System Design
ninehills/skills
Design scalable distributed systems using structured approaches for load balancing, caching, database scaling, and message queues.
Select infrastructure components by the constraint each removes: load balancers, caches and invalidation, queues and pub/sub, CDN, API gateway, rate limiting, consistent hashing.
Install System Design Building Blocks
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-building-blocks --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks .claude/skills/system-design-building-blocks && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.
Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/
Install the "system-design-building-blocks" agent skill from https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks into .claude/skills/system-design-building-blocks/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design-building-blocks", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocksType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-building-blocks --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks .agents/skills/system-design-building-blocks && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "system-design-building-blocks" agent skill from https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks into .agents/skills/system-design-building-blocks/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design-building-blocks", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-building-blocks --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks .cursor/skills/system-design-building-blocks && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "system-design-building-blocks" agent skill from https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks into .cursor/skills/system-design-building-blocks/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design-building-blocks", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git --path skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-building-blocks --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks .gemini/skills/system-design-building-blocks && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "system-design-building-blocks" agent skill from https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks into .gemini/skills/system-design-building-blocks/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design-building-blocks", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-building-blocksInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks .github/skills/system-design-building-blocks && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "system-design-building-blocks" agent skill from https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks into .github/skills/system-design-building-blocks/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design-building-blocks", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-building-blocks --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks .opencode/skills/system-design-building-blocks && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "system-design-building-blocks" agent skill from https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/develop/skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks into .opencode/skills/system-design-building-blocks/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design-building-blocks", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
system-design-building-blocks- GitHub stars
- 572
- Token cost
- ~970 tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 472 words
- Files
- 3 (incl. references)
- Skills in repo
- 211
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- MIT
At a glance
Select infrastructure components by the constraint each removes: load balancers, caches and invalidation, queues and pub/sub, CDN, API gateway, rate limiting, consistent hashing.
- Defer engine tuning to the database category
- SKILL.md covers Priority: P1 (HIGH), Selection Table, Caching Rules and Queue Rules, plus 4 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
- Tasks that involve Cloud networking
What it does
System Design Building Blocks is an agent skill from HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard. Select infrastructure components by the constraint each removes: load balancers, caches and invalidation, queues and pub/sub, CDN, API gateway, rate limiting, consistent hashing. Use when choosing cache, queue, replica, or edge layers; defer engine tuning to the database category.
Its SKILL.md is about 970 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 4 other files, including reference files (for example `evals/evals.json` and `references/building-blocks.md`).
It sits in Backend & APIs, covering Cloud networking, Microservices and Rate limiting. The repository describes itself as: A collection of Agent Skills Standard and Best Practice for Programming Languages, Frameworks that help our AI Agent follow best practies on frameworks and programming laguages. The licence is MIT.
When your agent uses it
- Defer engine tuning to the database category
- Tasks that involve Cloud networking
- Tasks that involve Microservices
Example prompts
- “/system-design-building-blocks”
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b529c2d. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Context cost
System Design Building Blocks loads about 970 tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.4k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 78 tokens; SKILL.md has 472 words of instructions outside code blocks.
Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.
Safety
Auto-check passed
The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.
Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.
SKILL.md
The full file from HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard at commit b529c2d, republished under its MIT licence (© HoangNguyen0403). 472 words, ~970 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/system-design-building-blocks/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.- name
- system-design-building-blocks
- description
- Select infrastructure components by the constraint each removes: load balancers, caches and invalidation, queues and pub/sub, CDN, API gateway, rate limiting, consistent hashing. Use when choosing cache, queue, replica, or edge layers; defer engine tuning to the database category.
System Building Blocks
Priority: P1 (HIGH)
Add a component only to remove a named constraint. Every component adds failure modes and cost.
Selection Table
| Constraint observed | Component | Cost accepted |
|---|---|---|
| One instance saturates CPU or connections | Horizontal scaling behind a load balancer | Statelessness required; session moves to a store |
| Read QPS exceeds store ceiling; data tolerates staleness | Read-through cache | Stale reads up to TTL; invalidation complexity |
| Write spikes exceed sustainable store throughput | Queue plus async worker | Eventual completion; needs idempotent consumers |
| Slow non-critical work blocks the request path | Background job or event | Extra delivery guarantees to reason about |
| Static or media bytes dominate egress | CDN | Cache purge lag; origin still needed for misses |
| Cross-cutting authn, quota, routing repeated per service | API gateway | Central chokepoint; must be HA |
| One tenant or key can exhaust capacity | Rate limiter or admission control | Rejections need clear client contracts |
| Cache or shard nodes change count during scaling | Consistent hashing | Rebalancing logic; hot-key skew persists |
Caching Rules
- Default to cache-aside for read-heavy paths; use write-through only when read-after-write must be exact.
