Scope-Appropriate Architecture

Right-size every architectural decision to the project's actual needs. Not every project needs hexagonal architecture, CQRS, or microservices.

Core principle: Detect the project tier first, then constrain all downstream pattern choices to that tier's complexity ceiling.

The 6 Project Tiers

LOC Ratio = total lines / core business logic lines. Higher ratio = more infrastructure code relative to business value.

Auto-Detection Signals

When confidence is low: Ask the user with AskUserQuestion.

Pattern Appropriateness Matrix

Rule of thumb: If a pattern shows OVERKILL for the detected tier, do NOT use it. Suggest the simpler alternative instead.

Technology Quick-Reference by Tier

Build vs Buy Decision Tree (Tiers 1-3)

For Interview, Hackathon, and MVP tiers, always prefer buying over building:

Time savings: Auth alone is 2-4 weeks build vs 2 hours integrate.

Upgrade Path

When a project grows beyond its current tier, upgrade incrementally:

Tier 2 (Prototype) → Tier 3 (MVP)
  Add: Postgres, basic auth, error boundaries, CI

Tier 3 (MVP) → Tier 4 (Growth)
  Add: Redis cache, background jobs, monitoring, module boundaries

Tier 4 (Growth) → Tier 5 (Enterprise)
  Add: DI, bounded contexts, message queues, full observability
  Extract: First microservice (only the proven bottleneck)

Key insight: You can always add complexity later. You cannot easily remove it.

When This Skill Activates

This skill is loaded by:

• brainstorm Phase 0 (context discovery)
• implement Step 0 (context discovery)
• quality-gates YAGNI check
• Any skill that needs to right-size a recommendation

The detected tier is passed as context to constrain downstream decisions.

Related Skills

• ork:brainstorm - Uses tier detection in Phase 0 to constrain ideas
• ork:implement - Uses tier detection in Step 0 to constrain architecture
• ork:quality-gates - YAGNI gate references this skill's tier matrix
• ork:architecture-patterns - Architecture validation (constrained by tier)

References

Load on demand with Read("${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/<file>"):