Immediate result: An ADR with context, options considered, the decision and its consequences, ready to commit.
Problem it solvesBig technical decisions get made in meetings and forgotten, so the team re-argues them a year later.
Choosing a queue: Redis streams vs RabbitMQ vs SQS for 2k jobs/min, team of 4, on AWS
Decision: Amazon SQS.
Why: managed, scales past 2k/min, the team already runs on AWS.
Harder: local development needs LocalStack. Revisit if we leave AWS.
Big technical decisions made in meetings are forgotten within a year and argued all over again. This skill records them as an architecture decision record in Michael Nygard's format: the context and constraints, the options compared on the criteria that matter, the decision and its main reason, and the consequences — what becomes easier, what becomes harder and when to revisit. Numbers you haven't measured are marked as estimates. Commit the record next to the code and future engineers, including you, will know why the system looks the way it does.
# Skill: Architecture decision record
You are running the "Architecture decision record" skill for me. I work as: Tech lead / architect. What I need from you: an ADR with context, options considered, the decision and its consequences, ready to commit.
## When I send you the decision I'm making, the options I considered and the constraints (team, budget, scale, deadline)
1. State the problem and constraints.
2. Compare options on the criteria that matter for this decision.
3. Record the decision and the main reason.
4. List consequences: what gets easier, what gets harder, when to revisit.
## Reply in this format
- Title and status
- Context
- Options table
- Decision
- Consequences
- Revisit when
## Rules
- Follow the Michael Nygard ADR format.
- Don't invent benchmarks; mark numbers as estimates.
- Use only the facts I give you; mark anything you had to assume with [ASSUMPTION].
- If something essential is missing, ask me one short question, then continue.
- No preamble or filler: start with the result.
Confirm you're ready in one line, then wait for me to send the decision I'm making, the options I considered and the constraints (team, budget, scale, deadline).Then sendThe decision you're making, the options you considered and the constraints (team, budget, scale, deadline). For example: Choosing a queue: Redis streams vs RabbitMQ vs SQS for 2k jobs/min, team of 4, on AWS
Upload it to Claude, add it to ChatGPT's Codex app, clone it into Claude Code, or download the SKILL.md for any agent. Full guide with screenshots →
Download the ZIP and upload it in Claude. Claude then uses the skill on its own whenever a request matches.
Download ZIP
OpenAI's Codex app reads the same SKILL.md format. Copy the skill into your Codex skills folder:
$ git -c http.version=HTTP/1.1 clone https://scienceofapps.com/skills/ai-skills.git
$ cp -r ai-skills/architecture-decision-record ~/.codex/skills/
Clone the library and copy this skill into your Claude Code skills folder.
$ git -c http.version=HTTP/1.1 clone https://scienceofapps.com/skills/ai-skills.git
$ cp -r ai-skills/architecture-decision-record ~/.claude/skills/~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ inside one project.Download the skill file and put it in a folder named after the skill.
Download SKILL.md~/.claude/skills/architecture-decision-record/SKILL.md.Repositoryscienceofapps.com/skills/ai-skills.git · all 200 skills, one folder each, plain git over HTTPS
Big technical decisions get made in meetings and forgotten, so the team re-argues them a year later. The skill fixes that: an ADR with context, options considered, the decision and its consequences, ready to commit.
Copy the skill and paste it as the first message of a new chat, then send your input. To keep it, paste it into a ChatGPT Project or custom GPT, a Claude Project or a Gemini Gem, or upload the SKILL.md file as a Claude Skill.
Send the decision you're making, the options you considered and the constraints (team, budget, scale, deadline). If something essential is missing, the skill asks you one short question and then continues.
Yes. It's free to copy, use and adapt, with no sign-up, and works in the free versions of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot.
ProblemThousands of log lines hide the one pattern that explains the outage.
500 lines of nginx + app logs from 09:00–09:20
upstream timed out (110) — 212 lines, first 09:04:11
DB pool exhausted — 198 lines, first 09:04:09 (2 s earlier)
Likely culprit: database, not nginx. Next: check slow query log 09:03–09:05.
Immediate resultGrouped error patterns with counts, first-seen times and the most likely culprit.
ProblemTurning a product spec into tickets takes a planning meeting and still misses edge cases.
Spec: users can export their invoices as CSV from the billing page
T1 Backend — GET /invoices/export.csv streams rows (M)
T2 Frontend — Export button with loading state; depends on T1 (S)
Open question: date range filter in v1, or all invoices?
Immediate resultA list of small engineering tasks with acceptance criteria, dependencies and rough sizes.
ProblemVague prompts to coding agents (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot) produce code that misses the point.
Add dark mode to our React app; don't touch the charts library
Goal: user-selectable dark theme, saved per user, default follows the OS.
Out of scope: src/charts/** (do not edit).
Done when: toggling theme updates all pages; contrast ≥ 4.5:1; existing tests pass.
Immediate resultA precise brief for an AI coding agent: goal, files, constraints, acceptance tests and what not to touch.
All 20 software engineering skillsAll 200 skillsRead it in the articleProve it: AI for Software Developers Certification (free test)
60 research-backed principles in 6 categories — what each one means, why it works on the human brain and how to use it on your own screens. Written by Sushant Singh, founder of Science of Apps, who has scaled consumer apps to lacs of users and spent 10+ years leading product across startups and digital businesses in the US, EU & India.
110 real paywalls from top apps, taken apart, rated out of 5 and decoded with the Laws of UX — plus the frameworks, copy and checklists to ship your own. By Sushant Singh, founder of Science of Apps.