Codebase Design

Codebase Design is a Quality skill for Claude Code, published by stevesolun in ctx.

578 stars71 forkson stevesolun/ctxAdded 2026/08/25+1% in starsRepository updated 2026/08/24

agentsai-agentsanthropicautomationclaudeclaude-codecontext-managementdeveloper-toolsharnessknowledge-graphllmllm-wikimcpmicro-skillsobsidianreal-timerecommendation-engineskill-managementskillswiki

Install in seconds

Install Codebase Design

Copy Codebase Design into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/stevesolun/ctx/tree/main/.agents/skills/codebase-design ~/.claude/skills/codebase-design

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/stevesolun/ctx.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: .agents/skills/codebase-design/SKILL.md in stevesolun/ctx
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/codebase-design
Collection: One of 25 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: Quality — 1354 skills

What Codebase Design does

Codebase Design helps you shape module interfaces using deep-module heuristics. Use it when choosing seams, reducing caller complexity, improving testability, or comparing alternative designs.

Codebase Design is cataloged under Quality on DirSkills. Codebase Design comes from a repository tagged agents, ai-agents, anthropic, automation and claude.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

Codebase Design

Seek deep modules: substantial useful behavior behind a small, stable interface. Use the concepts below as design lenses, while matching the repository's established domain language.

Working vocabulary

Module: a coherent unit with an interface and implementation, at any scale.
Interface: everything callers must know, including invariants and failure modes—not just a type signature.
Seam: a location where behavior can vary without editing its callers.
Adapter: an implementation that connects at a seam.
Depth: useful capability relative to interface complexity.
Leverage: capability gained by callers; locality: change and knowledge concentrated for maintainers.

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Frequently asked about Codebase Design

What else does stevesolun publish alongside Codebase Design?
Codebase Design is one of 25 skills that DirSkills catalogs from stevesolun/ctx, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include Ask Matt, Code Review and Diagnosing Bugs. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way Codebase Design does, and is maintained by stevesolun in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the stevesolun/ctx page.
How does Codebase Design compare to other Quality skills?
Codebase Design ranks #1149 by stars among the 1354 Quality skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Benchmark, Benchmark Optimization Loop and API Design Patterns. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of Codebase Design against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.