/google-cloud-solution-architecture

name: google-cloud-solution-architecture
metadata:
  category: MultiProductSolutions
description: >-
  Interactively discovers requirements for a specific cloud workload and
  generates design recommendations and architectural guidance to build a
  multi-product solution in Google Cloud. Use this skill to generate holistic,
  end-to-end design recommendations and architectural guidance for complex,
  multi-product workloads on Google Cloud for specific use cases. Don't use this
  skill when other specialized skills (e.g., product-specific or
  google-cloud-recipe-*) directly address the user's workload or use case.

Google Cloud solution-architecture workflow

Overview of the workflow

The workflow consists of the following phases:

• **Phase 1: Requirements discovery**. Gather detailed requirements related to

the cloud workload or use case that the user needs assistance for.

• **Phase 2: Solution architecture**. Use the requirements that were gathered

in Phase 1 to generate a detailed solution architecture for the cloud workload or use case.

• **Phase 3: Solution validation**. Create a plan to validate the generated

solution, generate validation instructions and scripts, and provide them to the user to execute (or perform a dry-run validation with explicit permission from the user).

• **Phase 4: Solution packing and presentation**. Consolidate the generated

content and present the solution.

**Important notes about the workflow**:

• **Strict phase separation**: During Phase 1 (Requirements discovery), when

you ask the user clarifying questions, don't recommend, propose, or outline any architectural designs, technical decompositions, cloud services, or component mappings. Proposing solutions before functional and non-functional requirements are thoroughly assessed causes confirmation bias and risks anchoring the solution on specific products, features, or tools prematurely.

• **Iterative approval & task transitions**: For each deliverable in this

workflow (technical decompositions, product recommendations, diagrams, architectural descriptions, and deployment scripts), explicitly present your output to the user for approval. If the user requests modifications, iteratively revise the content until approved before progressing to the subsequent task or phase.

• **No autonomous execution of code and scripts**: Don't run any scripts or

code that you generate without explicit, unambiguous permission from the user. Executing scripts autonomously can provision unintended cloud resources (incurring unexpected costs), mutate live infrastructure, or pose security and safety risks. Always offer the option for the user to execute the commands manually.

• **When you can skip certain phases**: If the user's prompt indicates that a

specific phase or task in this workflow is already completed or approved (e.g., "requirements discovery stage is completed", "product selection is approved", or "architecture is confirmed"), don't repeat that phase or task. Instead, skip directly to the requested task (such as generating the technical decomposition, recommending products, or compiling the solution guide).

Phase 1: Requirements discovery

1. Gather the following requirements related to the workload or use case for which the user needs assistance.

**CRITICAL**: You MUST NOT generate any architecture designs, product recommendations, or technical decompositions until the user provides these requirements.

• **Functional requirements**: Ask the user to describe the business

processes, activities, and use cases of their workload.

• **Non-functional requirements**: Ask the user to describe requirements

for security, privacy, compliance, reliability, disaster recovery, cost, operations, performance, and sustainability.

• **CRITICAL**: If non-functional requirements are missing or

incomplete, you MUST ask the user to describe the requirements and explicitly explain why they are important (e.g., because they directly dictate operational SLAs, availability tiers, scaling configuration, cost budgets, resource types, and the security posture) when asking the user to supply them.

• **Current state**: Ask whether the workload currently runs on other

cloud providers or on-premises (if yes, prompt for the architecture of the existing deployment).

• **System dependencies**: Ask the user to describe any dependencies

between their application and other workloads, products, systems, or tools.

2. Review the input that the user has provided so far, and check whether there are any ambiguities or contradictions (e.g., conflicting goals like complete network isolation with zero internet exposure vs. real-time ingestion from public APIs).

If you identify any ambiguities or contradictions in the user's requirements, you must:

• Clearly describe the ambiguities and contradictions.
• Explain why the contradictory requirements cannot be simultaneously

satisfied.

• Request the user to clarify their trade-off preferences and choices to

resolve the ambiguities and contradictions.

• If the user delegates the choice to you (e.g., the user replies with

"do what you think is best" or "you decide"), then provide a clear suggestion to resolve the ambiguity or contradiction, explain your reasoning, and ask the user to approve your suggestion.

**CRITICAL**: Until all the ambiguities and contradictions that you identify are resolved, don't recommend or generate any architecture design, technical decomposition, or Google Cloud product recommendations. Ambiguous or contradictory requirements lead to invalid architectural as