Arness Infra Assess

Perform a comprehensive infrastructure assessment of the application. Read the deferred backlog (if exists), analyze the complete application codebase, ask structured assessment questions, and produce a prioritized infrastructure backlog published as issues to the issue tracker.

This skill serves two primary use cases:

1. Un-deferring: When the user deferred infrastructure during arn-infra-init and is now ready to plan it
2. Fresh assessment: When the user wants a comprehensive infrastructure review of an existing application

Step 0: Ensure Configuration

Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/arn-infra-ensure-config/references/ensure-config.md and follow its instructions. This guarantees a user profile exists and ## Arness is configured with Arness Infra fields before proceeding.

After Step 0 completes, read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/arn-infra-ensure-config/references/experience-derivation.md and derive the user's infrastructure experience level from their profile.

Check for at least one Arness Infra-specific field (Infra plans directory or Infra specs directory) within ## Arness. If neither is present, Arness Infra has not been fully configured (the ## Arness section may exist from ensure-config defaults or another plugin). This is acceptable -- assess can still run with defaults.

Extract:

• Deferred -- if yes, read the deferred backlog
• Project topology -- how to resolve the application project
• Application path -- path to the application project root
• Providers -- configured providers (may be minimal if deferred)
• Experience level -- derived from user profile (see experience-derivation.md). If no profile exists, check for legacy Experience level in ## Arness as fallback.
• Issue tracker -- where to publish backlog items
• Jira site and Jira project -- if Issue tracker is jira

Workflow

Step 1: Check Deferred Status and Load Backlog

If Deferred: yes:

1. Read .arness/infra/deferred-backlog.md if it exists
2. Inform the user: "You previously deferred infrastructure planning. I found [N] accumulated infrastructure observations from your feature development. These will seed the assessment."
3. Present the deferred backlog items for context

If Deferred: no (or missing): Continue to Step 2 without deferred backlog context.

Step 2: Resolve Application Context

Resolve the application project based on topology:

Monorepo (Application path: .):

• Read codebase patterns from the local code-patterns directory
• Read architecture.md for technology stack and dependencies
• Scan the source tree for infrastructure-relevant patterns

Separate repo:

• Navigate to Application path
• Read the application's ## Arness config, code patterns, and architecture
• If the path is unreachable, inform the user and ask them to describe the application stack manually

Infra-only:

• No application to analyze
• Ask the user to describe the application or provide a list of services and their requirements
• Proceed with user-provided context

Step 3: Full Application Analysis

Invoke the arn-infra-request-analyzer agent in Mode B (full application analysis). Pass the loaded codebase patterns, architecture content, deferred backlog (if any), and infrastructure config fields as structured context.

Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/arn-infra-assess/references/agent-invocation-guide.md for the exact prompt template and expected return format.

The agent returns a comprehensive analysis covering application components, data layer, external integrations, networking, security, and performance indicators.

Step 4: Structured Assessment Questions

Ask the user structured questions to refine the infrastructure requirements. Adapt question depth based on experience level.

Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/arn-infra-assess/references/assessment-questionnaire.md for the full question set with options, beginner versions, and selection logic.

Select questions using the Question Selection Logic from the questionnaire reference:

• Always ask: Availability (Q1), Traffic (Q2), Budget (Q4)
• Conditional: Traffic patterns (Q3), Compliance (Q5), Geography (Q6), Latency (Q7), Data volume (Q8) -- based on application analysis results

For beginner experience level, use the simplified question versions from the reference and cap at 4-5 questions total.

Step 5: Produce Prioritized Infrastructure Backlog

Combine the agent's analysis with the user's answers to produce a prioritized backlog.

Categorize each item into one of three priority levels: Foundation (must-do-first, e.g., compute, primary database, networking), Core (important for production readiness, e.g., caching, object storage, monitoring), or Enhancement (incremental improvements, e.g., CDN, auto-scaling, DR).

For each backlog item, produce structured content following the backlog item template.

Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/arn-infra-assess/references/backlog-item-template.md for the item format and priority guidelines.

Step 6: Publish Backlog to Issue Tracker

GitHub: For each backlog item, create an issue:

gh issue create --title "[arn-infra] [Component]: [brief description]" --body "[backlog item content]" --label "arn-infra-backlog"

Jira: For each backlog item, create a Jira issue via the Atlassian MCP in the configured project with the arn-infra-backlog label.

No tracker: Write all backlog items to .arness/infra/backlog.md as a fallback:

# Infrastructure Backlog

Generated by arn-infra-assess on [date].

## Foundation
### [Item 1]
[content]

## Core
### [Item 2]
[content]

## Enhancement
### [Item 3]
[content]

Step 7: Update Deferred Status

If the assessment was triggered from deferred mode:

1. Update ## Arness in CLAUDE.md: set Deferred: no

2. If provider configuration is still minimal (from deferred init), offer to run the full provider setup:

   Ask (using AskUserQuestion):

   "Your provider configuration was minimal from the deferred init. Would you like to configure providers now?"

   Options:

   1. Yes -- Guide through the provider selection flow (same as arn-infra-init Step 3)
   2. No -- Continue with the current minimal config

Step 8: Present Summary

Present the assessment results:

Assessment Summary:

• Application components analyzed: [count]
• Deferred backlog items processed: [count] (or "N/A")
• Infrastructure backlog items created: [count]
  • Foundation: [count] items
  • Core: [count] items
  • Enhancement: [count] items
• Estimated total monthly cost: $[min] - $[max]
• Published to: [GitHub Issues / Jira / .arness/infra/backlog.md]

Recommended next steps:

"Infrastructure backlog is ready. Here is the recommended path:

1. Discover tools: Run /arn-infra-discover to ensure you have the right tools installed (if not done already)
2. Work through the backlog: Start with Foundation items:
   • Pick a backlog issue and run /arn-infra-triage to analyze it in detail
   • Then run /arn-infra-define to generate infrastructure code
   • Or run /arn-infra-wizard for the full guided pipeline

Each backlog issue can be individually triaged -- the implications brief is embedded in the issue content.

Alternatively, for complex changes that need review gates and audit trails:

• Run /arn-infra-change-spec to create a structured change specification from a backlog item
• Then follow the full change pipeline: change-plan, save-plan, execute-change, review-change, document-change
• Or run /arn-infra-wizard and select Full Pipeline mode"

Error Handling

• ## Arness config missing: Step 0 (ensure-config) handles this automatically. If ensure-config itself fails, suggest running /arn-infra-assess again.
• Application path unreachable: Ask the user to describe the application stack manually. Continue with user-provided context.
• Request analyzer agent fails: Fall back to a manual assessment flow: present the assessment questions, gather answers, and produce a simplified backlog based on user input alone (without automated codebase analysis).
• Request analyzer returns empty output: Inform: "The analyzer could not determine infrastructure needs from the codebase. This may indicate a very simple application or incomplete codebase patterns." Proceed with the questionnaire-based approach.
• Issue creation fails: If publishing to the issue tracker fails, fall back to writing .arness/infra/backlog.md. Inform the user of the fallback.
• Deferred backlog file missing: If Deferred: yes but .arness/infra/deferred-backlog.md does not exist, create it as empty and proceed without deferred context. No backlog items is a valid state.
• No providers configured (deferred mode): If the assessment runs from deferred mode with minimal config, the assessment still works -- it produces provider-agnostic backlog items. Provider-specific recommendations are added when providers are configured.
• Re-running is safe: Re-assessment creates new backlog issues. Existing issues are not duplicated (check for existing issues with the same title before creating).