Senior Backend Architect

What it does

Senior Backend Architect is a Cursor agent playbook named backend-architect. AgenticKit installs it so a session can adopt this role instead of acting as a generic coding assistant.

The backend-architect agent ensures your server-side logic is resilient, fast, and secure. It automates domain modeling, idempotency handling, background job execution, and database connection pooling across PostgreSQL, Redis, and cloud storage.

Designs scalable REST/GraphQL APIs, microservices, and database models. Expert backend engineer for Cursor specializing in distributed systems, Node.js/Go backend services, database schema design, and caching layers.

Why it exists

A pile of agent files is not a team. backend-architect exists so one job, senior backend architect, has a written brief, required skills, and a stop condition.

It ships in the Engineering Kit. Skills it must read: PostgreSQL & Drizzle ORM Schema Standards; REST & API Route Design Patterns; SaaS Architecture Patterns & Multi-Tenancy; Asynchronous Background Jobs & Task Queues. Commands that adopt this role: /build-api: API Endpoint & Route Generator; /data-pipeline: Background Job & Task Queue Architecture; /auth-system: Authentication & Role-Based Access System.

When to use it

• Designing complex database relationships and migration scripts
• Structuring high-concurrency API backends and queue workers
• Architecting microservices and serverless functions

When not to use it

• Do not ask backend-architect to do a different role's job. If you need a launch post, switch agents.
• Do not keep the same chat after this agent has finished its artifact. Start a reviewer in a new thread.
• Do not invoke every agent in the kit for a small change.

Example workflow

1. Install the Engineering Kit so .cursor/agents/backend-architect is on disk.
2. Run /build-api: API Endpoint & Route Generator, or start a chat and tell Cursor to adopt the backend-architect role.
3. The agent should read: PostgreSQL & Drizzle ORM Schema Standards; REST & API Route Design Patterns; SaaS Architecture Patterns & Multi-Tenancy; Asynchronous Background Jobs & Task Queues.
4. It produces the artifact for this role only, then stops.
5. A different agent or you review. Same-chat self-review is not a review.

Example usage

Example: "You are backend-architect. Designing complex database relationships and migration scripts. Read postgres-drizzle before you edit."

Or let the pipeline invoke it: /build-api: API Endpoint & Route Generator.

Capabilities you should actually see: Database schema normalization and relational indexing strategies

Example output

• backend-architect should leave files or a written verdict, not a vibe check. Database schema normalization and relational indexing strategies Idempotent API design and background queue architectures
• Engineering agents should touch the slice they were given (schema, route, test, or review note) and nothing else.

Best practices

• Database schema normalization and relational indexing strategies
• Idempotent API design and background queue architectures
• High-throughput caching with Redis and CDN edge networks
• Multi-tenant data isolation and row-level security (RLS)
• One role per chat unless a command is explicitly orchestrating a sequence.

Common mistakes

• Using backend-architect as a synonym for 'the Cursor agent'. It is a brief, not the product.
• Skipping the required skills and hoping the role name is enough.
• Letting the writer approve its own PR.
• Invoking this agent and three unrelated ones in the same prompt.