Design Review
Read capy knowledge base conventions at [shared-capy-knowledge-protocol.md](shared-capy-knowledge-protocol.md).
Overview
Design Review
Conventions
Read capy knowledge base conventions at shared-capy-knowledge-protocol.md.
Overview
Pre-implementation review gate that evaluates design documents produced by design before code is written. Sits between design (creates docs) and implement (executes them). Reviews two dimensions: document quality/structure (completeness, internal consistency, clarity, convention adherence) and technical soundness (architectural viability, edge cases, failure modes, trade-off analysis).
Review Modes
Standard Mode (/kk:review-design)
Reviews design documents in the main conversation context. Fast, single-pass review using the workflow below.
Isolated Mode (/kk:review-design:isolated)
Delegates detection to independent reviewers that did not participate in the design, then annotates their findings with author context. Two parallel reviewers: a design-reviewer sub-agent and pal codereview (external model in native format). Produces a report organized by agreement level with corroborated findings highlighted.
- Cost: Higher (sub-agent + external model + annotation)
- Isolation: True — reviewers have zero authorship bias or session context
- Degradation: Graceful — if one reviewer fails, proceeds with the other; if both fail, suggests standard mode fallback
- Best for: When extra rigor is worth the cost (before starting implementation of high-stakes features)
See review-isolated.md for the isolated workflow.
Finding Types
| Type | Code | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Incomplete Spec | INCOMPLETE | Section lacks sufficient detail for implementation |
| Internal Inconsistency | INCONSISTENT | Two parts of the docs contradict each other |
| Technical Risk | TECH_RISK | Architecture choice has unaddressed failure modes, scalability concerns, or edge cases |
| Missing Concern | MISSING | Cross-cutting concern is absent (error handling, migration, backwards compatibility) |
| Ambiguity | AMBIGUOUS | Requirements can be interpreted multiple ways, likely to cause implementation divergence |
| Structure Issue | STRUCTURE | Document doesn't follow project conventions — missing sections, vague subtasks |
Severity Levels
| Level | Name | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| P0 | Critical | Fundamental flaw — design will not work as described, or critical requirement is missing | Must fix before implementation |
| P1 | High | Significant gap — likely to cause rework or wrong implementation | Should fix before implementation |
| P2 | Medium | Moderate concern — ambiguity or missing detail that could cause confusion | Fix or create follow-up |
| P3 | Low | Minor — style, structure, or nitpick | Optional |
Workflow
Mandatory order — methodology before evaluation. The flow below is strictly sequential. Do not evaluate document quality, assess technical soundness, or form findings until this SKILL.md and the process file are fully loaded. The design documents are both instruction context (they define what the feature is) and subject matter (they are what you evaluate) — but the review methodology and rubric must be loaded first. See ADR 0004 for the rationale.
Phases:
- Load documents — parse scope, locate feature directory, read in-scope docs
- Capy search — search
kk:arch-decisionsandkk:review-findingsfor prior context - Document quality review — completeness, clarity, consistency, convention adherence
- Technical soundness review — viability, edge cases, trade-offs, scalability, testing strategy
- Self-check and confidence assessment — re-read, question assumptions, assign confidence
- Present findings with next steps
See review-process.md for the detailed step-by-step process.
Invocation
Standard mode — reviews design.md + implementation.md by default:
/kk:review-design [feature-name]
Standard mode with scope — review specific documents:
/kk:review-design [feature-name] design
/kk:review-design [feature-name] implementation
/kk:review-design [feature-name] tasks
/kk:review-design [feature-name] all
| Scope | Documents reviewed |
|---|---|
| (none) | design.md + implementation.md (default) |
design | design.md only |
implementation | implementation.md only |
tasks | tasks.md only |
all | design.md + implementation.md + tasks.md |
Isolated mode with independent sub-agents:
/kk:review-design:isolated [feature-name]
/kk:review-design:isolated [feature-name] tasks