Architect first

Skill aman-bhandari/claude-code-agent-skills-framework/.claude/skills/architect-first

Research scaffold for AI engineering with Claude Code. 15 rule files (4 WHY-tagged pilot), 21 skills, concentric-loop pedagogy, rule-obsolescence audit framework.

Install

npx -y skills add aman-bhandari/claude-code-agent-skills-framework --skill architect-first

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

0 stars0 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

What its author says it does

Copied from the file, not written here

Forces a planning phase before any code is written. Triggers on /architect or at the start of BUILD sessions. Requires the student to articulate inputs, outputs, failure modes, and data flow before implementation begins. Inspired by Copilot Plan Mode and production engineering practices.

SKILL.md

1.8 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Architect First -- Plan Before Code

No code gets written until the architecture is clear. If you can't explain the data flow, you're not ready to code.

Trigger

/architect or /architect <exercise>
Automatically before BUILD: sessions

Execution

Read the exercise to understand what's being built.
The student articulates the plan (not Claude):
- What are the inputs? (types, formats, edge cases)
- What are the outputs? (exact format, error states)
- What are the failure modes? (what can go wrong?)
- What's the data flow? (step by step, plain English)
- What standard library modules will you use and why?
Challenge the plan:
- "What happens when the input is empty?"
- "What happens at 10x scale?"
- "Where would you add logging?"
- "How would you test this?"
- "In a production data pipeline, how would this work?"
- "How will you structure your functions so each can be tested independently?"
Gate: Only after the student has a clear, challenged plan → "Go build it."

Rules

This skill is a gate, not a guide. The student articulates the plan.
Do NOT write pseudocode, code, or architecture diagrams.
The plan is in natural language only.
Ask "why" for every design decision.
The plan doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to exist.
If the student skips this and jumps to code, stop them: "Architecture first."

Production Patterns Reference

See PATTERNS.md for common architecture patterns to ask about during planning.