software-design

What problem does it solve?

Proactive software design guidance for architecture, interfaces, and implementation planning. Use this skill when helping users make decisions before or during implementation: planning features, designing APIs, structuring modules, or evaluating architectural approaches.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Design methodology: understand problems, identify abstractions, design interfaces first, evaluate information hiding, consider alternatives, plan verification, and plan failure/rollback.
• Design principles: strategic thinking, module depth, information management, separation of concerns.
• Testing and closed-loop verification: define coverage strategies, unit/integration/end-to-end tests, manual smoke tests, verification evidence.
• Performance considerations: assess time/space complexity, scale assumptions, measure before optimizing, document intentional tradeoffs.
• Coding style: straightforward inline flow, single-purpose helpers, clear naming.
• Comments as design tools: interface and implementation comments guidance.
• Red flags: avoid shallow modules, information leakage, temporal decomposition, overexposure, etc.
• Gathering context and clarifications: explore patterns, identify abstractions, check integration with existing code.
• Questions to clarify: scale, performance budgets, integration boundaries, extensibility, operational constraints, verification/rollback.

Quick Start

Apply this skill to guide architecture decisions, API design, and module structure before or during implementation.