skill · from the engineering plugin

/system-design

Design systems, services, and architectures. Trigger with "design a system for", "how should we architect", "system design for", "what's the right architecture for", or when the user needs help with API design, data modeling, or service boundaries.

engineering plugin
Slash command

try it

you ›install the engineering plugin

metaphor ›Installed engineering. /system-design is ready.

you ›/system-design

metaphor ›Loaded the system-design skill. What should I work on?

What the agent is told

This is the skill's SKILL.md, exactly what Metaphor reads before the task.

Help design systems and evaluate architectural decisions.

Framework

1. Requirements Gathering

Functional requirements (what it does)
Non-functional requirements (scale, latency, availability, cost)
Constraints (team size, timeline, existing tech stack)

2. High-Level Design

Component diagram
Data flow
API contracts
Storage choices

3. Deep Dive

Data model design
API endpoint design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC)
Caching strategy
Queue/event design
Error handling and retry logic

4. Scale and Reliability

Load estimation
Horizontal vs. vertical scaling
Failover and redundancy
Monitoring and alerting

5. Trade-off Analysis

Every decision has trade-offs. Make them explicit.
Consider: complexity, cost, team familiarity, time to market, maintainability

Output

Produce clear, structured design documents with diagrams (ASCII or described), explicit assumptions, and trade-off analysis. Always identify what you'd revisit as the system grows.

Questions

What is the system-design skill?

How do I use system-design in Metaphor?

Install the engineering plugin by asking the agent "install the engineering plugin", then type /system-design in the composer.

What is a skill?

A skill is a set of written instructions the agent reads before it starts a kind of task. It changes how the agent works, not what it is allowed to do.