microservices-patterns
The microservices-patterns skill provides guidance for designing distributed systems through service decomposition strategies, inter-service communication approaches, and resilience patterns. Use this skill when decomposing monolithic applications into microservices, establishing service boundaries aligned with business capabilities or domain-driven design, implementing both synchronous and asynchronous communication mechanisms, managing data across independently deployed services, and building fault-tolerant distributed systems through patterns like circuit breakers and bulkheads.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wshobson/agents /tmp/microservices-patterns && cp -r /tmp/microservices-patterns/plugins/backend-development/skills/microservices-patterns ~/.claude/skills/microservices-patternsSKILL.md
# Microservices Patterns Master microservices architecture patterns including service boundaries, inter-service communication, data management, and resilience patterns for building distributed systems. ## When to Use This Skill - Decomposing monoliths into microservices - Designing service boundaries and contracts - Implementing inter-service communication - Managing distributed data and transactions - Building resilient distributed systems - Implementing service discovery and load balancing - Designing event-driven architectures ## Core Concepts ### 1. Service Decomposition Strategies **By Business Capability** - Organize services around business functions - Each service owns its domain - Example: OrderService, PaymentService, InventoryService **By Subdomain (DDD)** - Core domain, supporting subdomains - Bounded contexts map to services - Clear ownership and responsibility **Strangler Fig Pattern** - Gradually extract from monolith - New functionality as microservices - Proxy routes to old/new systems ### 2. Communication Patterns **Synchronous (Request/Response)** - REST APIs - gRPC - GraphQL **Asynchronous (Events/Messages)** - Event streaming (Kafka) - Message queues (RabbitMQ, SQS) - Pub/Sub patterns ### 3. Data Management **Database Per Service** - Each service owns its data - No shared databases - Loose coupling **Saga Pattern** - Distributed transactions - Compensating actions - Eventual consistency ### 4. Resilience Patterns **Circuit Breaker** - Fail fast on repeated errors - Prevent cascade failures **Retry with Backoff** - Transient fault handling - Exponential backoff **Bulkhead** - Isolate resources - Limit impact of failures ## Detailed patterns and worked examples Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
Test web applications with screen readers including VoiceOver, NVDA, and JAWS. Use when validating screen reader compatibility, debugging accessibility issues, or ensuring assistive technology support.
Conduct WCAG 2.2 accessibility audits with automated testing, manual verification, and remediation guidance. Use when auditing websites for accessibility, fixing WCAG violations, or implementing accessible design patterns.
Coordinate parallel code reviews across multiple quality dimensions with finding deduplication, severity calibration, and consolidated reporting. Use this skill when organizing multi-reviewer code reviews, calibrating finding severity, or consolidating review results.
Debug complex issues using competing hypotheses with parallel investigation, evidence collection, and root cause arbitration. Use this skill when debugging bugs with multiple potential causes, performing root cause analysis, or organizing parallel investigation workflows.
Coordinate parallel feature development with file ownership strategies, conflict avoidance rules, and integration patterns for multi-agent implementation. Use this skill when decomposing a large feature into independent work streams, when two or more agents need to implement different layers of the same system simultaneously, when establishing file ownership to prevent merge conflicts in a shared codebase, when designing interface contracts so parallel implementers can build against each other's APIs before they are ready, or when deciding whether to use vertical slices versus horizontal layers for a full-stack feature.
Decompose complex tasks, design dependency graphs, and coordinate multi-agent work with proper task descriptions and workload balancing. Use this skill when breaking down work for agent teams, managing task dependencies, or monitoring team progress.
Structured messaging protocols for agent team communication including message type selection, plan approval, shutdown procedures, and anti-patterns to avoid. Use this skill when establishing communication norms for a newly spawned team, when deciding whether to send a direct message or a broadcast, when a team-lead needs to review and approve an implementer's plan before work begins, when orchestrating a graceful team shutdown after all tasks are complete, or when debugging why teammates are not coordinating correctly at integration points.
Design optimal agent team compositions with sizing heuristics, preset configurations, and agent type selection. Use this skill when deciding how many agents to spawn for a task, when choosing between a review team versus a feature team versus a debug team, when selecting the correct subagent_type for each role to ensure agents have the tools they need, when configuring display modes (tmux, iTerm2, in-process) for a CI or local environment, or when building a custom team composition for a non-standard workflow such as a migration or security audit.