Technical Decision Record
Turns one technical call (build vs buy, database, rewrite vs refactor) into a scored Architecture Decision Record with one recommendation.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
That's a big architectural decision. There are several factors: volume and velocity of data, query patterns, team expertise, cost at scale, and future growth. Postgres is familiar and scalable to a point; modern data warehouses excel at analytics at scale. What's your use case? What volume of data? What's your team's experience? How important is real-time querying versus batch analysis?
Delivers a TECH-STACK RECOMMENDATION with WORKLOAD ANALYSIS: transactional read/write patterns, analytical scan size, query concurrency. COST MODELING: Postgres estimated ops cost versus warehouse costs at 50GB and 500GB scale. TEAM-SKILL AUDIT: learning curve, hire timeline. SCALABILITY RUNWAY: Postgres typical ceiling around 1-2TB, warehouse no ceiling. and GO/NO-GO DECISION TREE: proceed with Postgres or migrate strategy timeline. Activates automatically when the request matches cs-cto-advisor. Chains with other skills. Structured workflow for consistent tech decisions.
About this skill
Make the technical decision once and write it down so the team can live with it. This skill turns a contested choice into an ADR with scored options and costs in your team's real units.
What it does
- Frames the decision with its forcing function, team, system, budget, and deciders
- Sets 5-7 weighted criteria including 3-year total cost of ownership and reversibility
- Develops at least 3 options, including the status quo and an incremental path
- Scores options, runs a sensitivity check and a 12-month pre-mortem
- Recommends one option or the cheapest timeboxed spike to resolve uncertainty
What you get
An ADR in Context / Decision / Consequences format with an options scoring table, effort and cost ranges, reversal plan, assumptions to verify, revisit triggers, and next steps.
Best for
CTOs, tech leads, and technical founders who need to justify a build-vs-buy, database, framework, or rewrite decision to the team or board.
SKILL.md preview
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name: technical-decision-record
description: Turn one contested technical decision (build vs buy, monolith vs services, database or framework choice, rewrite vs refactor, tech debt vs feature work) into an Architecture Decision Record with scored options, cost and risk estimates, and a clear recommendation. Use when an engineering leader or founder says "should we build or buy X?", "help me decide between Postgres and DynamoDB", "we need an ADR for this", or needs to justify a technical call to the team or board. Also triggers on "Postgres or Mongo for this?", "quick gut check on adding Kafka", or "should we rewrite this service?".
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# Technical Decision Record
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