c3
Use when working with C3 architecture docs - navigating, understanding, designing, or auditing.Triggers: "C3", "architecture", "where is X documented", "impact of changing X".
When & Why to Use This Skill
The C3 Architecture Assistant is a specialized Claude skill designed to manage, audit, and navigate C3 architecture documentation. It ensures architectural consistency by validating documentation against code, routing navigation queries, and orchestrating complex design changes while providing a structured onboarding path for new projects.
Use Cases
- System Auditing: Perform comprehensive audits of C3 documentation to verify the validity of ADRs (Architecture Decision Records), container diagrams, and technology references.
- Architectural Navigation: Quickly locate and understand specific system components, layers, or dependencies within a large-scale C3 documentation repository.
- Change Management: Orchestrate updates to architectural designs, ensuring that changes are reflected consistently across all related documentation and diagrams using specialized agents.
- Automated Onboarding: Initialize and guide the creation of C3 architecture documentation for new codebases that lack existing architectural standards through a staged learning loop.
- Content Separation Analysis: Use LLM-based analysis to detect duplicated patterns or missing technology references, ensuring domain logic and usage patterns are correctly separated.
| name | c3 |
|---|---|
| description | | |
C3 Architecture Assistant
REQUIRED: Load References
Before proceeding, use Glob to find and Read these files:
**/references/skill-harness.md- Red flags and complexity rules**/references/layer-navigation.md- How to traverse C3 docs
Mode Selection
| Condition | Mode |
|---|---|
No .c3/README.md |
Adopt - Route to /onboard skill |
Has .c3/ + "audit" intent |
Audit - Validate docs |
Has .c3/ + question/navigation |
Use c3-skill:c3-navigator agent |
Has .c3/ + change request |
Use c3-skill:c3-orchestrator agent |
Mode: Adopt
Route to /onboard skill for the full staged learning loop.
See skills/onboard/SKILL.md for the complete workflow.
Mode: Audit
REQUIRED: Load **/references/audit-checks.md for full procedure.
| Scope | Command |
|---|---|
| Full system | audit C3 |
| Container | audit container c3-1 |
| ADR | audit adr adr-YYYYMMDD-slug |
Checks: Inventory vs code, categorization, reference validity, diagrams, ADR lifecycle, abstraction boundaries, content separation
Content Separation Check (Phase 9):
- Verifies components contain domain logic, refs contain usage patterns
- Uses
c3-skill:c3-content-classifieragent for LLM-based analysis - Detects: missing refs for technologies, integration patterns in components, duplicated patterns
Example:
User: "Check if C3 docs are up to date"
1. Load audit-checks.md
2. Run Phase 1: Gather (list containers, components, ADRs)
3. Run Phase 2-9: Validate each check (including content separation)
4. Output audit report with PASS/FAIL/WARN per check
5. List actionable fixes for any failures