Design scalable distributed systems using structured approaches for load balancing, caching, database scaling, and message queues. Use when the user mentions "system design", "scale this", "high availability", "rate limiter", or "design a URL shortener". Covers common system designs and back-of-the-envelope estimation.
From atum-systemnpx claudepluginhub arnwaldn/atum-system --plugin atum-systemThis skill uses the workspace's default tool permissions.
references/building-blocks.mdreferences/common-designs.mdreferences/estimation.mdProvides UI/UX resources: 50+ styles, color palettes, font pairings, guidelines, charts for web/mobile across React, Next.js, Vue, Svelte, Tailwind, React Native, Flutter. Aids planning, building, reviewing interfaces.
Fetches up-to-date documentation from Context7 for libraries and frameworks like React, Next.js, Prisma. Use for setup questions, API references, and code examples.
Integrates PayPal payments with express checkout, subscriptions, refunds, and IPN. Includes JS SDK for frontend buttons and Python REST API for backend capture.
A structured approach to designing large-scale distributed systems.
Start with requirements, not solutions. Every system design begins by clarifying what you are building, for whom, and at what scale.
Goal: 10/10. Rate designs 0-10 based on: clear requirements, back-of-the-envelope estimates, appropriate building blocks, scaling/reliability addressed, tradeoffs acknowledged.
| Topic | Reference | Load When |
|---|---|---|
| Estimation | references/estimation.md | Calculating QPS, storage, bandwidth, availability |
| Building Blocks | references/building-blocks.md | DNS, CDN, load balancers, caching, queues, database scaling |
| Common Designs | references/common-designs.md | URL shortener, rate limiter, news feed, chat, search, crawler |
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Jump to architecture without requirements | Spend 5-10 min on scope first |
| No estimation | Calculate QPS, storage, bandwidth |
| Single point of failure | Redundancy at every layer |
| Premature sharding | Scale vertically, cache, replicate first |
| Cache without invalidation | Define TTL + explicit invalidation |
| Sync calls everywhere | Queues for non-latency-critical paths |
| No monitoring | Instrument from day one |