AI Architecture Prompts - From Eskil Steenberg's "Architecting LARGE Software Projects"

Transform any codebase into modular, replaceable "black boxes" using AI-powered architecture principles derived from Eskil Steenberg's legendary systems programming lecture.

🎯 What This Is

Three specialized AI prompts that teach Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor to think in terms of:

• Black box interfaces - Clean APIs between modules
• Replaceable components - If you can't understand it, rewrite it
• Constant velocity - Write 5 lines today vs. edit 1 line later
• Single responsibility - One module, one person

🔥 Real Results

Used these prompts to completely refactor Mentis - my React mention component that was plagued with DOM manipulation bugs. The AI suggested a black box DOM interface that now supports multiple frameworks with zero overhead.

Before: Tangled DOM manipulation breaking on every React update
After: Clean interface supporting React, Vue, Svelte, vanilla JS

📁 What's Included

• claude-code-prompt.md - For hands-on development and refactoring
• claude-prompt.md - For architectural planning and system design
• cursor-prompt.md - For debugging and testing strategies
• eskil-transcript.txt - Complete lecture transcript (1 hour of pure gold)
• examples/ - Real refactoring examples from Mentis
• usage-guide.md - How to combine with AI context tools

🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone this repo

git clone [email protected]:Alexanderdunlop/ai-architecture-prompts.git

2. Choose your AI tool and prompt

• Claude Code → Use claude-code-prompt.md
• Claude → Use claude-prompt.md
• Cursor → Use cursor-prompt.md

3. Extract your code context (recommended)

# For JavaScript/TypeScript
npx repomix --include "src/**" --output context.xml

# For Python
python onefilellm.py ./src/ --output context.xml

4. Apply the prompt

• Paste the prompt into your AI tool
• Include your code context
• Ask for architectural analysis

💡 Best Practices

For New Projects

Use the planning prompt first to establish your black box architecture, then implement with the development prompts.

For Refactoring Existing Code

1. Focus on single folders/modules at a time
2. Use context extraction tools for precise control
3. Let AI identify black box opportunities
4. Implement incrementally

The Magic Combination

These prompts work best with AI context tools:

• repomix (JS/TS)
• onefilellm (Python)

📖 Core Principles (From Eskil)

"It's faster to write five lines of code today than to write one line today and then have to edit it in the future."

• Constant developer velocity regardless of project size
• One module, one person - complete ownership and understanding
• Everything replaceable - modular components you can rewrite
• Black box interfaces - clean APIs hide implementation details
• Reusable modules - components that work across projects

🎬 Original Source

Watch Eskil Steenberg's complete lecture: Architecting LARGE Software Projects

This legend has built 3D engines, networked games, and complex systems all in C using these exact principles.

🛠️ Examples

Before (Tangled)

// DOM manipulation scattered throughout React components
const MentionInput = () => {
  const handleClick = (e) => {
    // Direct DOM manipulation
    const selection = window.getSelection();
    const range = selection.getRangeAt(0);
    // 50+ lines of cursor positioning logic...
  };
};

After (Black Box Interface)

// Clean interface - implementation details hidden
interface DOMAdapter {
  insertMention(mention: Mention, position: number): void;
  getCursorPosition(): number;
  updateContent(content: string): void;
}

// Now supports React, Vue, Svelte, vanilla JS
const MentionInput = ({ adapter }: { adapter: DOMAdapter }) => {
  const handleClick = () => adapter.insertMention(mention, position);
};

🔗 Related Resources

• Eskil's Video Architecting LARGE Software Projects
• Original Blog Post
• Mentis
• How I Turn Any GitHub Repo Into Perfect AI Context

🤝 Contributing

Found improvements to the prompts? Tried them on interesting projects? PRs welcome!

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Not affiliated with Anthropic, Eskil Steenberg, or any tools mentioned. These are battle-tested prompts from real development work.