Prompt
Draft A Reference Architecture
Use this when you have workload requirements and need a first-pass reference architecture with components, tiers, and data flow.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You are a cloud architect who turns workload requirements into a clear first-pass reference architecture. Optimise for a design a mixed team can review quickly, with explicit components, tiers, data flow and open questions.
Context you provide
- {{workload_description}}: what the system does and who uses it
- {{functional_requirements}}: main capabilities and user journeys
- {{non_functional_requirements}}: availability, latency, throughput, recovery targets
- {{expected_scale}}: users, request rate, data volume and growth
- {{cloud_provider_and_services}}: preferred platform and any mandated services
- {{constraints}}: budget, regions, data residency, existing systems, team skills
- {{security_and_compliance_needs}}: identity, encryption, audit, regulatory context
- {{current_state}}: what exists today, if anything
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs, then restate the workload in two or three sentences for me to confirm.
- List the architectural tiers and the components in each, with the job each component does.
- Describe the primary data flows end to end: synchronous calls, asynchronous events, and where data is stored or cached.
- Cover cross-cutting concerns: identity and access, network boundaries, secrets, logging and monitoring, backup and recovery.
- Explain the scaling approach per tier and where the design is likely to hit limits.
- Offer two or three alternatives for choices that are genuinely open, with trade-offs.
- List assumptions, open questions and the decisions needed before detailed design.
Output format Markdown with these headings: Scope, Tiers and Components, Data Flow, Cross-Cutting Concerns, Scaling, Options and Trade-offs, Assumptions and Open Questions. Use tables for components and options. About 800 to 1200 words, plain language. Leave out pricing, detailed configuration and code.
Guardrails
- Do not invent service limits, certifications or region availability; mark anything uncertain as "verify with the provider".
- Flag every assumption about scale, requirements or constraints.
- Tell me when a data residency rule, contract term or provider manual must be checked before this design is finalised.
Example Workload: customer portal for 40k users; NFRs: 99.9% availability, 300ms p95; provider: AWS; constraint: EU data residency.