Single deployable with enforced module boundaries for team autonomy without distributed complexity. Triggers: modular-monolith, module boundaries, single deployment, team autonomy Use when: teams need autonomy without distributed overhead DO NOT use when: already using microservices or system is small.

Functional Core, Imperative Shell: isolate deterministic logic from side effects for testability. Triggers: functional-core, imperative-shell, pure functions, side-effects, testability Use when: business logic is entangled with I/O or tests are brittle DO NOT use when: simple scripting without complex logic, or performance-critical hot paths where immutability overhead matters.

Audit shell scripts for correctness, portability, and common pitfalls. Use when reviewing shell scripts, CI scripts, hook scripts, wrapper scripts. Do not use when creating new scripts - use attune:workflow-setup.

Consult this skill when designing client-server systems or API architectures. Use when traditional web/mobile applications with centralized services, clear separation between client and server responsibilities needed. Do not use when selecting from multiple paradigms - use architecture-paradigms first. DO NOT use when: peer-to-peer dominates - consider dedicated P2P patterns.

Asynchronous event-based communication to decouple producers/consumers for scalability and resilience. Triggers: event-driven, message queue, pub/sub, asynchronous, decoupling Use when: real-time workloads or multiple subsystems react to same events DO NOT use when: selecting paradigms (use architecture-paradigms first), simple request-response.

Data-grid architecture for high-traffic stateful workloads with linear scalability. space-based, data grid, in-memory, linear scaling, high traffic Use when: traffic overwhelms database nodes or linear scalability needed DO NOT use when: data does not fit in memory or simpler caching suffices.

Coarse-grained service architecture for deployment independence without microservices complexity. service-based, SOA, coarse-grained services, domain services Use when: teams need deployment independence without microservices complexity DO NOT use when: fine-grained scaling needed - use microservices.

Gemini CLI delegation workflow implementing delegation-core for Google's Gemini models. Use when delegation-core selected Gemini, need Gemini's 1M+ token context window, batch processing required. Do not use when deciding which model to use (use delegation-core first), gemini CLI not installed.

CQRS and Event Sourcing for auditability, read/write separation, and temporal queries. Triggers: CQRS, event-sourcing, audit-trail, temporal queries, distributed-systems Use when: read/write scaling differs or audit trail required DO NOT use when: selecting paradigms (use architecture-paradigms first), simple CRUD without audit needs.

Consult this skill when designing data pipelines or transformation workflows. Use when data flows through fixed sequence of transformations, stages can be independently developed and tested, parallel processing of stages is beneficial. Do not use when selecting from multiple paradigms - use architecture-paradigms first. DO NOT use when: data flow is not sequential or predictable. DO NOT use when: complex branching/merging logic dominates.

Decouple domain logic from infrastructure using Hexagonal (Ports & Adapters) pattern. Triggers: hexagonal, ports-adapters, infrastructure-independence, domain-isolation, testability Use when: business logic separation, infrastructure changes needed, testability critical DO NOT use when: selecting paradigms (use architecture-paradigms first), simple CRUD.

Consult this skill when cultivating and maintaining digital gardens. Use when managing note collections, creating link structures, maintaining knowledge bases, tending garden health and growth. Do not use when creating memory palace structures - use memory-palace-architect. DO NOT use when: evaluating new knowledge - use knowledge-intake.

Consult this skill when implementing layered patterns or enforcing layer boundaries. Use when building traditional applications with clear boundaries, working with moderate-sized teams, needing familiar and well-understood patterns, compliance requirements demand clear separation. Do not use when selecting from multiple paradigms - use architecture-paradigms first. DO NOT use when: high scalability needs independent component scaling. DO NOT use when: teams need independent deployment cycles - use microservices.

Serverless FaaS for event-driven workloads with minimal infrastructure management. serverless, FaaS, Lambda, event-driven, pay-per-use Use when: workloads are event-driven with bursty traffic DO NOT use when: long-running processes or stateful operations required.

Minimal core system with plugin-based feature extensibility for platform development. Triggers: microkernel, plugin-architecture, extensibility, platform-design Use when: platforms/IDEs/marketplaces, core stability critical, plugin isolation needed DO NOT use when: selecting paradigms (use architecture-paradigms first), no extensibility needed.

TDD-style testing methodology for skills using fresh subagent instances to prevent priming bias and validate skill effectiveness. Use when validating skill improvements, testing skill effectiveness, preventing priming bias, measuring skill impact on behavior. Do not use when implementing skills (use skill-authoring instead), creating hooks (use hook-authoring instead).

Learn and extract writing style patterns from exemplar text for consistent application. Use when creating a style guide from existing content, ensuring consistency across documents, learning a specific author's voice, customizing AI output style. Do not use when detecting AI slop - use slop-detector instead. just need to clean up existing content - use doc-generator with --remediate. Use this skill to build style profiles from exemplar text.

Outputs markdown digests and CSV exports for GitHub issues and PRs. Use when creating status reports, weekly updates, stakeholder briefings, generating GitHub comment digests, tracking initiative health. Do not use when release gates/readiness - use release-health-gates. DO NOT use when: project planning - use spec-kit:speckit-orchestrator.

Interactive selector and router for architecture paradigms. Use when selecting architecture patterns for new systems, comparing paradigm trade-offs, creating architecture decision records, evaluating architecture fit for team size and domain complexity, planning implementation roadmaps. Do not use when implementing a specific known paradigm - use the specific architecture-paradigm-* skill (hexagonal, layered, microservices, etc.) instead. reviewing existing architecture - use architecture-review instead. Use this skill BEFORE making architecture decisions. Check even if unsure about needs.

Cross-plugin testing quality metrics and standards. Referenced by pensive:test-review and parseltongue:python-testing. testing standards, quality metrics, coverage thresholds, anti-patterns Use when: test quality evaluation, coverage thresholds, quality standards DO NOT use when: simple scripts without quality requirements.