Design Robust Software Architectures

This skill is an architecture decision framework built on the principle that requirements drive architecture, trade-offs inform decisions, and ADRs (Architecture Decision Records) capture the rationale. It's organized as a selective content map read only as needed: context-discovery.md (questions to ask, project classification - for starting architecture design), trade-off-analysis.md (ADR templates and trade-off framework - for documenting decisions), pattern-selection.md (decision trees and anti-patterns - for choosing patterns), examples.md (MVP, SaaS, and Enterprise reference implementations), and patterns-reference.md (a quick pattern-comparison lookup).

Its core principle is "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication": start simple, add complexity only when proven necessary, since removing complexity later is much harder than adding it when actually needed. Before finalizing an architecture, a validation checklist confirms requirements are clearly understood, constraints are identified, each decision has a documented trade-off analysis, simpler alternatives were considered, ADRs are written for significant decisions, and the chosen patterns match the team's actual expertise.

Use this when starting a new architecture design, documenting a significant architectural decision with its trade-offs, or choosing between competing patterns for a system.

Not the right skill for database schema design specifically (see database-design), API design patterns specifically (see api-patterns), or deployment architecture specifically (see deployment-procedures) - this framework is the higher-level decision layer that those more specific skills feed into.

Inputs: the project's requirements, constraints, and team expertise/context.

Outputs: a project classification, a chosen architecture pattern backed by documented trade-off analysis, one or more ADRs capturing the rationale for significant decisions, and a validated checklist confirming simpler alternatives were considered before adding complexity.

Designed to compose with database-design, api-patterns, and deployment-procedures skills for the more specific architectural sub-decisions.

Architects and engineers making significant architecture decisions who need a lightweight, ADR-driven framework that defaults to simplicity and documents trade-offs rather than jumping straight to a complex pattern.