Agent skill

System Design

Design systems, services, and architectures. An agent skill from openxlings/xlings.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedBackend & APIs

Install System Design

skills CLI

$ npx skills add openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install openxlings/xlings system-design --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/openxlings/xlings.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/system-design .claude/skills/system-design && 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/

Paste into Claude Code

Install the "system-design" agent skill from https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design into .claude/skills/system-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design", 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

$skill-installer install https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design

Type 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.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -a codex

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install openxlings/xlings system-design --agent codex

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/openxlings/xlings.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/system-design .agents/skills/system-design && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.

Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/

Paste into Codex

Install the "system-design" agent skill from https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design into .agents/skills/system-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design", 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.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -a cursor

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install openxlings/xlings system-design --agent cursor

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/openxlings/xlings.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/system-design .cursor/skills/system-design && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.

Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/

Paste into Cursor

Install the "system-design" agent skill from https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design into .cursor/skills/system-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design", 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

$ gemini skills install https://github.com/openxlings/xlings.git --path .agents/skills/system-design

--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -a gemini-cli

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install openxlings/xlings system-design --agent gemini-cli

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/openxlings/xlings.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/system-design .gemini/skills/system-design && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.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/

Paste into Gemini CLI

Install the "system-design" agent skill from https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design into .gemini/skills/system-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design", 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.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install openxlings/xlings system-design

Installs 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).

skills CLI

$ npx skills add openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -a github-copilot

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/openxlings/xlings.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/system-design .github/skills/system-design && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.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/

Paste into GitHub Copilot

Install the "system-design" agent skill from https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design into .github/skills/system-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design", 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.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -a opencode

OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install openxlings/xlings system-design --agent opencode

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/openxlings/xlings.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/system-design .opencode/skills/system-design && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.

OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into OpenCode

Install the "system-design" agent skill from https://github.com/openxlings/xlings/tree/main/.agents/skills/system-design into .opencode/skills/system-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "system-design", 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
GitHub stars: 615
Used in: 1 other repo
Token cost: ~328 tokens
SKILL.md length: 123 words
Files: 1
Skills in repo: 2
Repo updated: Oct 6, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: Apache-2.0

At a glance

Design systems, services, and architectures. An agent skill from openxlings/xlings.

Works in 5 steps: Requirements Gathering → High-Level Design → Deep Dive → …
With design a system for
SKILL.md covers Framework and Output
Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

System Design is an agent skill from openxlings/xlings. 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.

Its SKILL.md is about 330 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Backend & APIs, covering Software architecture, Design systems and API design. The repository describes itself as: Universal package infrastructure with OS-like SubOS isolation - Multi-version · Rootless · Decentralized Index · Agent-ready. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

With design a system for
How should we architect
System design for
Whats the right architecture for

Example prompts

“design a system for”
“how should we architect”
“system design for”
“/system-design”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

Requirements Gathering
High-Level Design
Deep Dive
Scale and Reliability
Trade-off Analysis

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 07e7982. 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 loads about 328 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 66 tokens; SKILL.md has 123 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~66
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~328

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 openxlings/xlings at commit 07e7982, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© openxlings). 123 words, ~328 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/system-design/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).

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.

Files

Just SKILL.md in .agents/skills/system-design of openxlings/xlings.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 07e7982

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in openxlings/xlings, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

w95/awesome-claude-corporate-skills08-it-engineering/system-design

Compare with similar skills

System Design 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 compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
System Design this skillopenxlings/xlings	615	1 repos	~328	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	yesterday
Backend DevelopmentMoizIbnYousaf/ai-agent-skills	1.1k	—	~853	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	16 days ago
Ariasickn33/agentic-awesome-skills	47k	1 repos	~1.5k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	yesterday
Light System DesignLight0305/Light-skills	640	—	~3.6k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	3 mo ago
Mas SkillsAUTO-MAS-Project/AUTO-MAS	707	—	~3.6k	Automated safety check: Pass	AGPL-3.0	today
Reference EngineNoobyGains/godmode	107	—	~5.4k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	7 mo ago

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Questions about System Design

What does System Design do?

Design systems, services, and architectures. An agent skill from openxlings/xlings. System Design is an agent skill from openxlings/xlings. Design systems, services, and architectures.

When should I use System Design?

System Design fits situations like: with design a system for; how should we architect; system design for; whats the right architecture for.

How do I install System Design in Claude Code?

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

How do I install System Design in Codex?

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

Can I use System Design 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 openxlings/xlings --skill system-design -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, .gemini/skills/system-design, .github/skills/system-design and .opencode/skills/system-design in your project.

What does System Design need to run?

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

Does System Design 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 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 use?

System Design is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does System Design use?

About 328 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 1.3k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to System Design?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with System Design: Backend Development (MoizIbnYousaf/ai-agent-skills, 1.1k stars), Aria (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars), Light System Design (Light0305/Light-skills, 640 stars) and Mas Skills (AUTO-MAS-Project/AUTO-MAS, 707 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains System Design?

openxlings (a GitHub organization) maintains it in openxlings/xlings, which has 615 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: openxlings/xlings on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

System Design

Install System Design

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

System Design

Framework

1. Requirements Gathering

2. High-Level Design

3. Deep Dive

4. Scale and Reliability

5. Trade-off Analysis

Output

Files

Used in 1 other repository

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

Backend Development

Aria

Light System Design

Mas Skills

Reference Engine

Consent Pref Center

More from openxlings/xlings

Xlings Docs Writing

Questions about System Design

Install System Design

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

System Design

Framework

1. Requirements Gathering

2. High-Level Design

3. Deep Dive

4. Scale and Reliability

5. Trade-off Analysis

Output

Files

Used in 1 other repository

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

Backend Development

Aria

Light System Design

Mas Skills

Reference Engine

Consent Pref Center

More from openxlings/xlings

Xlings Docs Writing

Related

Questions about System Design