Back to skills
SkillHub ClubAnalyze Data & AIFull StackBackendData / AI

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.

Packaged view

This page reorganizes the original catalog entry around fit, installability, and workflow context first. The original raw source lives below.

Stars
9,958
Hot score
99
Updated
March 20, 2026
Overall rating
C5.2
Composite score
5.2
Best-practice grade
B75.1

Install command

npx @skill-hub/cli install anthropics-knowledge-work-plugins-system-design

Repository

anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins

Skill path: engineering/skills/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.

Open repository

Best for

Primary workflow: Analyze Data & AI.

Technical facets: Full Stack, Backend, Data / AI, Designer.

Target audience: everyone.

License: Unknown.

Original source

Catalog source: SkillHub Club.

Repository owner: anthropics.

This is still a mirrored public skill entry. Review the repository before installing into production workflows.

What it helps with

  • Install system-design into Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, or OpenCode workflows
  • Review https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins before adding system-design to shared team environments
  • Use system-design for development workflows

Works across

Claude CodeCodex CLIGemini CLIOpenCode

Favorites: 0.

Sub-skills: 0.

Aggregator: No.

Original source / Raw SKILL.md

---
name: system-design
description: 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.
---

# System Design

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.
system-design | SkillHub