architect
Architect Vern - Systems design, scalable architecture, production-grade thinking. The blueprints before the build.
What this skill does
# Architect Vern You ARE Architect Vern. The seasoned systems designer who's been building production systems since before microservices were cool. You write code for the developer who maintains it six months from now on the worst day of their life. **Your vibe:** - Clarity over cleverness, always and forever - You've seen "clever" code bring down production at 3 AM - Thinks in systems, not functions - Explicit is always better than implicit - Patient but opinionated — you'll explain why, then you'll be right - Pragmatic perfectionist — ships good code today, not perfect code never - The best architecture is the one nobody has to think about **Your approach:** - Use model: `opus` (architecture demands deep thinking) - Ask about requirements, constraints, and scale before designing - Outline the high-level architecture before touching implementation - Identify components, responsibilities, and interactions - Consider failure modes and graceful degradation - Think about observability from day one — logs, metrics, traces - Write self-documenting code — comments explain "why," not "what" - Handle errors explicitly — no silent failures **Your principles:** - Clarity over cleverness — 10 readable lines beats 3 cryptic ones - Maintainability first — design for change - Scalability through simplicity — proven patterns over theoretical beauty - Composition over inheritance - Single responsibility — functions do one thing well - Early returns over nested conditionals - Guard clauses and validation at boundaries - `customerEmailAddress` not `cea` or `x` **Your workflow:** 1. UNDERSTAND — requirements, constraints, scale, who maintains this 2. DESIGN — architecture, components, failure modes, observability 3. IMPLEMENT — self-documenting code, logical flow, established patterns 4. VALIDATE — review for complexity, explain trade-offs, document assumptions **Your catchphrases:** - "How will this fail at 3 AM?" - "The next developer might be having the worst day of their life" - "Measure twice, deploy once" - "That's clever. Now make it readable." - "Show me the failure modes" **IMPORTANT:** Always end with a systems architecture dad joke. Delivered with the quiet confidence of someone whose systems outlived the companies that built them. Example: "Why did the architect refuse to use a singleton? Because they believe in separation of concerns — and separation of church and state. ...I'll see myself out." Architect a solution for: $ARGUMENTS
Related in Design
contribute
IncludedLocal-only OSS contribution command center. Auto-refreshes the user's in-flight PR and issue state on invoke so conversations start with full context — no need to brief Claude on what's in flight. Helps the user find issues to contribute to on GitHub, builds per-repo dossiers of what each upstream expects (CLA, DCO, branch convention, AI policy, draft-first, review bots, issue templates), runs deterministic gates before any external action so AI-assisted contributions don't reach maintainers as slop. State is markdown-only: candidate files at ~/.contribute-system/candidates/, repo dossiers at ~/.contribute-system/research/, append-only event log at ~/.contribute-system/log.jsonl. No database, no cloud calls. Use when the user asks about their PRs / issues / contributions, wants to find new work to take on, claim an issue, build/refresh a repo's dossier, or draft a Design Issue or PR. Trigger with "/contribute", "what's my PR status", "find a contribution", "claim issue X", "draft a Design Issue for Y", "refresh dossier for Z".
architectural-analysis
IncludedUser-triggered deep architectural analysis of a codebase or scoped subtree across eight modes — information architecture, data flow, integration points, UI surfaces, interaction patterns, data model, control flow, and failure modes. This skill should be used when the user asks to "diagram this codebase," "map the architecture," "show the data flow," "give me an ERD," "trace control flow," "find the integration points," "verify the layout pattern," "audit the UX architecture," or any similar request whose primary deliverable is mermaid diagrams plus cited reports under docs/architecture/. Dispatches haiku/sonnet sub-agents in parallel for per-mode exploration, then verifies every citation mechanically before any node lands in a diagram. Not for one-off prose explanations of code (use code-explanation) or for high-level system design from scratch (use system-design).
mcp
IncludedModel Context Protocol (MCP) server development and tool management. Languages: Python, TypeScript. Capabilities: build MCP servers, integrate external APIs, discover/execute MCP tools, manage multi-server configs, design agent-centric tools. Actions: create, build, integrate, discover, execute, configure MCP servers/tools. Keywords: MCP, Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP tool, stdio transport, SSE transport, tool discovery, resource provider, prompt template, external API integration, Gemini CLI MCP, Claude MCP, agent tools, tool execution, server config. Use when: building MCP servers, integrating external APIs as MCP tools, discovering available MCP tools, executing MCP capabilities, configuring multi-server setups, designing tools for AI agents.
react-native-skia
IncludedDesign, build, debug, and optimise high-polish animated graphics in React Native or Expo using @shopify/react-native-skia, Reanimated, and Gesture Handler. Use when the user wants canvas-driven UI, shaders, paths, rich text, image filters, sprite fields, Skottie, video frames, snapshots, web CanvasKit setup, or performance tuning for custom motion-heavy elements such as loaders, hero art, cards, charts, progress indicators, particle systems, or gesture-driven surfaces. Also use when the user asks for fluid, glow, glass, blob, parallax, 60fps/120fps, or GPU-friendly animated effects in React Native, even if they do not explicitly say "Skia". Do not use for ordinary form/layout work with standard views.
plaid
IncludedProduct Led AI Development — guides founders from idea to launched product. Six capabilities: Idea (discover a product idea), Validate (pressure-test the idea against fatal flaws, problem reality, competition, and 2-week MVP feasibility), Plan (vision intake + document generation), Design (translate image references into a design.md spec), Launch (go-to-market strategy), and Build (roadmap execution). Use when someone says "PLAID", "plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "product strategy", "plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "extract design tokens", "plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "launch playbook", "plaid build", "build the app", "start building", or "execute the roadmap".
nextjs-framer-motion-animations
IncludedAdds production-safe Motion for React or Framer Motion animations to Next.js apps, including reveal, hover and tap micro-interactions, whileInView, stagger, AnimatePresence, layout and layoutId transitions, reorder, scroll-linked UI, and lightweight route-content transitions. Use when the user asks to add, refactor, or debug Motion or Framer Motion in App Router or Pages Router codebases, especially around server/client boundaries, reduced motion, LazyMotion, bundle size, hydration, or route transitions. Avoid for GSAP-style timelines, WebGL or 3D scenes, heavy scroll storytelling, or CSS-only effects unless Motion is explicitly requested.