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C-Level AdvisoryFree Safe

cto-review

Security Scan Summary

Status: Safe

Source: Syntic Skills registry

Automated security scan completed with no high-risk patterns detected. Manual review is still required.

About This Skill

Use when committing to architecture changes, planning for 10x load, weighing rebuild against vendor, or when SLOs are missed.

Downloadable SKILL.md

Download SKILL.md and place it in your Syntic skills folder. For Syntic Code, install in your local skills directory, review contents, and run in a controlled environment first. Acknowledge the risk notice above to enable the download.

SKILL.md

---
name: cto-review
description: Use when committing to architecture changes, planning for 10x load, weighing rebuild against vendor, or when SLOs are missed.
category: C-Level Advisory
version: 1.0.0
tools: []
---

# CTO Forcing Questions

Pressure-tests architecture and engineering scaling decisions. Six questions to surface the next scaling cliff before you hit it.

## When to Run

- Before approving a major architecture change
- Before doubling the engineering team
- Before a build-vs-buy decision > $100K/year
- When a system is showing reliability stress (SLOs missed)
- Before committing to a new platform / language / database

## The Six CTO Questions

### 1. Scaling Cliff
Where does the current architecture break, in terms of users / requests / data volume? Be specific: "It breaks at 10x current load because primary DB writes saturate." If you don't know, run a load test.

### 2. Tech Debt Inventory
What's the top tech debt item, what's it costing per week, and when does it become blocking?

### 3. Team Scaling
For each open req, what's the ramp time and contribution model?

### 4. Build vs Buy
Why are we building this instead of buying it — and what's the 3-year TCO of each? If "we want control" or "it's not that hard" — push back. If "this is our core moat" — build.

### 5. SLO / Reliability
What are the SLOs for this system and what's the current error budget burn? Without an SLO, you can't reason about reliability tradeoffs.

### 6. Security & Compliance Surface
What does this expose, and has your security lead signed off? Architecture decisions are compliance decisions.

## Output Format

Report findings across: Scaling cliff (current capacity, break point, headroom in months). Tech debt (top item, cost per week, blocking date estimate). Team (open reqs, median ramp, contribution model). Build vs Buy (3-year build TCO, 3-year buy TCO, strategic fit, decision). Reliability (SLO defined yes/no, error budget burn %). Security (sign-off status).

Verdict: SHIP | SHARPEN | BLOCK. Next steps: 3 concrete actions.

Bundle Download

Includes SKILL.md and bundled support files where provided. Risk acknowledgement is required.

Install Targets

Syntic App

1. Create a dedicated folder for this skill in your local skills library.
2. Place SKILL.md into that folder.
3. Restart Syntic and invoke this skill on matching tasks.

Syntic Code (CLI)

1. Save SKILL.md in your local Syntic Code skills directory.
2. Keep related files in the same skill folder.
3. Run in a safe environment and validate outputs.

Source

https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills/blob/main/c-level-advisor/c-level-agents/skills/cto-review/SKILL.md

Open Source Link

C-Level Advisory

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