cto-review

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

/cs:cto-review <plan> — Architecture and scaling interrogation. Tech debt, scaling cliffs, team scaling, build-vs-buy.

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npx skill4agent add alirezarezvani/claude-skills cto-review

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
cto-reviewarchitecture-scalingtech-debtbuild-vs-buyteam-scaling

SKILL.md Content

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/cs:cto-review — CTO Forcing Questions

Command: 
/cs:cto-review <plan>
Pressure-tests architecture and engineering scaling decisions. Six questions to surface the next scaling cliff before you hit it.

When to Run

  • Before approving a major architecture change
  • Before doubling the engineering team
  • Before a build-vs-buy decision > $100K/year
  • When a system is showing reliability stress (SLOs missed)
  • Before committing to a new platform / language / DB

The Six CTO Questions

1. Scaling Cliff

Where does the current architecture break, in terms of users / requests / data volume?
  • Be specific. "It breaks at 10× current load because the primary DB writes saturate."
  • If you don't know, run a load test before deciding.

2. Tech Debt Inventory

What's the top tech debt item, what's it costing per week, and when does it become blocking?
bash
python ../../../skills/cto-advisor/scripts/tech_debt_analyzer.py

3. Team Scaling

For each open req, what's the ramp time and contribution model?
bash
python ../../../skills/cto-advisor/scripts/team_scaling_calculator.py

4. Build vs Buy

Why are we building this instead of buying it — and what's the 3-year TCO of each?
  • If "we want control" or "it's not that hard" — push back.
  • If the answer is "this is our core moat," build.

5. SLO / Reliability

What are the SLOs for this system and what's the current error budget burn?
  • Without an SLO, you can't reason about reliability tradeoffs.
  • See 
    engineering/slo-architect
    for SLO design.

6. Security & Compliance Surface

What does this expose, and has cs-ciso-advisor signed off?
  • Architecture decisions are compliance decisions.
  • Loop in cs-ciso-advisor before commit.

Workflow

  1. Run the tech debt analyzer + team scaling calculator
  2. Define the scaling-cliff hypothesis explicitly
  3. Cross-check with cs-ciso-advisor for security implications
  4. Apply the verdict

Output Format

markdown
# CTO Review: <plan>
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD

## Scaling Cliff
- Current capacity: <metric>
- Break point: <metric>
- Headroom: X months at current growth

## Tech Debt
- Top item: <description>
- Cost per week: $X or N eng-hours
- Blocking date estimate: <date>

## Team
- Open reqs: N
- Median ramp: X months
- Contribution model: <pairing / squad / area>

## Build vs Buy
- 3-year build TCO: $X
- 3-year buy TCO: $X
- Strategic fit: <core / context>
- Decision: BUILD | BUY

## Reliability
- SLO defined: yes / no
- Error budget burn: X% (target < Y%)

## Security
- cs-ciso sign-off: ✅ / ❌

## Verdict
🟢 SHIP | 🟡 SHARPEN | 🔴 BLOCK

## Next Steps
[3 concrete actions]

Routing

  • /cs:ciso-review
    — mandatory if data surface changes
  • /cs:cfo-review
    — for build-vs-buy > $100K
  • /cs:execute
    — quarterly plan
  • /cs:boardroom
    — for architecture pivots

Related

  • Agent: 
    cs-cto-advisor
  • Skill: 
    cto-advisor
  • SLO: 
    ../../../../engineering/slo-architect/
Version: 1.0.0