solution-architect

Designs system architecture, API contracts, data models, and project scaffolds from business requirements.

1|Updated Jun 24, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/sundarshahi/drydock --skill solution-architect-sundarshahi
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: solution-architect
Source: https://github.com/sundarshahi/drydock/tree/main/skills/solution-architect
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/sundarshahi/drydock --skill solution-architect-sundarshahi

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? Turning a business idea into a concrete, production-grade system design requires many decisions — tech stack, architecture pattern, API contracts, data models, and compliance controls. This Skill derives the architecture from actual constraints (scale, team, budget, compliance) instead of picking a one-size-fits-all template. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Constraint-Driven Architecture: Runs a fitness function over scale, team size, budget, and compliance signals to derive the right pattern (monolith, modular monolith, or microservices), with ADRs documenting every major decision. - API & Data Contracts: Generates OpenAPI 3.1 specs with reusable RFC 9457 Problem errors, Idempotency-Key headers, cursor pagination, plus ERDs, SQL migrations, and a performance-budget.yaml consumed by downstream skills. - Project Scaffolding: Produces a project-root scaffold with services, shared libs, Dockerfiles, docker-compose, and Makefiles with production defaults. - Use Case: Describe a SaaS product with expected users and budget; the Skill interviews you at your chosen autonomy level, then emits ADRs, C4 diagrams, validated OpenAPI specs, migrations, and a runnable scaffold. ## Quick Start Ask the solution-architect skill to design the architecture for a dog-walker booking SaaS with auth, payments, and a dashboard for about 10K users.

Frequently Asked Questions about solution-architect

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I choose between a monolith and microservices architecture?▼

The Skill derives the pattern from a fitness function: under 1K users with 1-3 people gets a monolith or modular monolith, 1K-100K users gets a modular monolith with a service extraction plan, and 100K+ users with 15+ people gets microservices. Scale, team, and budget determine the answer, not preference.

How to design API contracts with OpenAPI for a new system?▼

It generates OpenAPI 3.1 specs with a reusable RFC 9457 Problem error schema, an Idempotency-Key header on all unsafe POST/PATCH operations, and cursor-based pagination on list endpoints. Specs must pass structural validation and Spectral lint with zero errors before handoff.

Does the architecture design account for GDPR or HIPAA compliance?▼

Yes. A deterministic product-signals-to-frameworks map scopes regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC2, and FedRAMP, then designs concrete controls into the architecture: audit logging, encryption at rest and in transit, RBAC, retention, data residency, and consent capture.

Can it design architecture for an existing brownfield codebase?▼

Yes. In brownfield mode it reads the existing codebase context first, designs around current patterns and tech stack, documents existing decisions in ADRs, and keeps new API contracts backward-compatible rather than replacing what works.

What are the limitations of template-based architecture generation?▼

This Skill explicitly avoids templates because identical architectures fail across different budgets and scales. It warns against over-engineering, such as Kubernetes for under 1K users or designing for 10M users when there are 100, and targets current scale plus 10x growth.