Describe a clear, modular and scalable application architecture

Describing an application architecture is an essential step to align tech, product teams and sometimes even investors. This prompt helps you quickly formalize a clear, coherent and modular architecture, taking into account your technical choices, constraints, and components.

When to use this prompt

When designing a new product

To formalize an existing project to document

During technical refactoring phase

To present a stack to a partner or investor

What this prompt allows you to obtain

A detailed and readable structure of the architecture

Clear segmentation by layer (front, back, DB…)

Exportable output in Notion or technical doc

Help for onboarding or RFPs

Tips and mistakes to avoid

✓Do's

•Adapt detail level to audience (dev vs business)
•Be precise about tools but clear about roles
•Give business context to the architecture

✗Don'ts

•Don't forget security and scalability

Prompt Template

This is the base template with placeholders. Replace the placeholders with your specific information:

You are a software architect. Describe the complete architecture of an application whose use case is: {{app_use_case}}. The application includes: {{app_components}}. The technical constraints or imposed choices are: {{constraints}}. Structure the response with the following sections: 1) Overview, 2) Frontend, 3) Backend, 4) Database, 5) API or external services, 6) Security, 7) Scalability. {{additional_context_block}}

Placeholder descriptions:

{{app_use_case}}Application use case - ex: B2B marketplace, mobile booking app, SaaS dashboard, e-learning platform

{{app_components}}Technical components to include - ex: React frontend, Node.js backend, PostgreSQL database, Stripe API, S3 storage

{{constraints}}Technical constraints or choices - ex: cloud only, serverless, GDPR, microservices architecture, low latency

{{additional_context}}Other useful info (optional) - ex: global usage, multi-tenant architecture, legacy integration

Example of generated prompt

Here's an example with filled-in values:

You are a software architect. Describe the complete architecture of an application whose use case is: e-learning platform with video streaming. The application includes: Next.js frontend, Django backend, PostgreSQL database, Stripe API, S3 storage, video encoding service. The technical constraints or imposed choices are: global usage, GDPR, scalable cloud-native architecture. Structure the response with the following sections: 1) Overview, 2) Frontend, 3) Backend, 4) Database, 5) API or external services, 6) Security, 7) Scalability. Also add these details: multi-tenant solution for schools and partial offline access.

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