architect

Files (5)

• SKILL.md
• openai.yaml · agents/
• design-red-flags.md · references/
• rationale-template.md · references/
• runner-prompt.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Architect

On Codex, read the [platform mapping](../poteto-mode/references/codex-tools.md), including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

In T3 Code or the claudep profile, read the [profile routing](../poteto-mode/references/claudep-routing.md) before dispatching any role; it overrides native dispatch examples below.

Sketch types, function signatures, class shapes, and module boundaries with `not implemented` bodies and pseudocode. Synthesize across multiple model perspectives, then fill in code against the chosen sketch.

## Start

Open a todolist with one entry per phase before starting.

1. Ground
2. Sketch
3. Agree
4. Implement
5. Scrap

## Phase A: Ground the problem

Build a real mental model of every system the new code touches. Run the **how** skill over the relevant subsystems.

For architecture work targeting recurring agent mistakes, use /correct to identify demonstrated failure classes and /recall where relevant history is missing.

Naming a file isn't grounding. Produce the traced model `how` prescribes. For each new field, job or module, cite the closest existing pattern in the codebase and reuse it, or state why it does not fit. If the design redefines ownership or layering, also run the **why** skill on the existing shape so the rationale becomes a constraint, not a guess.

Skip Phase A only when the work is genuinely greenfield with no surrounding system to integrate.

## Phase B: Sketch

Run the **arena** skill with the design-sketch task and the Phase A grounding artifacts. Pass `references/runner-prompt.md` as each runner's prompt.

Take the runners from the `architect runners` line in `pstack-models.md`, in place of the `arena runners` line. If the sheet or that line is missing, use the defaults in [Models](#models). Alias and rejected entries follow the runner rules in the **arena** skill's Phase A.

Design it twice. Require at least two structurally distinct candidates before synthesis, even when the first looks sufficient. This is the **exhaust-the-design-space** principle skill made concrete. Whole-shape alternatives, not point fixes inside one shape.

Screen every candidate against [`references/design-red-flags.md`](references/design-red-flags.md) before synthesis. Assume the next agent sees only opened files and copies the nearest compiling example. Reject or revise shallow modules, information leakage, temporal decomposition, pass-through methods, split ownership, competing paths, importable internals and hand-synchronized lists. Prefer a design where a locally reasonable edit preserves the whole repository's contracts.

Compare viable candidates on interface depth. Prefer the design that hides more complexity behind a smaller, simpler public surface. A rich interface can keep call chains short by concentrating capability instead of scattering it across layers.

Arena returns one synthesized design package. Its synthesis decision fills the rationale's "Synthesis decision" section.

## Phase C: Agree (opt-in)

Default: proceed to implementation with the synthesized design when implementation is authorized; planning-only requests stop at the design.

Resolve testable uncertainty through /prototype before presenting remaining tradeoffs, evidence and a recommendation.

Opt in to a checkpoint when the invoker explicitly asks: "/architect with checkpoint," "stop and show me before implementing," or similar. Then surface the synthesized design and pause for sign-off.

The synthesis can ship as its own commit either way, as the "scaffold first" mode of the **foundational-thinking** principle skill. Planned and scoped breakage during fill-in is fine, per the **outcome-oriented-execution** principle skill. For adversarial pressure on the design before implementing, run the **interrogate** skill on the synthesized sketch.

If the human pushes back on the shape (in a checkpoint or after the fact), treat that as Phase A evidence. Re-ground and re-run Phase B before writing more code.

## Phase D: Implement against the sketch

Replace `not implemented` bodies with code, pseudocode with logic. The synthesized sketch is the contract. Deviations from it are signal to surface, not friction to absorb silently. If a function needs a parameter the sketch didn't anticipate, ask whether the sketch was wrong, the requirement was missed, or the implementation is overreaching.

When an accepted change affects a contract or responsibility, update the existing sketch and rationale before another worker relies on them; record the acceptance source.

## Phase E: Scrap when the architecture is wrong

If implementation keeps producing friction the sketch can't absorb, throw the sketch out. Don't bolt fixes onto a wrong design, per the **redesign-from-first-principles** and **fix-root-causes** principle skills.

The signal is a *pattern*, not single instances. Tells:

- The same shape of workaround appearing repeatedly across unrelated code.
- Multiple unrelated edge cases that all need special-case branches.
- Types that need escape hatches (`any`, casts, optional fields always set in practice) to compile.
- The "we need a lock" reflex when the sketch said the state wasn't shared.
- Callers having to know the abstraction's internal rules to use it.
- Two or more independent Phase D deviations of the same shape across the implementation.

Use judgment. A few edge cases don't condemn an architecture. Some problems are legitimately complex. Complexity in the data is not complexity in the design.

When you scrap:

1. Re-run the **how** skill over what's been built.
2. Redesign as if the new constraints had been day-one assumptions, per redesign-from-first-principles.
3. Subtract before adding, per the **subtract-before-you-add** principle skill. The new sketch should be smaller than the old one before it grows.
4. Return to Phase B and re-run arena.

## Outputs

The caller's usage is written first and the type sketch derived from it. One file with new types and signatures for small changes. Module map plus type definitions for larger work. The rationale ships alongside, shaped per `references/rationale-template.md`, including the usage sketch and the synthesis decision.

## Models

Role defaults. A matching role line in the `pstack-models.md` override sheet overrides each at runtime; `/setup-pstack` writes it and lists its path per runtime.

- architect runners: `opus`, `fable`, `sonnet`

## Reasoning effort

A role value in the override sheet may name a reasoning effort after its model, as in `opus @xhigh`. Levels on Claude Code: `low`, `medium`, `high`, `xhigh`, `max`. Which ones apply depends on the model. A value without `@` takes the sheet's `default effort` line, a level or `session`, and `session` when the sheet has no such line. `session` sets no effort, so the dispatch is the usual one. Strip the suffix before reading the model: `inherit-parent` or `auto` still omits `model` at every level, and a model name is passed as `model`. On Claude Code, a level picks the effort agent from the `subagent_type` you would otherwise use. `poteto-agent` becomes `subagent_type: "poteto-agent-<level>"`. `general-purpose`, or no `subagent_type`, becomes `subagent_type: "effort-<level>"`. The effort agents set only `effort`, so the model you pass still decides the model. On Codex, pass the level as `spawn_agent`'s `reasoning_effort` and keep the usual instructions.

From AmitRockBear/pstack-t3code-claudex-port, MIT.

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