architect

Architect

On Codex, read the platform mapping, including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

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.

Start

Open a todolist with one entry per phase before starting.

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.

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.

Take the runners from the architect runners line in pstack-models.md, in place of the arena runners line. If the sheet or that line is missing, use the defaults in Models. Alias and rejected entries follow the runner rules in the arena skill's Phase A.

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.

Screen every candidate against references/design-red-flags.md before synthesis. Assume the next contributor is an agent that sees only the files it opened, copies the nearest example, and takes the shortest path that compiles. Prefer the design where a change that looks right from one file is right for the whole repo.

Compare viable candidates on interface depth. Prefer the design that hides more complexity behind a smaller, simpler public surface. A rich interface can keep call chains short by concentrating capability instead of scattering it across layers.

Arena returns one synthesized design package. The synthesis decision populates the rationale's "Synthesis decision" section.

Phase C: Agree (opt-in)

Default: proceed directly to implementation with the synthesized design. No human checkpoint.

Opt in to a checkpoint when the invoker explicitly asks: "/architect with checkpoint," "stop and show me before implementing," or similar. Then surface the synthesized design and pause for sign-off.

The synthesis can ship as its own commit either way, as the "scaffold first" mode of the foundational-thinking principle skill. Planned and scoped breakage during fill-in is fine, per the outcome-oriented-execution principle skill. For adversarial pressure on the design before implementing, run the interrogate skill on the synthesized sketch.

If the human pushes back on the shape (in a checkpoint or after the fact), treat that as Phase A evidence. Re-ground and re-run Phase B before writing more code.

Phase D: Implement against the sketch

Replace not implemented bodies with code, pseudocode with logic. The synthesized sketch is the contract.

Deviations from the sketch are signal worth surfacing, not friction to absorb silently. If a function needs a parameter the sketch didn't anticipate, ask whether the sketch was wrong, the requirement was missed, or the implementation is overreaching.

Before closing each implementation unit or handing its contract to the next worker, compare accepted deviations with the saved behavior contracts, interfaces, and responsibility assignments. Once the appropriate owner or review process accepts a change, update the affected parts of the existing sketch and rationale. Record the acceptance source there. A change from raising an error to returning a refusal must update the outcome contract before the next unit begins.

For a local deviation that leaves the shared contract intact, record the decision and why the design still holds; a local variable rename need not rewrite the architecture. Keep unaccepted changes and unresolved disagreements visible. Do not call the unit reconciled while the next worker would receive contradictory instructions, or edit the specification merely to justify what was implemented. Use the existing design artifact rather than a parallel record per unit. Repeated structural deviations still trigger Phase E.

Phase E: Scrap when the architecture is wrong

If implementation keeps producing friction the sketch can't absorb, throw the sketch out. Don't bolt fixes onto a wrong design, per the redesign-from-first-principles and fix-root-causes principle skills.

The signal is a pattern, not single instances. Tells:

• The same shape of workaround appearing repeatedly across unrelated code.
• Multiple unrelated edge cases that all need special-case branches.
• Types that need escape hatches (any, casts, optional fields always set in practice) to compile.
• The "we need a lock" reflex when the sketch said the state wasn't shared.
• Callers having to know the abstraction's internal rules to use it.
• Two or more independent Phase D deviations of the same shape across the implementation.

Use judgment. A few edge cases don't condemn an architecture. Some problems are legitimately complex. Complexity in the data is not complexity in the design.

When you scrap:

1. Re-run the how skill over what's been built.
2. Redesign as if the new constraints had been day-one assumptions, per redesign-from-first-principles.
3. Subtract before adding, per the subtract-before-you-add principle skill. The new sketch should be smaller than the old one before it grows.
4. Return to Phase B and re-run arena.

Outputs

The caller's usage is written first and the type sketch derived from it. One file with new types and signatures for small changes. Module map plus type definitions for larger work. The rationale ships alongside, shaped per references/rationale-template.md, including the usage sketch and the synthesis decision.

Models

Role defaults, stamped from plugins/pstack/models.json (edit there, rerun tools/generate.mjs). A matching role line in the pstack-models.md override sheet overrides each at runtime; /setup-pstack writes it and lists its path per runtime.

• architect runners: opus, fable, sonnet

Reasoning effort

A role value in the override sheet may name a reasoning effort after its model, as in opus @xhigh. Levels on Claude Code: low, medium, high, xhigh, max. Which ones apply depends on the model. A value without @ takes the sheet's default effort line, a level or session, and session when the sheet has no such line. session sets no effort, so the dispatch is the usual one. Strip the suffix before reading the model: inherit-parent or auto still omits model at every level, and a model name is passed as model. On Claude Code, a level picks the effort agent from the subagent_type you would otherwise use. pstack:poteto-agent becomes subagent_type: "pstack:poteto-agent-<level>". general-purpose, or no subagent_type, becomes subagent_type: "pstack:effort-<level>". The effort agents set only effort, so the model you pass still decides the model. On Codex, pass the level as spawn_agent's reasoning_effort and keep the usual instructions.