Backend Design Skill
This skill guides the design of reliable backend systems, APIs, and data models with clear trade-offs, strong correctness guarantees, and operational readiness.
Design Thinking
- •Scope: Identify core use cases, data flows, and integration points.
- •Constraints: Latency, throughput, availability, compliance, and deployment limits.
- •Data: Define entities, relationships, invariants, and lifecycle.
- •Reliability: Error handling, retries, idempotency, and consistency model.
Architecture Guidelines
- •API Design: Explicit contracts, versioning, validation, and error shape.
- •Storage: Choose stores based on access patterns and durability needs.
- •Performance: Indexing, caching, batching, and async processing.
- •Security: AuthN/AuthZ, least privilege, secrets handling, auditability.
- •Observability: Logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting signals.
- •Scalability: Stateless services where possible, clear scaling boundaries.
Output Requirements
Provide a clear backend plan or implementation that includes:
- •Data model and key invariants
- •API endpoints or service interfaces
- •Failure modes and recovery strategy
- •Performance and scaling considerations
- •Security and observability notes
Response Checklist
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Backend Design Checklist - [ ] Confirm requirements and constraints - [ ] Define data model and invariants - [ ] Specify API contracts and error shape - [ ] Address failure modes and consistency - [ ] Cover performance, scaling, and caching - [ ] Include security and observability plans