System Design & Architecture Standards

Priority: P0 (FOUNDATIONAL)

Workflow: Evaluate Architecture for a New Feature

1. Identify bounded contexts and module boundaries
2. Define dependency direction (outer layers depend on inner)
3. Select communication pattern (sync REST, async event, or hybrid)
4. Validate against CAP trade-offs for distributed components
5. Document decision in an Architecture Decision Record (ADR)

Architectural Principles

• SoC: Divide into distinct sections per concern.
• SSOT: One source, reference elsewhere.
• Fail Fast: Fail visibly when errors occur.
• Graceful Degradation: Core functional even if secondary fails.

Modularity & Coupling

• High Cohesion: Related functionality in one module.
• Loose Coupling: Use interfaces for communication.
• DI: Inject dependencies, don't hardcode.

See implementation examples for dependency flow diagrams.

Common Patterns

• Layered: Presentation -> Logic -> Data.
• Event-Driven: Async communication between decoupled components.
• Clean/Hexagonal: Core logic independent of frameworks.
• Statelessness: Favor stateless for scaling/testing.

Distributed Systems

• CAP: Trade-off Consistency/Availability/Partition tolerance. See CAP & Consistency Patterns.
• Idempotency: Operations repeatable without side effects. See Idempotency Patterns.
• Circuit Breaker: Fail fast on failing services. See Resilience Patterns.
• Eventual Consistency: Design for async data sync. See CAP & Consistency Patterns.

Documentation & Evolution

• Design Docs: Write specs before major implementations.
• Versioning: Version APIs/schemas for backward compatibility.
• Extensibility: Use Strategy/Factory for future changes.

References

• Distributed Systems & CAP Theorem
• Resilience Patterns (Circuit Breaker, Bulkhead, Retry)

Anti-Patterns

• No god classes: Single Responsibility — one reason to change per module.
• No synchronous coupling: Prefer events or queues for cross-service calls.
• No premature abstraction: Design for current load; scale when proven needed.