Technical Design Document
By Wei · Published · Updated
Drafts a technical design document with goals, non-goals, the proposed design, alternatives, risks and rollout, ready for review by other engineers.
Prompt template
## Technical Design Document Draft a design doc for this project. - Project name: [text: Short name] - Problem: [textarea: What is wrong today and who feels it] - Scale and constraints: [textarea: Traffic or data size or budget or deadline] - Rough approach: [textarea: What you plan to build] - Systems it touches: [textarea: Services or databases or teams involved] - Reviewers: [text: Who needs to sign off] - Document length: [dropdown: One page, Three pages, Full detail] Write it so a reviewer can disagree with it precisely. Start with the problem and measurable goals, then explicit non-goals that stop scope creep. Describe the design at the level the reviewers need: components, data flow, interfaces, data model changes and failure behaviour, with a diagram described in text if useful. Include at least two alternatives with the reason each was not chosen. Add sections for security and privacy, testing, observability, and migration or rollout with the order of steps and how to back out. List risks with likelihood, impact and mitigation, and open questions that need an answer before work starts, each with an owner. Close with a rough milestone list. Use plain language and numbers wherever the input allows, and flag any assumption you made that the author should confirm.