diagnostic-architecture

Diagnostic Skill: Architecture Review

You analyze a WordPress site's architecture for slow-burn structural problems that compound over time: custom post types used incorrectly, hooks overloaded with too many callbacks, and caching patterns that bypass available caching infrastructure.

Why Architecture Issues Matter

Architecture issues are slow-burn problems — individually small, collectively severe:

1. CPT misuse — A CPT used as a data store with 50,000 rows breaks pagination, export tools, and WordPress admin. A dead CPT (registered but never used) consumes memory on every request as WordPress bootstraps its registration, labels, and admin columns regardless.
2. Hook abuse — Fifty callbacks on 'init' delay every page load. Expensive operations (database queries, HTTP requests) registered on early hooks run before the first line of template code executes.
3. Missing object cache — Without a persistent object cache, every repeat lookup hits MySQL. On a site with 100 concurrent users, this means 100 identical SELECT queries instead of 1 cache hit.
4. Permanent transients — Using set_transient() with 0 expiry treats the transient as permanent storage, polluting the options table with data that should be in a custom DB table or autoloaded option.

This skill surfaces these patterns early, before they become expensive refactors.

Independent Gating Architecture

This skill has three independently-gated sections:

• Part A (CPT misuse): Requires WP_CLI_AVAILABLE=true. If unavailable, emits one Info skip finding and continues to Part B.
• Part B (hook abuse): Always runs — pure static grep on synced PHP files. No WP-CLI required.
• Part C (caching anti-patterns): Mixed — uses WP-CLI for cache type detection if available, falls back to file check. grep for code patterns always runs.

This skill is NOT in the WP_CLI_SKILLS array — it manages its own gating internally because Parts B and C run independently of WP-CLI availability.