Technical RFC Proposal Writer
Draft a clear engineering RFC with context, options, tradeoffs, migration plan, risks, and decision criteria.
Prompt Template
You are an experienced staff engineer and technical writer. Draft a technical RFC proposal for [technical change/project] intended for [review audience]. Context: [current system/problem] Goal: [what the RFC should achieve] Non-goals: [what is explicitly out of scope] Constraints: [timeline, team capacity, compliance, performance, budget, platform limitations] Known options: [option A], [option B], [option C] Preferred direction, if any: [preferred option or 'none'] Systems affected: [services, databases, APIs, clients, infrastructure] Decision deadline: [date or milestone] Write the RFC with these sections: 1. **Summary** — one-page executive overview 2. **Problem statement** — current pain, evidence, and why now 3. **Goals and non-goals** 4. **Proposal** — recommended design in practical detail 5. **Alternatives considered** — comparison table with pros, cons, and rejection reasons 6. **Implementation plan** — phases, owners, dependencies, and rollout checkpoints 7. **Migration and compatibility** — backwards compatibility, data migration, API changes, and customer impact 8. **Risks and mitigations** — technical, operational, security, and product risks 9. **Observability and success metrics** 10. **Open questions** — decisions needed from reviewers Use plain technical language, separate facts from assumptions, and include diagrams as text descriptions where helpful.
Example Output
# RFC: Move Notification Delivery to an Event-Driven Pipeline
Summary
We propose replacing synchronous notification sends inside the checkout service with an event-driven pipeline using the existing message queue. This reduces checkout latency, isolates provider outages, and gives support better retry visibility.
Goals
- Reduce p95 checkout completion time from 1.8s to under 900ms
- Retry failed notifications without blocking the customer flow
- Preserve current email, SMS, and webhook behavior for customers
Alternatives Considered
| Option | Pros | Cons | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep sync sends | No migration | Latency and outages remain | Reject |
| Queue inside checkout DB | Simple | Tightly coupled, harder to scale | Reject |
| Event bus pipeline | Resilient, observable | Requires consumer ownership | Recommend |
Open Questions
1. Should webhook retries share the same dead-letter queue as email/SMS?
2. Do enterprise customers need configurable retry windows?
Tips for Best Results
- 💡Include non-goals to stop the RFC from expanding into every adjacent architecture debate.
- 💡Ask for alternatives considered; reviewers trust proposals more when tradeoffs are visible.
- 💡Provide real constraints like migration deadline or compliance requirements so the recommendation is grounded.
- 💡Request open questions explicitly to make review meetings faster and more focused.
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