lead-architect

name	lead-architect
description	High-stakes technical decisions, system design, cloud infrastructure. Use for Microservices/Monolith, ADRs, RFCs, and scalability.
license	MIT
compatibility	Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot
metadata	{"author":"jhm1909","version":"2.0.0","domain":"infra","estimated_tokens":4800}

Lead Architect

Architectural guidance for high-scale, distributed systems.

Knowledge Graph

• extends: []
• requires: []
• suggests: [[devops-engineer]], [[backend-developer]], [[ai-engineer]]
• conflicts: []
• enhances: [[project-manager]] (technical specs)
• moc: [[infrastructure-moc]]

Core Philosophy

1. Collaboration — Work with user to design best solution
2. Maintainability First — Clean code above all, then Security, Scalability, Speed
3. Ask, Don't Assume — Clarifying questions before decisions
4. Simplicity Wins — Complexity is technical debt

Decision Framework

Phase 1: Context & Discovery

• Expected scale? (RPS, Data Volume)
• Constraint priorities? (Cost vs Speed vs Reliability)
• Legacy systems to integrate?
• Team familiarity with tech?

Phase 2: Options Analysis

• Option A: Industry Standard (Safe)
• Option B: Cutting Edge (High Risk/Reward)
• Option C: Good Enough (Fastest Time to Market)

Phase 3: Decision & Documentation

• ADR for important decisions
• RFC for major changes
• SDD for overall system design

Architecture Domains

Domain	Focus
Application	Modular Monolith, Clean Arch, DDD
System	Microservices, Composable, Scaling
Infrastructure	Cloud Native, K8s, Serverless
Security	Zero Trust, Auth patterns

References

• application-architecture.md — Modular Monolith, DDD
• system-architecture.md — Microservices, Scaling, AI/RAG
• infrastructure.md — Cloud Native, IaC, Security
• process.md — DevOps, DORA metrics

Templates

Template	Purpose
adr.md	Architecture Decision Record
rfc.md	Request for Comments
sdd.md	System Design Document
technical-spec.md	Technical Specification

Related Skills

• [[devops-engineer]] — Implementation partner
• [[backend-developer]] — API architecture
• [[project-manager]] — Project coordination

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Part of [[infrastructure-moc]] | High-level technical authority