designer_skill

Overview

This skill transforms natural language application descriptions or repository contents into production-ready DigitalOcean App Platform specifications. It generates .do/app.yaml, an optional .do/deploy.template.yaml for public repos, and a .env.example to capture required environment variables. Use it to design multi-component architectures, monorepo layouts, and multi-environment setups quickly and consistently.

How this skill works

Provide a natural language brief or point this skill at a repository. It gathers requirements (framework, database, background jobs, routing) and decomposes the app into App Platform components: services, workers, jobs, static_sites, and databases. The skill applies opinionated defaults (instance size, health checks, regions, deploy-on-push), fills env var placeholders and ingress rules, and validates the resulting YAML against App Platform constraints.

When to use it

• Design a new app from a product description or architecture brief
• Create an app.spec from an existing repository (auto-detect language and Dockerfile)
• Add a Deploy to DigitalOcean button for a public GitHub repo
• Set up API + frontend routing and internal service URLs
• Generate environment-portable configs for local, Docker Compose, and App Platform

Best practices

• Decompose apps into clear components: services for HTTP, workers for background, jobs for scheduled tasks
• Bind services to process.env.PORT and avoid hardcoded URLs; use ${service.PRIVATE_URL} and bindable vars
• Prefer Dockerfile builds if present for maximum reproducibility; otherwise infer build from package files
• Start small: apps-s-1vcpu-1gb and single instance for development, use managed dev DBs by default
• Use health endpoints (/health or /healthz) and declare ingress.rules for explicit routing

Example use cases

• Turn a product brief — "React frontend + Node API + Postgres" — into a full .do/app.yaml with ingress and env mappings
• Scan a monorepo and produce separate components for /api, /worker, and /frontend with correct source_dir settings
• Add a deploy.template.yaml and README button so contributors can deploy the app to DigitalOcean with one click
• Generate .env.example with RUN_TIME and BUILD_TIME variable placeholders and bindable database references