authoring-architecture-doc — SKILL.md

Variant: standard · When to use: producing a whole-system architecture document from an approved PRD, to a quality bar a new engineer can grasp the system from and a feature's technical-design can be placed within.

Overview

This skill is the how-to of writing a strong, whole-system architecture document — the judgment a producer applies, not the section list. It assumes three collaborators: an architecture-doc template tool that supplies the section structure, an ADR template tool that supplies the standalone decision-record shape, and a deep-research capability to ground each choice in evidence and established practice. The producer is handed the approved PRD + product direction (the scope, the personas, the non-functional targets) and elaborates it — never generic boilerplate. The altitude is the whole system: the components, topology, boundaries, tech, and NFR realization the entire system is built on. The bar to clear: a new engineer grasps the structure and the why of its major decisions, and a feature's technical-design can locate itself within it.

When to activate

• Authoring a new architecture doc for a system or product from an approved PRD.
• Expanding a thin product direction into a whole-system architecture (sized to the product).
• Filling an architecture-doc template with researched, decision-complete content, recording the key decisions as linked ADR files.

Do NOT activate when: