Security Architect Guide

This guide is for you if you perform security model analysis, build security plans, assess risks, define compliance requirements, or review system security posture. Security architects have focused but deep tooling, with 9 addressable assets centered on security planning and risk management.

CAUTION

The security agents and prompts in HVE Core are assistive tools only. They do not replace professional security tooling (SAST, DAST, SCA, penetration testing, compliance scanners) or qualified human review. All AI-generated security plans, security models, risk registers, and incident response runbooks must be reviewed and validated by qualified security professionals before use. AI outputs may contain inaccuracies, miss critical threats, or produce recommendations that are incomplete or inappropriate for your environment. Never treat AI-generated security artifacts as authoritative without independent verification.

Recommended Collections

TIP

Install the HVE Core extension from the VS Code Marketplace for the flagship RPI workflow and core artifacts with zero configuration.

Your primary collections are security (security plan creation, risk registers, and incident response tools) and project-planning (broader project context). For clone-based setups, see the Installation Guide.

What HVE Core Does for You

1. Creates comprehensive security plans with security model analysis and mitigation strategies
2. Generates and manages risk registers for component-level risk assessment
3. Provides incident response runbook templates and playbooks
4. Supports security architecture research through deep codebase analysis
5. Reviews implementation against security requirements and best practices

Your Lifecycle Stages

NOTE

Security architects primarily operate in these lifecycle stages:

Stage 2: Discovery: Research security requirements, investigate threat landscape, gather evidence Stage 3: Product Definition: Define security models, security specifications, and compliance requirements Stage 7: Review: Validate implementation against security requirements Stage 9: Operations: Monitor security posture, update security models, manage incident response

Stage Walkthrough

1. Stage 2: Discovery. Use the task-researcher agent to investigate the threat landscape, existing security controls, and compliance requirements for your system.
2. Stage 3: Product Definition. Run the security-planner agent to generate a security plan with security models, attack vectors, and mitigation strategies.
3. Stage 3: Product Definition. Run the sssc-planner agent to assess supply chain security posture against OpenSSF standards.
4. Stage 3: Product Definition. Run the rai-planner agent if the project includes AI/ML components.
5. Stage 3: Product Definition. Use /risk-register to assess and document component-level risks with severity ratings, likelihood, and mitigation plans.
6. Stage 7: Review. Validate implementation against security requirements using the task-reviewer agent for code-level security compliance checks.
7. Stage 9: Operations. Maintain incident response readiness with /incident-response and update security models as the system evolves.

Starter Prompts

Select security-planner agent:

Generate a security plan for our customer-facing REST API gateway. Cover
OAuth 2.0 authentication with Azure AD B2C, PII data classification in
user profiles, PCI DSS compliance for payment flows, and security model
areas including injection attacks and broken access control.

/risk-register Assess and document risks for the payment processing
module. Focus on PCI DSS compliance gaps, injection vulnerabilities
in transaction inputs, and key management for encryption at rest.

/incident-response Create an incident response runbook for a data breach
involving customer PII exposure through a misconfigured storage bucket.
Include containment steps, GDPR notification timelines, forensic evidence
preservation, and post-incident review process.

Select sssc-planner agent:

Assess this repository's supply chain security posture

Select rai-planner agent:

Assess responsible AI risks based on the security plan

Select task-researcher agent:

Research security patterns for GraphQL APIs, focusing on query depth
limiting to prevent DoS, field-level authorization approaches, disabling
introspection in production, and input validation for nested mutation
arguments.

Key Agents and Workflows

Agent	Purpose	Docs
security-planner	Security plan and security model generation	Agent file
sssc-planner	Supply chain security assessment against OpenSSF standards	Agent file
rai-planner	Responsible AI risk assessment and RAI plan generation	Agent file
task-researcher	Security-focused codebase and threat research	Task Researcher
task-reviewer	Security compliance review	Task Reviewer
memory	Session context and preference persistence	Agent file

Prompts complement the agents for targeted security workflows:

Prompt	Purpose	Invoke
risk-register	Component risk assessment and documentation	/risk-register
incident-response	Incident response runbook creation	/incident-response

Tips

Do	Don't
Start with the security-planner agent for comprehensive models	Create ad-hoc security notes without structured security models
Use /risk-register for each significant component	Track risks informally or skip risk documentation
Research the threat landscape before defining mitigations	Assume security models from other projects directly apply
Update security models as the system architecture evolves	Treat security plans as static, one-time documents
Map security requirements to specific lifecycle stages	Isolate security from the broader product lifecycle
Run sssc-planner after security-planner for pipeline assessment	Skip supply chain assessment for non-deployable documentation repos
Use rai-planner for any project with AI/ML components	Apply RAI assessment to purely non-AI systems

Related Roles

• Security Architect + TPM: Security requirements integrate into BRDs and PRDs. Security models inform product specifications and compliance gates. See the TPM Guide.
• Security Architect + Tech Lead: Security architecture decisions align with overall system design. Security models shape architectural choices. See the Tech Lead Guide.
• Security Architect + SRE: Operational security, incident response, and monitoring bridge security planning with production operations. See the SRE / Operations Guide.

Next Steps

TIP

Explore security tools: Security Collection Plan responsible AI assessments: RAI Planning Collection Review the security model documentation: Security Model See how security fits the project lifecycle: AI-Assisted Project Lifecycle

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IMPORTANT

Security-specific tooling covers Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 7, and Stage 9 only. Stages 4 through 6 and Stage 8 rely on general-purpose agents (the task-researcher and task-reviewer agents) rather than dedicated security tooling. Specialized security coverage for decomposition, sprint planning, implementation, and delivery is a planned improvement.

🤖 Crafted with precision by ✨Copilot following brilliant human instruction, then carefully refined by our team of discerning human reviewers.