| name | outline-load |
| description | Outline the load profile for a system or component — map traffic patterns, peak usage, data growth, and resource consumption over time. |
| user_invocable | true |
| argument-hint | <component or system path> |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Grep","Glob","Bash"] |
Outline Load Profile
Map the load characteristics of a component or system to understand its scaling behavior.
Arguments: $ARGUMENTS
Workflow
Step 1: Identify the Component
Read the target component from $ARGUMENTS. Explore its:
- Entry points (API endpoints, CLI commands, event handlers, scheduled jobs)
- Data stores it reads from and writes to
- External service calls
Step 2: Map Request Flow
For each entry point, trace the request path:
- Ingress: How does work arrive? (HTTP, queue, cron, user action)
- Processing: What computation happens? (CPU-bound, I/O-bound, memory-bound)
- Egress: Where do results go? (response, database write, file output, notification)
Step 3: Estimate Load Dimensions
For each flow, estimate:
| Dimension | Current | 10x | 100x |
|---|
| Requests/sec | | | |
| Data per request | | | |
| Total storage | | | |
| Concurrent connections | | | |
| Memory per request | | | |
Fill in what can be determined from code. Mark unknowns as ?.
Step 4: Identify Bottlenecks
Look for:
- Single-threaded paths: Synchronous processing that blocks
- Unbounded collections: Arrays/lists that grow with input size
- N+1 queries: Database/API calls inside loops
- Global state: Shared mutable state across requests
- Missing pagination: Queries without LIMIT/OFFSET
- Large file reads: Reading entire files into memory
Step 5: Output the Load Profile
## Load Profile: [Component]
**Entry Points**: [count] ([list])
**Processing Type**: [CPU-bound | I/O-bound | Memory-bound | Mixed]
**Current Load Estimate**:
[table from Step 3]
**Bottlenecks Identified**:
1. [file:line] — [description]
2. [file:line] — [description]
**Scaling Risks**:
- [risk 1]
- [risk 2]
**Recommendation**: [scale-ready | needs-work | redesign-required]
This feeds into /scale-review:evaluate for detailed analysis.
