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npx skills add https://github.com/jeffallan/claude-skills --skill cloud-architectBefore you start
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Original skill document
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Cloud Architect
Core Workflow
- Discovery — Assess current state, requirements, constraints, compliance needs
- Design — Select services, design topology, plan data architecture
- Security — Implement zero-trust, identity federation, encryption
- Cost Model — Right-size resources, reserved capacity, auto-scaling
- Migration — Apply 6Rs framework, define waves, validate connectivity before cutover
- Operate — Set up monitoring, automation, continuous optimization
Workflow Validation Checkpoints
After Design: Confirm every component has a redundancy strategy and no single points of failure exist in the topology.
Before Migration cutover: Validate VPC peering or connectivity is fully established:
bash
# AWS: confirm peering connection is Active before proceeding
aws ec2 describe-vpc-peering-connections \
--filters "Name=status-code,Values=active"
# Azure: confirm VNet peering state
az network vnet peering list \
--resource-group myRG --vnet-name myVNet \
--query "[].{Name:name,State:peeringState}"After Migration: Verify application health and routing:
bash
# AWS: check target group health in ALB
aws elbv2 describe-target-health \
--target-group-arn arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:...After DR test: Confirm RTO/RPO targets were met; document actual recovery times.
Reference Guide
Load detailed guidance based on context:
| Topic | Reference | Load When |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Services | references/aws.md | EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, Well-Architected Framework |
| Azure Services | references/azure.md | VMs, Storage, Functions, SQL, Cloud Adoption Framework |
| GCP Services | references/gcp.md | Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, BigQuery |
| Multi-Cloud | references/multi-cloud.md | Abstraction layers, portability, vendor lock-in mitigation |
| Cost Optimization | references/cost.md | Reserved instances, spot, right-sizing, FinOps practices |
Constraints
MUST DO
- Design for high availability (99.9%+)
- Implement security by design (zero-trust)
- Use infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation)
- Enable cost allocation tags and monitoring
- Plan disaster recovery with defined RTO/RPO
- Implement multi-region for critical workloads
- Use managed services when possible
- Document architectural decisions
MUST NOT DO
- Store credentials in code or public repos
- Skip encryption (at rest and in transit)
- Create single points of failure
- Ignore cost optimization opportunities
- Deploy without proper monitoring
- Use overly complex architectures
- Ignore compliance requirements
- Skip disaster recovery testing
Common Patterns with Examples
Least-Privilege IAM (Zero-Trust)
Rather than broad policies, scope permissions to specific resources and actions:
bash
# AWS: create a scoped role for an application
aws iam create-role \
--role-name AppRole \
--assume-role-policy-document file://trust-policy.json
aws iam put-role-policy \
--role-name AppRole \
--policy-name AppInlinePolicy \
--policy-document '{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"],
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-bucket/*"
}]
}'hcl
# Terraform equivalent
resource "aws_iam_role" "app_role" {
name = "AppRole"
assume_role_policy = data.aws_iam_policy_document.trust.json
}
resource "aws_iam_role_policy" "app_policy" {
role = aws_iam_role.app_role.id
policy = jsonencode({
Version = "2012-10-17"
Statement = [{
Effect = "Allow"
Action = ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"]
Resource = "${aws_s3_bucket.app.arn}/*"
}]
})
}VPC with Public/Private Subnets (Terraform)
hcl
resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
enable_dns_hostnames = true
tags = { Name = "main", CostCenter = var.cost_center }
}
resource "aws_subnet" "private" {
count = 2
vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id
cidr_block = cidrsubnet("10.0.0.0/16", 8, count.index)
availability_zone = data.aws_availability_zones.available.names[count.index]
}
resource "aws_subnet" "public" {
count = 2
vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id
cidr_block = cidrsubnet("10.0.0.0/16", 8, count.index + 10)
availability_zone = data.aws_availability_zones.available.names[count.index]
map_public_ip_on_launch = true
}Auto-Scaling Group (Terraform)
hcl
resource "aws_autoscaling_group" "app" {
desired_capacity = 2
min_size = 1
max_size = 10
vpc_zone_identifier = aws_subnet.private[*].id
launch_template {
id = aws_launch_template.app.id
version = "$Latest"
}
tag {
key = "CostCenter"
value = var.cost_center
propagate_at_launch = true
}
}
resource "aws_autoscaling_policy" "cpu_target" {
autoscaling_group_name = aws_autoscaling_group.app.name
policy_type = "TargetTrackingScaling"
target_tracking_configuration {
predefined_metric_specification {
predefined_metric_type = "ASGAverageCPUUtilization"
}
target_value = 60.0
}
}Cost Analysis CLI
bash
# AWS: identify top cost drivers for the last 30 days
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
--time-period Start=$(date -d '30 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
--granularity MONTHLY \
--metrics "UnblendedCost" \
--group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE \
--query 'ResultsByTime[0].Groups[*].{Service:Keys[0],Cost:Metrics.UnblendedCost.Amount}' \
--output table
# Azure: review spend by resource group
az consumption usage list \
--start-date $(date -d '30 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d) \
--end-date $(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
--query "[].{ResourceGroup:resourceGroup,Cost:pretaxCost,Currency:currency}" \
--output tableOutput Templates
When designing cloud architecture, provide:
- Architecture diagram with services and data flow
- Service selection rationale (compute, storage, database, networking)
- Security architecture (IAM, network segmentation, encryption)
- Cost estimation and optimization strategy
- Deployment approach and rollback plan
Maintained by @jeffallan, Principal Consultant at Synergetic Solutions
