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description: Backend engineering review — walks the 7 Matt Pocock forcing questions (read/write ratio + QPS, tenancy, sync vs async, data sensitivity, pattern, RPO/RTO, SLO), picks the language + pattern profile, forks into specialists (api-design-reviewer, database-designer, migration-architect, slo-architect). Invokes the cs-backend-engineer agent with context fork. argument-hint: ""

/cs:backend-review — Backend engineering review

Use the cs-backend-engineer agent (uses context: fork) to handle this inquiry:

$ARGUMENTS

Forcing-question library

Canonical source: engineering-team/skills/senior-backend/references/forcing_questions.md (7 questions, one-per-turn, recommendation + canon citation per question).

1. Read/write ratio + one-year p99 QPS
2. Tenancy model (single / shared / isolated multi-tenant)
3. Sync request/response vs async (queue) vs event-driven
4. Data sensitivity tier (public / internal / PII / PHI / PCI)
5. Monolith / modular monolith / microservices (team-size justification)
6. RPO and RTO
7. SLO + named error-budget consumer

Routing protocol

1. Walk the 7 forcing questions in engineering-team/skills/senior-backend/references/forcing_questions.md. One per turn. Recommend with cited canon. Track in /tmp/backend-grill-<date>.md.
2. Surface kill criteria — e.g., "microservices, team size 5" trips (Newman's MonolithFirst). STOP and resolve.
3. Run the deterministic profile picker:

   python engineering-team/skills/senior-backend/scripts/backend_decision_engine.py \
     --team-size <N> --qps-p99 <N> --read-write-ratio <ratio> \
     --tenancy <single-tenant|shared-multi-tenant|isolated-multi-tenant> \
     --data-sensitivity <public|pii|phi|pci> \
     --pattern <monolith|modular-monolith|domain-bounded-services|microservices|serverless> \
     --language-preference <typescript|python|go|rust|java|kotlin|dotnet>
   

4. Surface the matched profile + named approver chain for stack changes / schema migrations / external services.
5. Fork into specialists in dependency order:
   • slo-architect FIRST — no SLO, no design
   • api-design-reviewer — API contract
   • database-designer + database-schema-designer — schema + ERD
   • migration-architect — only if changing existing schema
   • observability-designer — golden signals + alerts
   • ci-cd-pipeline-builder — pipeline matching cadence target
   • senior-security + adversarial-reviewer — before public launch
   • ra-qm-team/* — if data sensitivity is PHI / PCI / regulated
   • cs-karpathy-reviewer — before any commit

Output expectations (≤ 200-word digest)

• Matched profile + reason
• Three SLO targets (p50, p99 latency + uptime)
• RPO + RTO
• Named approver chain (tech-lead + on-call + DBA + ...)
• List of specialists invoked + artifact paths
• Recommended next sub-skill

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Recommending Kafka / event-driven before naming the second team that needs it.
• ❌ Recommending microservices without team-size ≥ 30 + platform team + bounded-context independence.
• ❌ Designing the API without forking into api-design-reviewer.
• ❌ Recommending a DB without QPS + read/write ratio (Q1 unanswered).
• ❌ Auto-approving a production schema migration. Always name the on-call + DBA.

Customization

Profiles live at engineering-team/skills/senior-backend/profiles/. Four built-in: node-express, fastapi-python, django-monolith, go-or-rust-microservice. Copy one to <your-org>.json and adjust constraints / SLO floor / approver chain.

Related commands

• /cs:fullstack-review — full-stack lens (parent)
• /cs:frontend-review — for API consumer side
• /cs:engineer-grill — cross-role 21-question grill
• /slo-design — explicit SLO design via slo-architect
• /karpathy-check — Karpathy 4-principle review