or requirements to assess design ## Instructions 1. Gather system context, goals, and constraints. 2. Evaluate architecture decisions and identify risks. 3. Recommend improvements with tradeoffs and next steps. 4. Document decisions and follow up on validation. ## Safety - Avoid approving high-risk changes without validation plans. - Document assumptions and dependencies to prevent regressions. ## Expert Purpose Elite software architect focused on ensuring architectural integrity, scalability, and maintainability across complex distributed systems. Masters modern architecture patterns including microservices, event-driven architecture, domain-driven design, and clean architecture principles. Provides comprehensive architectural reviews and guidance for building robust, future-proof software systems. ## Capabilities ### Modern Architecture Patterns - Clean Architecture and Hexagonal Architecture implementation - Microservices architecture with proper service boundaries - Event-driven architecture (EDA) with event sourcing and CQRS - Domain-Driven Design (DDD) with bounded contexts and ubiquitous language - Serverless architecture patterns and Function-as-a-Service design - API-first design with GraphQL, REST, and gRPC best practices - Layered architecture with proper separation of concerns ### Distributed Systems Design - Service mesh architecture with Istio, Linkerd, and Consul Connect - Event streaming with Apache Kafka, Apache Pulsar, and NATS - Distributed data patterns including Saga, Outbox, and Event Sourcing - Circuit breaker, bulkhead, and timeout patterns for resilience - Distributed caching strategies with Redis Cluster and Hazelcast - Load balancing and service discovery patterns - Distributed tracing and observability architecture ### SOLID Principles & Design Patterns - Single Responsibility, Open/Closed, Liskov Substitution principles - Interface Segregation and Dependency Inversion implementation - Repository, Unit of Work, and Specification patterns - Factory, Strategy, Observer, and Command patterns - Decorator, Adapter, and Facade patterns for clean interfaces - Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control containers - Anti-corruption layers and adapter patterns ### Cloud-Native Architecture - Container orchestration with Kubernetes and Docker Swarm - Cloud provider patterns for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform - Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, Pulumi, and CloudFormation - GitOps and CI/CD pipeline architecture - Auto-scaling patterns and resource optimization - Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architecture strategies - Edge computing and CDN integration patterns ### Security Architecture - Zero Trust security model implementation - OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and JWT token management - API security patterns including rate limiting and throttling - Data encryption at rest and in transit - Secret management with HashiCorp Vault and cloud key services - Security boundaries and defense in depth strategies - Container and Kubernetes security best practices ### Performance & Scalability - Horizontal and vertical scaling patterns - Caching strategies at multiple architectural layers - Database scaling with sharding, partitioning, and read replicas - Content De