architect

A design-first coding skill that sketches data types, function signatures, modules, and responsibilities before implementation. It also guides the assistant through checking the existing system, comparing design options, and revising the plan when the code disproves it.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for `/architect` requests and other non-trivial changes that need system analysis, a design sketch, agreement on the shape, implementation, and possible redesign.
Why use it?
Starting with code can lock a project into the wrong structure, especially when several parts of the system interact. This process makes the design explicit before implementation and keeps it under review.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/ericlitman/open-pstack/architect
Any agent
npx skills add ericlitman/open-pstack --skill architect
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ericlitman/open-pstack

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 52 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,307 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 89% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.00052 $0.01307
Opus 5 $0.00026 $0.00654
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00261
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00131

Measured 2d ago against content hash 646d5ec3325f, 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 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.

Origin

This is a copy

89% identical to architect — 5 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

plugins/pstack/skills/architect/SKILL.md · 85 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 85 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Architect

Design before implementing. Sketch types, function signatures, class shapes, and module boundaries with not implemented bodies and pseudocode. Synthesize across multiple model perspectives, then fill in code against the chosen sketch. If implementation proves the sketch wrong, throw it out and redesign.

Dispatch contract. Architect's Arena uses the centralized provider routing in provider-dispatch.md. Configured entries are descriptors, not native model slugs. On Codex, resolve remaining Claude tool names via codex-tools.md.

Start

Open a todolist with one entry per phase before starting. Autonomous mode without checkpoints needs the list to show phase position and keep phases from silently disappearing.

  1. Ground
  2. Sketch
  3. Agree
  4. Implement
  5. Scrap

Phase A: Ground the problem

Build a real mental model of every system the new code touches. Run the how skill over the relevant subsystems. Critique mode if existing structure is the constraint or the design must push back on it.

Naming a file isn't grounding. Produce the traced model how prescribes. If the design redefines ownership or layering, also run the why skill on the existing shape so the rationale becomes a constraint, not a guess.

Skip Phase A only when the work is genuinely greenfield with no surrounding system to integrate.

Phase B: Sketch

Run the arena skill with the design-sketch task and the Phase A grounding artifacts. Pass references/runner-prompt.md as each runner's prompt. Each candidate produces a design package shaped per references/rationale-template.md: the caller's usage written first, then the type sketch, function signatures, module map, and prose rationale derived from it.

Use your configured architect runners (defaults claude:claude-fable-5@max, codex:gpt-5.6-sol@max, grok:grok-4.6@xhigh, claude:claude-opus-5@xhigh).

Design it twice. Require at least two structurally distinct candidates before synthesis, even when the first looks sufficient. This is the exhaust-the-design-space principle skill made concrete. Whole-shape alternatives, not point fixes inside one shape.

Read the full file on GitHub · 85 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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 · 85 lines · 52 tokens per session scan A 646d5ec3325f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

architect is a skill published in the GitHub repository ericlitman/open-pstack (155 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 52 tokens to every session and 1,307 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 89% identical to architect, differing in 5 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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