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Title

One-line summary

The prompt

I need to make an architecture decision and want a structured comparison, not a recommendation-first answer.

Decision to make: [E.G. MESSAGE QUEUE VS DIRECT HTTP CALLS BETWEEN SERVICES X AND Y]
Context: [SYSTEM DESCRIPTION, CURRENT SCALE, TEAM SIZE AND EXPERIENCE, EXISTING STACK]
Hard constraints: [BUDGET, DEADLINES, COMPLIANCE, TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARE FIXED]
What I am optimizing for, in priority order: [E.G. 1. OPERATIONAL SIMPLICITY 2. LATENCY 3. COST]

Produce:
1. Options: the candidates I named, plus at most one option I did not consider if a genuinely distinct one exists. Describe each in two or three sentences of concrete mechanism — what actually runs where — not category labels.
2. Comparison: evaluate every option against my stated priorities, in my priority order, plus these standing criteria: failure modes (what breaks, blast radius, recovery), operational load (what a normal week of running it involves), reversibility (cost of migrating away in a year), and fit with the team's experience.
3. Weakest points: state the strongest honest argument against each option, including the one you end up recommending.
4. Recommendation: pick one, justify it strictly in terms of my priorities, and state the conditions under which the recommendation flips (e.g. "if traffic exceeds N, or the team grows past M, choose option B instead").
5. Decision record: a short ADR I can commit — title, status, context, decision, consequences (positive and negative).

If my priorities conflict with a constraint, or the described scale does not warrant the complexity of any option, say so directly before comparing.

Write it so someone can paste it straight into Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and fill the [BRACKETS].