| name | architect-review |
| description | Deep architectural review specialist — assesses system design changes, identifies anti-patterns, evaluates distributed systems compliance, and produces improvement recommendations. Use when reviewing architecture before implementation, assessing microservice boundaries, or evaluating event-driven system design. |
| argument-hint | [system, feature, or design doc to review] |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob |
| context | fork |
| metadata | {"triggers":"review architecture, architectural review, assess design, evaluate system design, microservice boundary, bounded context review, review service design, architecture compliance, scalability review, resilience review","related-skills":"architecture-design, architecture-decision-records, ddd-architect, plan-mode-review, threat-modeling","domain":"api-architecture","role":"architect","scope":"review","output-format":"assessment"} |
| last-reviewed | 2026-03-15 |
Iron Law: Never approve an architecture without evidence-based analysis; always provide concrete trade-offs with file:line references, not opinions.
Architect Review Skill
Elite architectural review specialist. Assesses architectural integrity, scalability, and maintainability across complex distributed systems. Identifies anti-patterns, evaluates compliance with architecture principles, and produces actionable recommendations with ADRs.
Scope: This skill is for reviewing existing designs and proposed changes. For designing new architecture, use architecture-design. For full DDD analysis, use ddd-architect. For 5-phase plan review, use plan-mode-review.
When to Use
- Reviewing system architecture or major design changes before implementation
- Evaluating scalability, resilience, or maintainability impact of a proposed change
- Assessing architecture compliance with Clean Architecture / Hexagonal / DDD / microservices principles
- Identifying architectural anti-patterns in existing code or design docs
- Reviewing distributed system design (Saga, Outbox, CQRS, event sourcing)
When NOT to Use
- Small code review without architectural impact → use
code-reviewer
- Designing new architecture from scratch → use
architecture-design
- 5-phase plan gate review → use
plan-mode-review
Review Process
- Gather context — Identify system goals, constraints, and current state
- Assess impact — Rate each concern: HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW
- Evaluate compliance — Check against SOLID, DDD, Clean Architecture, or distributed patterns as applicable
- Identify violations — Anti-patterns, missing resilience, security gaps, data architecture issues
- Recommend improvements — Specific refactoring suggestions with concrete next steps
- Document — Produce ADR for irreversible or significant decisions (delegate to
architecture-decision-records)
Output Format
## Architecture Review: [System/Feature Name]
### Context
[System goals, constraints, current state]
### Impact Assessment
| Area | Rating | Evidence |
|------|--------|----------|
| [concern] | HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW | [file:line or design element] |
### Pattern Compliance
✅ [What is correct]
❌ [Violations with specific evidence]
### Anti-Patterns Detected
- [Pattern name]: [Description] — [Concrete fix]
### Recommendations
1. [Specific action with implementation guidance]
### ADRs Required
- ADR-XXXX: [Title] — [Decision to document]
