# Architect Fast > Use when the user asks to architect-fast a change, run the light factory lane, or factory-build a small goal — a few files, roughly one sitting, at most ~3 parallel issues — into a specced plan with parallel builders, one builder-performed closing review-and-fix, and a single PR. Same loop shape as /architect with the per-issue grading machinery removed; for larger, riskier, or many-issue work use /architect instead. - Skill: `danmcinerney/architect-fast` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add danmcinerney/architect-fast` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/danmcinerney/architect-fast/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: danmcinerney (https://skillmd.com/u/danmcinerney) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/danmcinerney/architect-fast --- # Architect Fast You are the orchestrator for the light factory lane: `/architect`'s loop shape — spec, parallelizable issues, fresh isolated builders, one closing PR — with the per-issue grading machinery removed. Reuse `/architect`'s machinery by pointer, never by duplication: `skills/architect/dispatch.md` (`## Model alias table`, `## Builder block template`, `## Preflight and postflight dispatch`, `## Status display`) and `skills/architect/tracker.md` (`## Config`) govern models, dispatch, merges, status, and tracker modes, except where a substitution below names a deviation. Size ceiling: at most 3 builder issues and ~400 changed lines expected. If the honest decomposition needs more, stop and recommend `/architect` — a hard stop, human ruling, never silently absorbed. ## Rules kept Unchanged from `/architect`: the tracking issue is the coordination log; builders are fresh, worktree-isolated, and never commit; the orchestrator owns commits, merges, and closure; tier is set at decomposition, never moved by a failure; the timed-ruling protocol times every human question and no approval gate exists anywhere; execution-conflict checks are mandatory at PHASE 0; no silent fallback — every precondition, blocker, and substitution is recorded. ## Relaxed by design - No strategist subagents — no adversarial spec, decomposition, or final review. The orchestrator writes the spec itself and `to-issues` runs straight off it. - No frozen check files, no check-runner: issue-body acceptance criteria, builder-run tests, and the closing builder review carry the weight. - No watchdog script — a per-wave timed background sleep is the stall-fallback wake. - "Nobody grades their own work" (Hard Rules 3 and 4) is deliberately relaxed: the closing review is one fresh builder subagent that both reviews and fixes, with no check-runner over its work — the orchestrator's merge through postflight and the closing PR are the later eyes. Product docs land in integrate's docs pass, same as `/architect`. ## Procedure 1. **Ground.** Load `codebase-design` first and use its glossary exactly. Read authority docs in `/architect`'s order. Tracker preflight and the backend canary are unchanged (`skills/architect/tracker.md` `## Preflight per mode`). No ground script mid-run — its reconcile assumes checkrun evidence this lane never produces; read the ≤3-issue frontier from tracker state. `skills/architect/status.ps1|.sh` works unchanged; the manifest sets `lane: architect-fast` so status renders the light-lane graph. 2. **Intake.** No question batch; anything genuinely open becomes a timed ruling (`skills/architect/SKILL.md` `## Timed-ruling protocol`) recorded as an assumption. No adversarial spec review. Write the spec with `to-spec` on its exact template, one named substitution: `## Validation strategy` names this lane's gates — builder-run tests plus the closing builder review-and-fix — never the check-runner or closing review. Create the tracking issue and manifest; cut the factory branch. Append status breadcrumbs to `docs/runs//status-events.jsonl` with the same JSONL contract as `/architect`, using fast-lane stages where they differ: `publish`, `issues`, `dispatch-head`, `timed-wake`, and `closing-test`. 3. **Decompose.** `to-issues` cuts at most 3 tracer-bullet vertical-slice issues with a file-disjoint frontier and producer interface contracts, two named substitutions: an acceptance-criteria section replaces the check path, and the change-skeleton is optional. Above the ceiling, stop and recommend `/architect`. 4. **Factory loop.** Dispatch every ready issue as a fresh worktree-isolated builder — same agent def, preloads, model resolution, never-commit rule, PHASE-0 execution conflicts, raw-evidence reports (`skills/architect/dispatch.md` `## Builder block template`), one substitution: the frozen-checks section becomes acceptance criteria quoted from the issue body. At dispatch, record each job's dispatch-head SHA on its issue — the job's ffcheck target and postflight base (`freeze_sha` field, same semantics). Each wave arms one timed background sleep as the stall-fallback wake; on a fallback wake with jobs in flight, judge liveness from report growth directly. On DONE, merge through postflight (`skills/architect/dispatch.md` `## Preflight and postflight dispatch`). On BLOCKED, answer durably and respawn fresh. 5. **Closing test pass.** After all issues merge, run the full test suite over the merged factory branch and capture the raw output. 6. **Builder review.** Dispatch one fresh worktree-isolated builder with the run diff scope, the test-pass output, and `/architect`'s calibration wording: "Flag only gaps that affect correctness, the stated requirements, or documented project invariants -- cite file:line evidence for every finding. Do not report stylistic preferences." It reviews code correctness, cross-slice cohesion, and test stewardship; records its findings as one fix issue (orchestrator-filed where the sandbox has no tracker access); then fixes them in its worktree. The orchestrator merges through postflight and closes the issue — builders still never commit. This is the lane's only review; post the verdict plus diffstat on the tracking issue. 7. **Integrate.** Dispatch one subagent running the `integrate` stage skill (`skills/integrate/SKILL.md`) with the change-context digest; its first step is the docs pass. Standing ruling: the builder-review verdict is the recorded final-review substitute — integrate's "skipped by a recorded ruling" arm — and its graded-RUN verification set is empty by design; validator-suite verification still runs. The orchestrator rules on the result and posts the digest. Stage skills invoked explicitly: `codebase-design`, `to-spec`, `to-issues`, `integrate`. `frozen-checks`, `adversarial-review`, and `final-review` are intentionally not invoked in this lane. ## Substitutions | Reused contract | Fast-lane substitution | |---|---| | `to-spec`'s validation-strategy naming | Builder-run tests + the closing builder review-and-fix | | `to-issues`' per-issue check path | Acceptance-criteria section in the issue body | | `to-issues`' mandatory change-skeleton | Optional | | Builder template's frozen-checks section | Acceptance criteria quoted from the issue body | | Postflight's `freeze_sha` diff base | The job's recorded dispatch-head SHA | | Ground script's frontier line | Read from tracker state; no ground script mid-run | | Watchdog | One per-wave timed background sleep | | Final review | One fresh builder review-and-fix subagent fed the test-pass output; fixes merge through postflight | | Integrate's graded-RUN verification set | Empty by design; validator-suite verification still runs | ## Maintenance Re-read against each new model generation; the size ceiling and Rules kept are invariants, the rest is prunable. Re-run `docs/evals/trigger-prompts.md`. No feature ships without evidence in `DESIGN.md`.