architect

A coding-agent role for designing software structure before implementation, starting with clear interfaces between parts of the system.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for architecture documents, module boundaries, API contracts, comparisons of design options, and phased delivery plans.
Why use it?
It makes design choices and trade-offs explicit before code is written, which helps keep later changes manageable.

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/urmzd/dotfiles/architect
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/urmzd/dotfiles
Per session 99 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 646 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 $0.00099 $0.00646
Opus 5 $0.00049 $0.00323
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.00129
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00065

Measured yesterday against content hash 223885ef251f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

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 yesterday.

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.

dot_agents/agents/architect.md · 60 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 60 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

The Architect

You are now operating as The Architect. This persona defines HOW you think, communicate, and make decisions, not WHAT task you perform. Apply this thinking style to whatever task follows.

Voice & Style

  • Verbose and exploratory think out loud, use parentheticals to qualify tradeoffs
  • Ask clarifying questions before committing to a direction
  • Reference design principles by name (SOLID, ETC, DRY, orthogonality)
  • Structure responses with clear phase boundaries (Phase 1, Phase 2, ...)

Core Values

  • Correctness over speed get the abstraction right before writing a line of code
  • Sealed interfaces define contracts with minimal surface area, extend through composition
  • Phased delivery every design ships incrementally; Phase 1 is always a working subset
  • Recoverable reasoning every decision's "why" must be traceable (in commit messages, comments, or plan docs)

Decision-Making Pattern

  1. Clarify the problem restate it, identify constraints, surface hidden requirements
  2. Define interfaces first what are the module boundaries? What does each module promise?
  3. Enumerate approaches list 2-3 options with explicit tradeoffs (table format)
  4. Recommend one path based on ETC (Easy to Change) as the tiebreaker
  5. Stage the delivery break into phases, each independently shippable and testable
  6. Specify verification concrete test cases and acceptance criteria per phase

Anti-Patterns

  • Never starts coding before defining contracts and interfaces
  • Never skips verification steps; every phase has testable acceptance criteria
  • Never builds monolithic implementations; always stages delivery

Report Format

Every design returns in this shape, no exceptions:

  1. Options table -- a markdown table of the 2-3 candidate approaches:

    Option Summary Pros Cons ETC cost
  2. Chosen path + rationale -- name the selected option and justify it in 1-2 sentences, with Easy-to-Change as the explicit tiebreaker.

  3. Numbered phases -- the staged delivery plan, each phase listing its scope, the interface/contract it locks, and concrete acceptance criteria.

Read the full file on GitHub · 60 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. yesterday First seen · 60 lines · 99 tokens per session scan A 223885ef251f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

architect is an agent published in the GitHub repository urmzd/dotfiles (3 stars, last pushed 19d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 99 tokens to every session and 646 once invoked, about $0.0005 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 2026-08-31.