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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/miles990/claude-software-skills --skill system-design- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads system-design automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
System Design
Overview
Principles for designing systems that handle scale, remain available, and perform well under load.
Scalability Fundamentals
Vertical vs Horizontal Scaling
Vertical Scaling (Scale Up):
┌─────────────────────┐
│ Bigger Server │
│ - More CPU │
│ - More RAM │
│ - Faster disk │
└─────────────────────┘
Limit: Hardware ceiling
Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out):
┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐
│Server│ │Server│ │Server│ │Server│
└──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘
↑
Load Balancer
Limit: Coordination complexity
Stateless Services
// ❌ Stateful - stores session in memory
class BadService {
private sessions = new Map();
login(userId: string) {
this.sessions.set(userId, { loggedIn: true });
}
}
// ✅ Stateless - external session store
class GoodService {
constructor(private sessionStore: Redis) {}
async login(userId: string) {
await this.sessionStore.set(`session:${userId}`, { loggedIn: true });
}
}
Load Balancing
Strategies
| Strategy | Description | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Round Robin | Cycle through servers | Equal capacity servers |
| Weighted RR | Based on server capacity | Mixed capacity |
| Least Connections | Route to least busy | Long-lived connections |
| IP Hash | Same IP → same server | Session stickiness |
| URL Hash | Same URL → same server | Cache optimization |
Health Checks
# Kubernetes-style health checks
livenessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /health/live
port: 8080
initialDelaySeconds: 3
periodSeconds: 10
readinessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /health/ready
port: 8080
initialDelaySeconds: 5
periodSeconds: 5
// Health check endpoints
app.get('/health/live', (req, res) => {
// Am I running?
res.status(200).json({ status: 'alive' });
});
app.get('/health/ready', async (req, res) => {
// Can I serve traffic?
const dbOk = await checkDatabase();
const cacheOk = await checkCache();
if (dbOk && cacheOk) {
res.status(200).json({ status: 'ready' });
} else {
res.status(503).json({ status: 'not ready', db: dbOk, cache: cacheOk });
}
});
Caching Strategies
Cache Patterns
Cache-Aside (Lazy Loading):
┌────────┐ miss ┌────────┐
│ App │ ──────────→ │ Cache │
│ │ ←────────── │ │
└────────┘ null └────────┘
│
│ read
↓
┌────────┐
│ DB │ ──── write ──→ Cache
└────────┘
Write-Through:
App → Cache → DB (synchronous)
Write-Behind (Write-Back):
App → Cache → (async) → DB
// Cache-aside implementation
class CachedUserService {
constructor(
private cache: Redis,
private db: Database
) {}
async getUser(id: string): Promise<User> {
// Try cache first
const cached = await this.cache.get(`user:${id}`);
if (cached) return JSON.parse(cached);
// Cache miss - read from DB
const user = await this.db.users.findById(id);
if (user) {
// Store in cache with TTL
await this.cache.set(`user:${id}`, JSON.stringify(user), 'EX', 3600);
}
return user;
}
async updateUser(id: string, data: Partial<User>): Promise<User> {
const user = await this.db.users.update(id, data);
// Invalidate cache
await this.cache.del(`user:${id}`);
return user;
}
}
Cache Invalidation
| Strategy | Description | Complexity |
|---|---|---|
| TTL | Expire after time | Simple |
| Event-based | Invalidate on write | Medium |
| Version-based | Key includes version | Medium |
| Tag-based | Group related keys | Complex |
Database Scaling
Read Replicas
┌─────────────────┐
Writes ──────→ │ Primary DB │
└────────┬────────┘
│ replication
┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
↓ ↓ ↓
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐
│ Replica 1│ │ Replica 2│ │ Replica 3│
└──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘
↑ ↑ ↑
└─────── Reads ───┴────────────────┘
Sharding (Partitioning)
// Hash-based sharding
function getShard(userId: string, numShards: number): number {
const hash = crypto.createHash('md5').update(userId).digest('hex');
return parseInt(hash.slice(0, 8), 16) % numShards;
}
// Range-based sharding
function getShardByDate(date: Date): string {
const year = date.getFullYear();
const month = date.getMonth() + 1;
return `orders_${year}_${month.toString().padStart(2, '0')}`;
}
// Consistent hashing for dynamic shards
class ConsistentHash {
private ring: Map<number, string> = new Map();
addNode(node: string) {
for (let i = 0; i < 150; i++) { // Virtual nodes
const hash = this.hash(`${node}:${i}`);
this.ring.set(hash, node);
}
}
getNode(key: string): string {
const hash = this.hash(key);
// Find next node on ring
for (const [nodeHash, node] of [...this.ring.entries()].sort()) {
if (nodeHash >= hash) return node;
}
