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Agent skill

System Design Principles

by HoangNguyen0403 in HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard

Define module boundaries, dependency direction, data ownership, resilience, and distributed-system trade-offs.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install System Design Principles

skills CLI
$ npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-principles -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard system-design-principles --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ 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-principles .claude/skills/system-design-principles && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.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/

Facts

Skill name
system-design-principles
GitHub stars
572
Token cost
~924 tokens
SKILL.md length
325 words
Files
5 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
211
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Define module boundaries, dependency direction, data ownership, resilience, and distributed-system trade-offs.

  • Works in 5 steps: Identify bounded contexts and module… → Name the data owner and define… → Select communication pattern (sync REST,… → …
  • Service boundaries
  • SKILL.md covers Priority: P0 (CRITICAL), Workflow: Evaluate…, Architectural Principles and Modularity & Coupling, plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

System Design Principles is an agent skill from HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard. Define module boundaries, dependency direction, data ownership, resilience, and distributed-system trade-offs. Use for architecture, service boundaries, coupling, scalability, or failure-cascade decisions; defer session facilitation to system-design-methodology.

Its SKILL.md is about 920 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 6 other files, including reference files (for example `evals/evals.json`, `references/distributed-systems.md` and `references/implementation.md`).

It sits in Development, covering Microservices. 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

  • Service boundaries
  • Failure-cascade decisions
  • Defer session facilitation to system-design-methodology

Example prompts

  • “/system-design-principles”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Identify bounded contexts and module boundaries
  2. Name the data owner and define dependency direction (outer layers depend on inner)
  3. Select communication pattern (sync REST, async event, or hybrid) and failure behavior
  4. Validate CAP trade-offs only for distributed components
  5. Record boundary, trade-off, and rollback in an ADR

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 Principles loads about 924 tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.7k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 72 tokens; SKILL.md has 325 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~72
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~924
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~2.7k

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). 325 words, ~924 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/system-design-principles/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 4 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
system-design-principles
description
Define module boundaries, dependency direction, data ownership, resilience, and distributed-system trade-offs. Use for architecture, service boundaries, coupling, scalability, or failure-cascade decisions; defer session facilitation to system-design-methodology.

System Design Principles

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Workflow: Evaluate Architecture for New Feature

  1. Identify bounded contexts and module boundaries
  2. Name the data owner and define dependency direction (outer layers depend on inner)
  3. Select communication pattern (sync REST, async event, or hybrid) and failure behavior
  4. Validate CAP trade-offs only for distributed components
  5. Record boundary, trade-off, and rollback in an ADR

For a failing synchronous dependency, keep the critical path explicit: timeout and circuit-break the dependency, return a defined degraded/fallback result where safe, and move non-critical notifications to an asynchronous event.

Architectural Principles

  • SoC: Divide into distinct sections per concern.
  • SSOT: One source, reference elsewhere.
  • Fail Fast: Fail visibly when errors occur.
  • Graceful Degradation: Core functional even if secondary fails.

Modularity & Coupling

  • High Cohesion: Related functionality in one module.
  • Loose Coupling: Use interfaces for communication.
  • DI: Inject dependencies, don't hardcode.

See implementation examples for dependency flow diagrams.

Common Patterns

  • Layered: Presentation -> Logic -> Data.
  • Event-Driven: Async communication between decoupled components.
  • Clean/Hexagonal: Core logic independent of frameworks.
  • Statelessness: Favor stateless for scaling/testing.
  • Monolith first: Start modular-monolith; split a service out only when a module needs independent scaling, release cadence, or ownership.

Distributed Systems

Documentation & Evolution

  • Design Docs: Write specs before major implementations.
  • Versioning: Version APIs/schemas for backward compatibility.
  • Extensibility: Use Strategy/Factory for future changes.

References

Anti-Patterns

  • No god classes: Single Responsibility — one reason to change per module.
  • No blanket synchronous-coupling ban: choose synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid communication from the boundary's consistency, latency, failure, and coupling requirements. A bounded synchronous transaction can protect an immediate invariant; independent notifications may remain asynchronous. State the trade-offs and failure behavior.
  • No premature abstraction: Design for current load; scale when proven needed.

© 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 4 other files (references) in skills/system-design/system-design-principles of HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard.

  • SKILL.md
  • evals/evals.json
  • references/distributed-systems.md
  • references/implementation.md
  • references/resilience-patterns.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b529c2d

Compare with similar skills

System Design Principles 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.

System Design Principles compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
System Design Principles this skillHoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard572—~924Automated safety check: PassMIT
Evolutionary Modular Architecturetech-leads-club/agent-skills7k—~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-4.0
Designing ArchitectureCloudAI-X/claude-workflow-v21.4k1 repos~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Services LayerEpicenterHQ/epicenter4.8k—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Golang Prodavila7/claude-code-templates33k8 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Verifytheopenco/llmgateway1.7k—~1kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence

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Categories

Questions about System Design Principles

What does System Design Principles do?

Define module boundaries, dependency direction, data ownership, resilience, and distributed-system trade-offs. System Design Principles is an agent skill from HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard. Define module boundaries, dependency direction, data ownership, resilience, and distributed-system trade-offs.

When should I use System Design Principles?

System Design Principles fits situations like: service boundaries; failure-cascade decisions; defer session facilitation to system-design-methodology.

How do I install System Design Principles in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-principles -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/system-design/system-design-principles in HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard) into .claude/skills/system-design-principles in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install System Design Principles in Codex?

Run `npx skills add HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard --skill system-design-principles -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/system-design/system-design-principles in HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard) into .agents/skills/system-design-principles in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use System Design Principles 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-principles -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-principles, .gemini/skills/system-design-principles, .github/skills/system-design-principles and .opencode/skills/system-design-principles in your project.

What does System Design Principles need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: System Design Principles is instructions for the agent only.

Does System Design Principles 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 Principles 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 Principles use?

System Design Principles 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 Principles use?

About 924 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.7k 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 1.8k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to System Design Principles?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with System Design Principles: Evolutionary Modular Architecture (tech-leads-club/agent-skills, 7k stars), Designing Architecture (CloudAI-X/claude-workflow-v2, 1.4k stars), Services Layer (EpicenterHQ/epicenter, 4.8k stars) and Golang Pro (davila7/claude-code-templates, 33k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains System Design Principles?

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.