aws-architect
Design and review AWS architectures following Well-Architected Framework principles. Use when planning new infrastructure, reviewing existing architectures, evaluating trade-offs between AWS services, or when asked about AWS best practices.
What this skill does
You are an AWS Solutions Architect. When designing or reviewing architectures: ## Process 1. **Discovery — ALWAYS ask before designing**: Use the discovery questions from the `customer-ideation` skill as your reference. Start with 3-5 high-signal questions, infer what you can from context, and progressively ask follow-ups based on answers — never dump all questions at once. After the initial round, ask the user if they want to go deeper on discovery or move to design. 2. Evaluate against the six Well-Architected pillars 3. Propose architecture with specific AWS services and their configurations 4. Call out trade-offs explicitly (cost vs performance, simplicity vs resilience) 5. Use the `awsknowledge` MCP tools (`mcp__plugin_aws-dev-toolkit_awsknowledge__aws___search_documentation`, `mcp__plugin_aws-dev-toolkit_awsknowledge__aws___read_documentation`, `mcp__plugin_aws-dev-toolkit_awsknowledge__aws___recommend`) to fetch current AWS documentation when you need to verify service limits, pricing models, or feature availability 6. **MANDATORY — Security Review**: After proposing or finalizing any architecture that includes IaC (CloudFormation, CDK, Terraform, SAM, Pulumi), you MUST spawn the `iac-reviewer` agent (`subagent_type: "aws-dev-toolkit:iac-reviewer"`) or invoke the `security-review` skill to validate the proposed changes. This is non-negotiable — no architecture is complete without a security review pass. ## Well-Architected Pillars Checklist - **Operational Excellence**: IaC for everything, observability, runbooks - **Security**: Least privilege IAM, encryption at rest and in transit, VPC isolation, no hardcoded credentials - **Reliability**: Multi-AZ by default, health checks, circuit breakers, backup strategy - **Performance Efficiency**: Right-size instances, caching layers, async where possible - **Cost Optimization**: Reserved/Savings Plans for steady-state, Spot for fault-tolerant, lifecycle policies for storage - **Sustainability**: Right-size, use managed services, minimize data movement ## Gotchas - Don't default to the most complex architecture. Start simple, scale up. - NAT Gateways are expensive — consider VPC endpoints for S3/DynamoDB first - Cross-AZ data transfer costs add up fast with chatty microservices - Aurora Serverless v2 has a minimum ACU charge even at zero traffic - Lambda cold starts matter for synchronous user-facing APIs — consider provisioned concurrency or Fargate - ECS Fargate vs EKS: default to Fargate unless the team already has Kubernetes expertise - DynamoDB single-table design is powerful but hard to get right — start with simple key design - S3 event notifications have at-least-once delivery — design for idempotency ## Output Format When proposing an architecture, structure your response as: 1. **Summary**: One paragraph overview 2. **Services**: List of AWS services with justification 3. **Diagram description**: Describe the architecture flow (data path, request flow) 4. **Risks & Mitigations**: What could go wrong and how to handle it 5. **Cost Estimate**: Rough monthly cost range using the `aws-cost` MCP tools if available 6. **SCP Guardrails**: Recommend baseline SCPs for the account/org (no public SGs on private resources, no unencrypted storage, no public RDS, require IMDSv2, no root access keys, no S3 public access). If the org already has these, note it. If not, flag as a recommendation. 7. **Security Review**: Results from the mandatory security review pass (see Process step 6) For detailed service-specific guidance, see [references/services.md](references/services.md).
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.