System Architecture Brainstorm

Help me design a system architecture for [DESCRIPTION OF APPLICATION/SYSTEM].

**Requirements:**
- Core functionality: [DESCRIBE]
- Expected users: [NUMBER/SCALE]
- Key features: [LIST FEATURES]
- Budget constraints: [BUDGET RANGE]
- Team size: [DEVELOPER COUNT]
- Timeline: [DEADLINE]
- Must-have tech: [ANY SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGIES]

**Deliverables:**

1. **Architecture Diagram Description**: Text-based description of the system architecture (components, data flow, interactions)
2. **Technology Stack Recommendation**: Frontend, backend, database, hosting, with pros/cons for each choice
3. **Data Model**: Key entities and their relationships
4. **API Design Overview**: Major API endpoints and their purposes
5. **Infrastructure Plan**: Hosting, CI/CD, monitoring, scaling strategy
6. **Security Architecture**: Authentication, authorization, data protection
7. **Cost Estimate**: Monthly hosting costs at different scales (100 users, 10K users, 1M users)
8. **Phase-by-Phase Roadmap**: MVP → V1 → Scale, with estimated effort per phase
9. **Risk Assessment**: Top 5 risks and mitigation strategies
10. **Alternatives Considered**: Why this approach over other common patterns

How to Customize It

Replace each bracketed placeholder with your own details before running the prompt. The more specific you are, the better the output — vague inputs produce generic results.

• [DESCRIPTION OF APPLICATION/SYSTEM]Swap in your description of application or system.
• [DESCRIBE]Swap in your describe.
• [NUMBER/SCALE]Swap in your number or scale.
• [LIST FEATURES]Swap in your list features.
• [BUDGET RANGE]Swap in your budget range.
• [DEVELOPER COUNT]Swap in your developer count.
• [DEADLINE]Swap in your deadline.
• [ANY SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGIES]Swap in your any specific technologies.

When to Use It

• Starting a greenfield project and needing a defensible answer to "monolith or services, which database, where does it run."
• Preparing for a system design interview by generating architectures to critique.
• Writing the architecture section of a technical proposal or RFC with alternatives-considered documented.

Tips for Better Results

• 1State your team's actual skills in the tech constraints — an architecture your team can't operate is wrong regardless of its elegance.
• 2Ask for two options: the boring one and the scalable one, with the migration path between them. The boring one is usually correct.
• 3Interrogate the single points of failure in whatever it proposes; "what breaks first under 10x load?" is the best follow-up.