Distributed Systems

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Implementing distributed locks
• Circuit breakers
• Idempotency keys
• Token bucket rate limiters

Example prompts

• “/distributed-systems”

Requirements

• Python 3
• Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Claude Code 2.1.277+.
• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Glob, Grep, WebFetch, WebSearch

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1f8d8f3. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Glob
  • Grep
  • WebFetch
  • WebSearch

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 2 files in scripts/ (Python, from the files we listed), which the agent can run.

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

  • redis.io
  • learn.microsoft.com
  • docs.claude.com
  • postgresql.org
  • aws.amazon.com
  • tenacity.readthedocs.io
  • platform.openai.com
  • docs.stripe.com
  • slowapi.readthedocs.io
  • vercel.com

  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.

• Compatibility

  Claude Code 2.1.277+.

  From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Distributed Systems loads about 2.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.2k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 64 tokens; SKILL.md has 757 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~64

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~2.6k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~3.2k

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

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); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from yonatangross/orchestkit at commit 1f8d8f3, republished under its MIT licence (© yonatangross). 757 words, ~2,627 tokens.

name

distributed-systems

description

Distributed systems patterns for locking, resilience, idempotency, and rate limiting. Use when implementing distributed locks, circuit breakers, retry policies, idempotency keys, token bucket rate limiters, or fault tolerance patterns.

allowed-tools

Read, Glob, Grep, WebFetch, WebSearch

compatibility

Claude Code 2.1.277+.

license

MIT

context

fork

agent

backend-system-architect

user-invocable

false

disable-model-invocation

true

metadata.category

document-asset-creation

metadata.version

2.0.0

metadata.author

OrchestKit

metadata.complexity

medium

metadata.tags

distributed-systems, distributed-locks, resilience, circuit-breaker, idempotency, rate-limiting, retry, fault-tolerance, edge-computing, cloudflare-workers…

# Redis distributed lock with Lua scripts
async with RedisLock(redis_client, "payment:order-123"):
    await process_payment(order_id)

# Circuit breaker for external APIs
@circuit_breaker(failure_threshold=5, recovery_timeout=30)
@retry(max_attempts=3, base_delay=1.0)
async def call_external_api():
    ...

# Idempotent API endpoint
@router.post("/payments")
async def create_payment(
    data: PaymentCreate,
    idempotency_key: str = Header(..., alias="Idempotency-Key"),
):
    return await idempotent_execute(db, idempotency_key, "/payments", process)

# Token bucket rate limiting
limiter = TokenBucketLimiter(redis_client, capacity=100, refill_rate=10)
if await limiter.is_allowed(f"user:{user_id}"):
    await handle_request()

# LOCKS: Never forget TTL (causes deadlocks)
await redis.set(f"lock:{name}", "1")  # WRONG - no expiry!

# LOCKS: Never release without owner check
await redis.delete(f"lock:{name}")  # WRONG - might release others' lock

# RESILIENCE: Never retry non-retryable errors
@retry(max_attempts=5, retryable_exceptions={Exception})  # Retries 401!

# RESILIENCE: Never put retry outside circuit breaker
@retry  # Would retry when circuit is open!
@circuit_breaker
async def call(): ...

# IDEMPOTENCY: Never use non-deterministic keys
key = str(uuid.uuid4())  # Different every time!

# IDEMPOTENCY: Never cache error responses
if response.status_code >= 400:
    await cache_response(key, response)  # Errors should retry!

# RATE LIMITING: Never use in-memory counters in distributed systems
request_counts = {}  # Lost on restart, not shared across instances

© yonatangross, 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 24 other files (scripts, references) in src/skills/distributed-systems of yonatangross/orchestkit.

• SKILL.md
• metadata.json
• references/ork-delta.md
• rules/_sections.md
• rules/_template.md
• rules/edge-caching.md
• rules/edge-workers.md
• rules/event-messaging.md
• rules/event-sourcing.md
• rules/idempotency-keys.md
• rules/locks-fencing-tokens.md
• rules/ratelimit-sliding-window.md
• rules/ratelimit-token-bucket.md
• rules/resilience-bulkhead.md
• rules/resilience-circuit-breaker.md
• rules/resilience-retry-backoff.md
• scripts/bulkhead.py
• scripts/circuit-breaker.py
• … and 7 more

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1f8d8f3