ClaudSkills / Engineering / architecture

Software Design

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Software Design skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Software Design is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Engineering category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: Engineering · Sub-category: architecture · Last updated: 2026-05-21

Software design principles, patterns, and architecture from SOLID through distributed systems. Covers the five SOLID principles with violations and fixes, DRY/KISS/YAGNI heuristics, separation of concerns, 12 GoF design patterns organized by intent (creational, structural, behavioral), architectural patterns (MVC, MVP, MVVM, layered, hexagonal, microservices, event-driven), coupling and cohesion metrics, dependency injection, and the design decision framework for choosing between competing approaches. Use when making design decisions, reviewing architecture, refactoring code, or teaching software engineering principles.

Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›

About this skill (catalog notes)

Software Design includes pricing or quota commentary. At roughly 2,296 words the SKILL.md is on the longer end of the catalog distribution.

Original author: dev-goraebap
Indexed lastmod: 2026-05-21
Catalog position: Engineering · architecture
Indexed related skills: 10

How Software Design fits the catalog

Software Design sits in the Engineering category under the architecture sub-topic in the ClaudSkills catalog. There are 10 related skills indexed alongside it; comparing a few before installing usually reveals which fits your workflow best.

These notes are auto-generated from features detected in the SKILL.md file and from this catalog's structure — they aren't part of the source repository.

From the source SKILL.md

Software design is the discipline of organizing code so that it is correct, understandable, and changeable. A well-designed system makes the right things easy and the wrong things hard. This skill catalogs the principles, patterns, and architectural styles that professional software engineers use to achieve this, with emphasis on when each applies and when it does not.

What this skill does

Software Design is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the architecture sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/software-design/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

When to invoke it: Use when making design decisions, reviewing architecture, refactoring code, or teaching software engineering principles.

Who uses this skill

The Software Design Claude Code skill is built for software engineers, backend developers, full-stack teams, and technical leads building and maintaining production systems. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 158,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/software-design
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/software-design/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/software-design/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/software-design/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/software-design/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\software-design\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Software Design Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/software-design/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Software Design skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Software Design skill?

Use Software Design when your Claude Code task falls under the Engineering category — specifically in the architecture area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Software Design" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/engineering/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Software Design skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Software Design is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Engineering category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/dev-goraebap/grimoire/blob/HEAD/ddd-workshop/skills/software-design/SKILL.md
Author: dev-goraebap

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

dev-goraebap. (2026). Software Design [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/software-design/

BibTeX

@misc{software-design-2026,
  author    = {dev-goraebap},
  title     = {Software Design [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/software-design/}
}

Embed this skill

Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →

Badge

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Security scan

Grade A · scanned 2026-07-23 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.

No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›

✓ Prompt injection
✓ Data exfiltration
✓ Supply chain
✓ Reverse shell
✓ Credentials
✓ Execution
✓ Filesystem
✓ Persistence
✓ Obfuscation
✓ Network

Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):

[![Security: A](https://img.shields.io/badge/Security-A-2e7d32)](https://claudskills.com/skills/software-design/#security)

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Browse all Engineering skills in the ClaudSkills registry, or explore these other picks from the same category:

Browse all Engineering skills → Top 100 skills

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