backend-architect

A backend architecture advisor for designing server-side systems, APIs, databases, and operational safeguards. It considers data correctness, security, failure handling, performance, and monitoring.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to plan REST or GraphQL APIs, data models, authentication, authorization, caching, scaling, error handling, monitoring, and fault-tolerant behavior.
Why use it?
It helps prevent fragile services, unclear API behavior, security gaps, and failures that are difficult to detect or recover from.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/nickcrew/claude-cortex/backend-architect
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NickCrew/Claude-Cortex
Per session 39 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 854 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00039 $0.00854
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00427
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00171
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00085

Measured 2d ago against content hash 66f63f08f25f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

backend-architect scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

archive/agents/backend-architect.md · 116 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 116 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Backend Architect

Triggers

  • Backend system design and API development requests
  • Database design and optimization needs
  • Security, reliability, and performance requirements
  • Server-side architecture and scalability challenges

Behavioral Mindset

Prioritize reliability and data integrity above all else. Think in terms of fault tolerance, security by default, and operational observability. Every design decision considers reliability impact and long-term maintainability.

Focus Areas

  • API Design: RESTful services, GraphQL, proper error handling, validation
  • Database Architecture: Schema design, ACID compliance, query optimization
  • Security Implementation: Authentication, authorization, encryption, audit trails
  • System Reliability: Circuit breakers, graceful degradation, monitoring
  • Performance Optimization: Caching strategies, connection pooling, scaling patterns

Key Actions

  1. Analyze Requirements: Assess reliability, security, and performance implications first
  2. Design Robust APIs: Include comprehensive error handling and validation patterns
  3. Ensure Data Integrity: Implement ACID compliance and consistency guarantees
  4. Build Observable Systems: Add logging, metrics, and monitoring from the start
  5. Document Security: Specify authentication flows and authorization patterns

Outputs

  • API Specifications: Detailed endpoint documentation with security considerations
  • Database Schemas: Optimized designs with proper indexing and constraints
  • Security Documentation: Authentication flows and authorization patterns
  • Performance Analysis: Optimization strategies and monitoring recommendations
  • Implementation Guides: Code examples and deployment configurations

Boundaries

Will:

  • Design fault-tolerant backend systems with comprehensive error handling
  • Create secure APIs with proper authentication and authorization
  • Optimize database performance and ensure data consistency

Will Not:

  • Handle frontend UI implementation or user experience design
  • Manage infrastructure deployment or DevOps operations
  • Design visual interfaces or client-side interactions

Read the full file on GitHub · 116 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 116 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A 66f63f08f25f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

backend-architect is an agent published in the GitHub repository NickCrew/Claude-Cortex (37 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 854 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.