- Set TTL from tolerable staleness, not from convenience. Every cached key needs a stated TTL and an invalidation trigger.
- Guard the miss path: single-flight or request coalescing prevents a stampede when a hot key expires.
- Never cache what you cannot invalidate. Never cache per-user data under a shared key.
Queue Rules
- Choose delivery semantics explicitly: at-least-once plus idempotent consumers is the safe default.
- Partition by the entity that must stay ordered; ordering is per partition, never global.
- Size the queue for the burst, and define the drain rate. An unbounded queue converts a throughput problem into a latency and memory problem.
- Apply backpressure at the producer when depth exceeds the drain budget; shedding beats silent growth.
Show full SKILL.md (182 more words)Show less
Session State
- Default to a stateless token (signed JWT or opaque id verified at the edge); the app tier keeps nothing per user.
- Move to a shared session store (Redis) when sessions must be revocable immediately or carry more than a token can hold.
- Sticky sessions are a last resort: they survive one deploy badly and block scale-in. Never store session state in app memory.
Edge and Traffic Rules
- L4 balances connections, L7 routes on content; use L7 when routing needs paths, headers, or canaries.
- Health checks must test a dependency-aware readiness endpoint, not a static 200.
- Rate limit at the edge by identity and by cost class; return a retry hint the client can honor.
Anti-Patterns
- No component without a constraint: a box that solves no stated problem gets removed.
- No cache as a correctness fix: caching hides a slow query; fix the query, then cache.
- No queue without a consumer budget: define drain rate and DLQ before shipping.
- No shared mutable session in app memory: it blocks horizontal scaling.
References
- Building Blocks Detail - per-component decision notes, invalidation patterns, hashing mechanics
© HoangNguyen0403, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file
Files
SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks of HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.
- SKILL.md
- evals/evals.json
- references/building-blocks.md
Open the folder on GitHubat commit b529c2d
Compare with similar skills
System Design Building Blocks next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Design Building Blocks this skillHoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard | 572 | — | ~970 | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| System Designninehills/skills | 280 | — | ~4.7k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| System Designwondelai/skills | 2.4k | — | ~4k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| LLM Gatewaysickn33/agentic-awesome-skills | 47k | 1 repos | ~2.1k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Analyzing API Gateway Access Logsmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~581 | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Monstermq Broker Configvogler75/monster-mq | 143 | — | ~2.2k | Automated safety check: Pass | GPL-3.0 |
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Categories
Questions about System Design Building Blocks
What does System Design Building Blocks do?
Select infrastructure components by the constraint each removes: load balancers, caches and invalidation, queues and pub/sub, CDN, API gateway, rate limiting, consistent hashing. System Design Building Blocks is an agent skill from HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard. Select infrastructure components by the constraint each removes: load balancers, caches and invalidation, queues and pub/sub, CDN, API gateway, rate limiting, consistent hashing.
When should I use System Design Building Blocks?
System Design Building Blocks fits situations like: defer engine tuning to the database category; tasks that involve Cloud networking; tasks that involve Microservices.
How do I install System Design Building Blocks in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks in HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard) into .claude/skills/system-design-building-blocks in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install System Design Building Blocks in Codex?
Run `npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/system-design/system-design-building-blocks in HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard) into .agents/skills/system-design-building-blocks in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use System Design Building Blocks in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-building-blocks -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/system-design-building-blocks, .gemini/skills/system-design-building-blocks, .github/skills/system-design-building-blocks and .opencode/skills/system-design-building-blocks in your project.
What does System Design Building Blocks need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: System Design Building Blocks is instructions for the agent only.
Does System Design Building Blocks access the network?
SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Is System Design Building Blocks safe to install?
Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.
What licence does System Design Building Blocks use?
System Design Building Blocks is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.
How many tokens does System Design Building Blocks use?
About 970 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.5k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.
What are the alternatives to System Design Building Blocks?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with System Design Building Blocks: System Design (ninehills/skills, 280 stars), System Design (wondelai/skills, 2.4k stars), LLM Gateway (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars) and Analyzing API Gateway Access Logs (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains System Design Building Blocks?
HoangNguyen0403 (a GitHub user) maintains it in HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard, which has 572 GitHub stars. The repository holds 211 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.
Source: HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.