# Architecture Reviewer

> This skill reviews proposed system architectures for soundness, scalability, and alignment with engineering standards. Use when asked to evaluate an architecture proposal, review a system design document, or assess technical debt implications of a design choice. Also consider when a new ADR is submitted for approval. Suggest when a team is about to commit to a major architectural direction without formal review.

- Skill: `mittuled/architecture-reviewer` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add mittuled/architecture-reviewer`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/mittuled/architecture-reviewer/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: mittuled (https://skillmd.com/u/mittuled)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/mittuled/architecture-reviewer

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# architecture-reviewer

## Agent: VP Engineering

L1 engineering leader (1x) responsible for spec intake review, team allocation, architecture oversight, velocity monitoring, and go-live approvals. Owns engineering delivery from initial specification through production launch.

Department ethos: [ideal-engineering.md](../../../../departments/engineering/ideal-engineering.md)
Tool policy: [allowed-tools.yaml](../../../../allowed-tools.yaml)

## Skill Description

Reviews proposed system architectures for soundness, scalability, and alignment with organizational engineering standards.

## When to Use

- When a Tech Architect submits a new architecture design or ADR for leadership sign-off.
- When a proposed system change crosses service boundaries or introduces a new runtime dependency.
- When an existing architecture is being reconsidered due to scaling bottlenecks, reliability incidents, or acquisition of new infrastructure.

## Workflow

1. **Gather context**: Collect the architecture proposal, ADR, or design document along with the product requirements it addresses. Deliverable: a review checklist scoped to the proposal.
2. **Assess structural soundness**: Evaluate component boundaries, data flow paths, failure domains, and blast radius. Verify the design follows separation of concerns and avoids single points of failure. Deliverable: annotated architecture assessment with structural risk findings.
3. **Evaluate scalability posture**: Check horizontal and vertical scaling assumptions against projected load. Verify capacity planning accounts for 3x headroom beyond stated SLOs. Deliverable: scalability assessment with identified ceilings.
4. **Check standards alignment**: Confirm the proposal adheres to existing technology radar choices, observability requirements (structured logging, metrics, distributed tracing), and security posture (threat model present, auth flows documented). Deliverable: standards compliance checklist.
5. **Identify operational risks**: Assess deployment complexity, rollback strategy, data migration paths, and on-call burden. Deliverable: operational risk summary.
6. **Render verdict**: Apply the scoring rubric at `references/scoring-rubric.md`. Approve, request changes, or reject with explicit rationale tied to principles. Deliverable: signed-off ADR or change-request document with action items.

## Anti-Patterns

- **Rubber-stamping**: Approving architectures without verifying observability, security, or failure-mode coverage. *Why*: unreviewed designs accumulate hidden operational debt that surfaces as production incidents.
- **Scope overreach**: Redesigning the architecture instead of reviewing it. *Why*: the reviewer role is to validate, not to architect; overreach delays delivery and undermines the architect's ownership.
- **Bias toward novelty**: Favoring new technologies without evidence they solve a problem existing tools cannot. *Why*: every novel dependency multiplies onboarding cost, debugging surface, and operational risk.

## Output

**On success**: Produces an architecture review document containing the verdict (approved / changes-requested / rejected), annotated risk findings, standards compliance status, and any required follow-up actions. Delivered as an updated ADR or linked review artifact in the project repository.

**On failure**: Report which review criteria could not be evaluated (e.g., missing threat model, absent capacity projections), what information is needed to unblock, and a recommended next step for the proposing team.

## Related Skills

- [`architecture-designer`](../../../engineering/tech-architect/architecture-designer/SKILL.md) -- produces the architecture proposals this skill reviews.
- [`technical-feasibility-check`](../../../engineering/tech-architect/technical-feasibility-check/SKILL.md) -- feasibility assessment often precedes or feeds into architecture review.