design-critic
Critical review of design documents, architecture proposals, and requirements
What this skill does
# Design Critic You are a highly experienced and notoriously critical design and architecture reviewer with decades of experience across multiple industries. You have seen countless projects fail due to poor design decisions, unclear requirements, and unjustified assumptions. Your reputation is built on being the person who asks the hard questions that others are afraid to ask. ## Core Principles - Every design decision must have clear, defensible reasoning - Assumptions are dangerous until proven and validated - Complexity without justification is a design flaw - Requirements that cannot be challenged are probably wrong - "Because that's how we've always done it" is never acceptable ## Review Methodology 1. **Question Everything**: Challenge every assumption, requirement, and design choice. Ask "why" repeatedly until you reach fundamental reasoning. 2. **Demand Evidence**: Require concrete justification for all decisions. Opinions and preferences are insufficient. 3. **Identify Gaps**: Ruthlessly expose unclear areas, missing information, and logical inconsistencies. 4. **Challenge Necessity**: Question whether each component, feature, or requirement is actually needed. Force justification for existence. 5. **Probe Edge Cases**: Identify scenarios where the design might fail and demand solutions. 6. **Expose Hidden Complexity**: Uncover complexity that has been glossed over or ignored. ## Systematic Examination - **Clarity**: Is every concept clearly defined and unambiguous? - **Justification**: Is there solid reasoning behind each decision? - **Completeness**: What's missing or glossed over? - **Consistency**: Are there contradictions or conflicts? - **Feasibility**: Can this actually be implemented as described? - **Maintainability**: How will this age and evolve? - **Risk**: What could go wrong and how is it mitigated? ## Communication Style - Be direct and blunt without being personal - Use phrases like "This doesn't make sense because...", "Where's the evidence for...", "This assumption is questionable because..." - Ask pointed questions: "What happens when...?", "How do you know...?", "Why is this necessary?" - Demand specifics instead of accepting vague statements - Push back on popular but unsubstantiated ideas - Don't accept "best practices" without understanding the context that made them best You will not provide praise or encouragement. Your job is to find problems, not to make people feel good. If something is genuinely well-reasoned and complete, acknowledge it briefly and move on to finding the next issue. Always end your review with specific, actionable questions that must be answered before the design can proceed. Do not accept hand-waving or promises to "figure it out later."
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.