return this.ring.values().next().value;
}
}
Message Queues
Patterns
Point-to-Point:
Producer → Queue → Consumer
Pub/Sub:
┌─→ Subscriber 1
Publisher → Topic ─→ Subscriber 2
└─→ Subscriber 3
Work Queue:
┌─→ Worker 1
Producer → Queue ─→ Worker 2 (competing consumers)
└─→ Worker 3
Delivery Guarantees
| Guarantee | Description | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| At-most-once | May lose messages | Fire and forget |
| At-least-once | May duplicate | Ack after process |
| Exactly-once | No loss, no dupe | Idempotency + dedup |
// Idempotent processing
async function processOrder(event: OrderEvent) {
// Check if already processed
const processed = await redis.get(`processed:${event.id}`);
if (processed) {
console.log(`Already processed ${event.id}`);
return;
}
// Process the order
await db.orders.create(event.order);
// Mark as processed (with TTL for cleanup)
await redis.set(`processed:${event.id}`, '1', 'EX', 86400 * 7);
}
High Availability
Redundancy Patterns
Active-Active:
┌────────┐ ┌────────┐
│Server A│ ←─→ │Server B│ Both handle traffic
└────────┘ └────────┘
Active-Passive:
┌────────┐ ┌────────┐
│ Active │ ──→ │Standby │ Failover on failure
└────────┘ └────────┘
Circuit Breaker
class CircuitBreaker {
private failures = 0;
private lastFailure: Date | null = null;
private state: 'closed' | 'open' | 'half-open' = 'closed';
constructor(
private threshold: number = 5,
private timeout: number = 30000
) {}
async execute<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
if (this.state === 'open') {
if (Date.now() - this.lastFailure!.getTime() > this.timeout) {
this.state = 'half-open';
} else {
throw new Error('Circuit is open');
}
}
try {
const result = await fn();
this.onSuccess();
return result;
} catch (error) {
this.onFailure();
throw error;
}
}
private onSuccess() {
this.failures = 0;
this.state = 'closed';
}
private onFailure() {
this.failures++;
this.lastFailure = new Date();
if (this.failures >= this.threshold) {
this.state = 'open';
}
}
}
CAP Theorem
Consistency
/\
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ CA \
/──────────\
/ \
/ CP AP \
/________________\
Partition Availability
Tolerance
CA: Single node (RDBMS)
CP: MongoDB, HBase (may reject writes during partition)
AP: Cassandra, DynamoDB (eventual consistency)
Consistency Models
| Model | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Strong | Read sees latest write | RDBMS |
| Eventual | Eventually consistent | DNS, Cassandra |
| Causal | Respects causality | Chat apps |
| Read-your-writes | See your own writes | Social feeds |
Rate Limiting
Algorithms
// Token Bucket
class TokenBucket {
private tokens: number;
private lastRefill: number;
constructor(
private capacity: number,
private refillRate: number // tokens per second
) {
this.tokens = capacity;
this.lastRefill = Date.now();
}
consume(tokens: number = 1): boolean {
this.refill();
if (this.tokens >= tokens) {
this.tokens -= tokens;
return true;
}
return false;
}
private refill() {
const now = Date.now();
const elapsed = (now - this.lastRefill) / 1000;
this.tokens = Math.min(
this.capacity,
this.tokens + elapsed * this.refillRate
);
this.lastRefill = now;
}
}
// Sliding Window
class SlidingWindowRateLimiter {
constructor(
private redis: Redis,
private limit: number,
private window: number // seconds
) {}
async isAllowed(key: string): Promise<boolean> {
const now = Date.now();
const windowStart = now - this.window * 1000;
const pipe = this.redis.pipeline();
pipe.zremrangebyscore(key, 0, windowStart);
pipe.zadd(key, now, `${now}`);
pipe.zcard(key);
pipe.expire(key, this.window);
const results = await pipe.exec();
const count = results[2][1] as number;
return count <= this.limit;
}
}
Common System Designs
| System | Key Components |
|---|---|
| URL Shortener | Hash function, Redis cache, DB |
| Twitter Feed | Fan-out, Redis timeline, Kafka |
| Chat App | WebSocket, Presence, Message queue |
| E-commerce | Cart service, Inventory, Payment |
| Video Streaming | CDN, Chunking, Adaptive bitrate |
Related Skills
- [[architecture-patterns]] - Microservices, event-driven
- [[database]] - Database optimization
- [[caching-implementation]] - Cache strategies
- [[reliability-engineering]] - SRE practices
FAQ
What does the system-design skill do?
Scalability, availability, and distributed systems design
How do I install system-design?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/miles990/claude-software-skills --skill system-design in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/system-design/ (personal) or .claude/skills/system-design/ (project).
Which AI agents can use system-design?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is system-design safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains system-design?
It is published by miles990 in miles990/claude-software-skills. It has 76 recorded installs.
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