Architect

---
name: architect
description: "Use when a non-trivial change needs types and module boundaries designed before code."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: jstack-maintainers
  source: michael-denyer/pstack-claude
  source-version: "0.9.30"
  source-commit: 45f768349a6d7d7e71509fee3f5bccfad54b3bad
  owner: software-factory
  risk: medium
  capabilities: jstack,multi-agent-workflow
---

# Architect

On Codex, Cursor, or another non-Claude runtime, read the [runtime mapping](../poteto-mode/references/harness-tools.md), including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

Design before implementing. 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. If implementation proves the sketch wrong, throw it out and redesign.

## 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.

Naming a file isn't grounding. Produce the traced model `how` prescribes. 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. Each candidate produces a design package shaped per `references/rationale-template.md`.

Use your configured architect runners (defaults in [Models](#models)).

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. Reject or revise shallow modules, information leakage, temporal decomposition, and pass-through methods.

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. The synthesis decision populates the rationale's "Synthesis decision" section.

## Phase C: Agree (opt-in)

Default: proceed directly to implementation with the synthesized design. No human checkpoint.

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 the sketch are signal worth surfacing, 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.

## 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 originate from the upstream `plugins/pstack/models.json`. Refresh them through `scripts/vendor_jstack.py` after reviewing the upstream change. A matching role line in `~/.claude/jstack-models.md` overrides each at runtime; see `/setup-jstack`.

- architect runners: `claude-opus-5`, `claude-fable-5-1`, `claude-sonnet-5`