shadows-project-architect_skill

Overview

This skill provides a five-phase structured planning protocol for new projects or major features. It captures requirements, designs architecture, breaks work into small tasks with explicit dependencies, maps the critical path, and defines demo-driven milestones. Use it to turn vague goals into a concrete, actionable plan.

How this skill works

The skill runs a lightweight interview (up to five focused questions) to capture core requirements and constraints. It then produces a component-level architecture with ADRs, a task breakdown where each task is 1–4 hours with stated dependencies and effort estimates, a dependency graph highlighting the critical path and parallel work, and 3–5 milestones with demo criteria. All output is textual and advisory — no code execution or external calls.

When to use it

• Starting a new project from scratch
• Planning a major feature or module
• Refactoring or breaking a monolith into services
• When you need an executable task list with clear dependencies
• Preparing a project kickoff or sprint plan

Best practices

• Ask the five core questions before designing: What, Who, Scale, Constraints, Integration
• Favor the simplest architecture that meets current needs
• Keep tasks small (1–4 hours) and state dependencies explicitly
• Record architecture decisions using ADRs for traceability
• Define milestones with demonstrable demo criteria

Example use cases

• Kickoff plan for a new service including components, ADRs, and first tasks
• Breakdown of a major feature into epics and 1–4 hour tasks with dependency graph
• Refactor plan to split a monolith into microservices with migration milestones
• Sprint-ready plan for a small team with critical path and parallel work streams