Stage 1 — Establish the reference
Before any design work begins, the agent checks for a reference.md in the repo — the golden-path file that describes the stack, patterns, and constraints the architecture skills design against. If one doesn’t exist, the agent offers to create it.
You: Confirm the reference is accurate for this task. A grounded reference.md keeps the agent’s designs inside your actual architecture, not an idealized one. If the reference is stale or missing a key constraint, update it before the design session starts — the agent designs against whatever it finds.
Stage 2 — Stage 0 concept
You describe the design problem. The agent runs architect-design in Stage 0 mode, producing a half-page concept framing the problem, naming constraints, and proposing a candidate approach with at least one alternative.
You: Read the concept at the G-concept gate. If the framing misses the real constraint — for example, it proposes a new service when the constraint is “must run inside the existing Lambda” — redirect here, before the full write-up. The concept gate is the cheapest point to course-correct. If the alternatives section feels thin, ask for one more before approving.
Stage 3 — Full design document
After concept approval, the agent writes the full Stage 1 design document: problem statement, alternatives considered with rejection reasoning, proposed design, open questions, and success criteria. It grounds the design against the repo’s reference.md throughout.
You: Watch the doc take shape. If the alternatives section omits an approach the team has already discussed and ruled out, mention it — a design doc that doesn’t address the alternatives an experienced reader would ask about generates questions in review. If the agent drifts from the approved concept, note it.
Stage 4 — Independent review
The agent runs architect-review, which dispatches the design-reviewer subagent in a forked context — a reviewer that has not seen the authoring session. The reviewer returns findings grouped by severity (Blockers, Concerns, Nits).
You: Read the review findings at the G-review gate. For each Blocker, decide whether to fix it or provide a one-sentence reason it doesn’t apply — “this is expected because the constraint was already accepted in the RFC.” For Concerns and Nits, apply or defer with a reason. The independent read is the closest thing to “a colleague who just walked in” before the doc goes to stakeholders.