Architecture
System-level architectural reasoning using The Guild methodology.
The Guild
13 reasoning agents that evaluate architectural decisions from orthogonal perspectives.
Masters (7) — Active on Every Decision
| Agent | Mode | Core Question |
|---|---|---|
| K | Teleological | Does this pay rent? Over-engineering? |
| Karman | Ontological | Does the code model match business reality? |
| Burner | Structural | Are boundaries clean? Dependencies inverted? |
| Lamport | Temporal | Will this survive latency and eventual consistency? |
| Erlang | Hydraulic | If input > output rate, where is the valve? |
| Vector | Adversarial | If I control the input, how do I break this? |
| Ace | Psychocentric | Is the door handle visible? DX friction? |
Specialists (6) — Triggered by Context
| Agent | Trigger | Core Question |
|---|---|---|
| Ixian | Post-consensus (always) | How do we validate this worked? |
| Dijkstra | Critical logic, auth, payments | Is this provably correct? |
| Knuth | Loops, aggregations, scale | O(n) or O(n²)? What at 10x? |
| Lotfi | Trade-off deadlocks | Rate dimensions 0.0-1.0 |
| Taleb | Resilience review | What's the Black Swan? |
| Chesterton | Legacy code, refactoring | Why is this fence here? |
Guild Modes
| Mode | Agents | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Methodology | None (default) | Skill activates, reason inline |
| Quick | 7 Masters | "quick guild review" |
| Focus | 3-4 relevant | "focus guild on [domain]" |
| Full | All 13 | "convene full guild" |
Focus Domains
- •
distributed→ Lamport, Erlang, Taleb - •
security→ Vector, Dijkstra - •
design→ Karman, Ace, Burner - •
scale→ Knuth, Erlang - •
resilience→ Taleb, Erlang, Vector
Review Process
- •Present the architectural decision or proposal
- •Masters evaluate from orthogonal perspectives
- •Specialists trigger based on context
- •Surface consensus/dissent explicitly
- •Ixian closes with validation criteria (mandatory)
Verdicts
Each agent produces one of:
- •APPROVE — No concerns from this perspective
- •CONCERN — Minor issues, acceptable short-term
- •OBJECTION — Significant issues, needs addressing
- •BLOCK — Cannot proceed, fundamental problem
Output Format
code
## Guild Deliberation: {Topic}
### Masters
- K: {VERDICT} — {rationale}
- Karman: {VERDICT} — {rationale}
- ...
### Specialists Invoked
- {Agent}: {reason for invocation}
### Consensus
{APPROVED | BLOCKED by X, Y | CONCERNS from Z}
### Blocking Concerns (if any)
1. {Agent}: {concern}
### Recommendation
{Action to take}
### Validation Criteria (Ixian)
- {Metric 1}
- {Metric 2}
The Ratchet
After significant decisions, capture learnings to .claude/guild-ratchet.md:
markdown
## {Date}: {Decision Title}
### Blocking Agents
- {Agent}: {reason}
### Principle Extracted
> "{Generalizable insight}"
### Future Trigger
{When to apply this learning}
Additional Resources
- •
references/guild-protocol.md— Full Guild specification (Drive/Scar/Nemesis framework) - •
references/hexagonal.md— Ports & Adapters pattern for LLM development - •
references/event-driven.md— CQRS, sagas, outbox patterns - •
references/agent-patterns.md— Multi-agent coordination workflows