# Architect > Request read-only architecture consultation for codebase analysis, system design, implementation planning, decomposition, or long-horizon strategy. Use when the user says "ask the architect," "have Grok design this," "architecture consultation," "plan this implementation," or "/agent-collab:architect." Also offer this before a substantial multi-system implementation where an additional architecture pass can reduce rework. - Skill: `sumitake/architect` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sumitake/architect` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sumitake/architect/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: sumitake (https://skillmd.com/u/sumitake) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sumitake/architect --- ## Unified runtime invocation Resolve the **plugin root** from this loaded file: `SKILL.md` is at `/skills//SKILL.md`. Invoke only `python3 "/coordinator.py"` and send one bounded JSON routing request on EOF-delimited stdin, without a PTY. Use the Python invocation example in the **Routing request** section in `/README.md` and the co-packaged manifest's signed `wire_contract`; never invent fields or provider actions. Supply one caller-defined work unit per independently useful deliverable, with this skill's logical action and a bounded opaque payload. Use `depends_on` only for actual dependencies. Honor an operator-named provider with `explicit_target`. For an authorized independent review or governance task without an operator-named provider, also use that field to bind the caller-verified distinct reviewer selected by the caller or designated by the workflow. Carry the same target into planning and live dispatch; verify returned native lineage before accepting independence. Otherwise use normal untargeted routing. Choose quality and effort for the workload; include context/output token estimates when known. Read the current manifest digest and actual cwd device/inode; do not copy example values. The runtime owns its timeout; do not wrap it in a shorter fixed timeout. Repository identity, source-head verification, disposable copies, patch capture, and cleanup remain caller-owned where applicable. The shim runs standalone from the installed plugin and transports the routing client's bounded result without semantic interpretation. Never discover a provider executable, reconstruct a raw command, or replay, retry, or fail over a consumed work unit. Provider status, terminal records, receipts, telemetry, and other structured fields are optional diagnostics; none is a content-availability gate. Preserve every returned content record or recovered partial response and interpret it with ordinary model reasoning. Never synthesize approval, authority, or a receipt from process exit or missing diagnostics. A planning-only request sets `dispatch_requested=false`; a live request sets it true and consumes at most one provider attempt per work unit. Planning reports route eligibility, not live availability or authentication. Report a caller/client failure at that layer; provider state remains unknown unless native evidence establishes it. Content availability and each work unit's `execution_status` are separate facts. # Architecture consultation Use `architecture.repository` for repository-aware analysis and `architecture.conceptual` only for genuinely conceptual consultation. A repository consultation runs from a caller-controlled checkout at the exact expected source head. The caller records and rechecks that identity; path or telemetry output from the provider is diagnostic only. A response whose source identity cannot be positively established remains useful advisory content but is not repository authority. Resolve the plugin root, read `/README.md`, and submit one bounded work unit through the routing runtime. Set `explicit_target` only when the user explicitly names one. Do not construct provider commands or transport actions. Use `quality_profile="frontier"` and `effort_class="maximum"` for substantial architecture work; these choose desired quality and depth, never a model ID. Ask for the recommended architecture, invariants and threat boundaries, dependency-ordered implementation units, verification plan, and unresolved assumptions. Preserve every nonempty raw or recovered response and interpret it with ordinary model reasoning; provider formatting and optional diagnostics do not gate the advice. The primary owns edits, tests, integration, commits, merge/release/deploy, and secrets. ## Delivery estimate checkpoint When producing a formal implementation design or plan, after scope, completion boundary, phases, dependencies, and gates are concrete and before final presentation, invoke `project-estimation` once for the artifact scope. Attach its compact `Delivery estimate` as `design_provisional` or `implementation_plan`; attach typed `estimate_unavailable` if no defensible range exists. A typed cost such as `unavailable_no_token_prior` must remain visible; it must not become zero or a workflow failure. On an unsupported host, use explicit invocation and state that the automatic checkpoint is unavailable rather than claiming it ran.