home / skills / martinffx / claude-code-atelier / atelier-spec-architect
This skill helps design features using domain-driven design and hexagonal architecture, aligning functional core and edge components for clear responsibilities.
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---
name: atelier-spec-architect
description: DDD and hexagonal architecture with functional core pattern. Use when designing features, modeling domains, breaking down tasks, or understanding component responsibilities.
user-invocable: false
---
# Architect Skill
Domain-Driven Design and hexagonal architecture with functional core pattern for feature design.
## Architecture Model
Unified view of functional core and effectful edge:
```
Effectful Edge (IO) Functional Core (Pure)
┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────┐
│ Router → request parsing │ │ Service → orchestration│
│ Consumer → event handling │───▶│ Entity → domain rules │
│ Client → external APIs │ │ → validation │
│ Producer → event publishing │◀───│ → transforms │
│ Repository→ data persistence │ │ │
└─────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────┘
```
**Key Principle:** Business logic lives in the functional core (Service + Entity). IO operations live in the effectful edge. Core defines interfaces; edge implements them (dependency inversion).
## Functional Core
Pure, deterministic components containing all business logic.
### Service Layer
**Responsibility:** Orchestrate business operations, coordinate between entities and repositories.
**Characteristics:**
- Pure functions that take data and return results
- No IO operations (database, HTTP, file system)
- Calls repositories through interfaces (dependency injection)
- Composes entity operations into workflows
- Returns success/error results
**Example:**
```typescript
class OrderService {
async createOrder(request: CreateOrderRequest): Promise<Result<Order>> {
// Validate with entity
const order = Order.fromRequest(request);
const validation = order.validate();
if (!validation.ok) return validation;
// Check business rules
const inventory = await this.inventoryRepo.checkAvailability(order.items);
if (!inventory.available) return Err('Items not available');
// Coordinate persistence
await this.inventoryRepo.reserve(order.items);
const saved = await this.orderRepo.save(order.toRecord());
return Ok(Order.fromRecord(saved));
}
}
```
### Entity Layer
**Responsibility:** Domain models, validation, business rules, data transformations.
**Characteristics:**
- Pure data structures with behavior
- All validation logic
- Data transformations (fromRequest, toRecord, toResponse)
- Business rules and invariants
- No IO, no framework dependencies
**Example:**
```typescript
class Order {
constructor(
public readonly id: string,
public readonly customerId: string,
public readonly items: OrderItem[],
public readonly status: OrderStatus,
public readonly total: number
) {}
static fromRequest(req: CreateOrderRequest): Order {
return new Order(
generateId(),
req.customerId,
req.items.map(i => new OrderItem(i)),
'pending',
req.items.reduce((sum, i) => sum + i.price * i.quantity, 0)
);
}
toRecord(): OrderRecord {
return {
id: this.id,
customer_id: this.customerId,
items: JSON.stringify(this.items),
status: this.status,
total: this.total
};
}
validate(): Result<Order> {
if (this.items.length === 0) {
return Err('Order must have at least one item');
}
if (this.total < 0) {
return Err('Order total cannot be negative');
}
return Ok(this);
}
canCancel(): boolean {
return ['pending', 'confirmed'].includes(this.status);
}
}
```
## Effectful Edge
IO-performing components that interact with the outside world.
### Router
**Responsibility:** HTTP request handling, parsing, response formatting.
**Characteristics:**
- Parses HTTP requests into domain types
- Calls service layer with parsed data
- Formats service results into HTTP responses
- Handles HTTP-specific concerns (status codes, headers)
- No business logic
**Example:**
```typescript
router.post('/orders', async (req, res) => {
const result = await orderService.createOrder(req.body);
if (result.ok) {
res.status(201).json(result.value.toResponse());
} else {
res.status(400).json({ error: result.error });
}
});
```
### Repository
**Responsibility:** Data persistence and retrieval.
**Characteristics:**
- Implements data access interface used by services
- Converts between domain entities and database records
- Handles database queries and transactions
- No business logic or validation
**Example:**
```typescript
class OrderRepository {
async save(record: OrderRecord): Promise<OrderRecord> {
return await db.orders.create(record);
}
async findById(id: string): Promise<OrderRecord | null> {
return await db.orders.findOne({ id });
}
}
```
## Component Matrix
Quick reference for where things belong:
| Concern | Component | Layer | Testability |
|---------|-----------|-------|-------------|
| Domain model | Entity | Core | Unit test (pure) |
| Validation | Entity | Core | Unit test (pure) |
| Business rules | Entity | Core | Unit test (pure) |
| Orchestration | Service | Core | Unit test (stub repos) |
| Data transforms | Entity | Core | Unit test (pure) |
| HTTP parsing | Router | Edge | Integration test |
| Data access | Repository | Edge | Integration test |
| External APIs | Client | Edge | Integration test |
| Event handling | Consumer | Edge | Integration test |
| Event publishing | Producer | Edge | Integration test |
## Task Breakdown
### Bottom-Up Dependency Ordering
Implementation order follows dependency chain:
```
1. Entity → Domain models, validation, transforms
2. Repository → Data access interfaces and implementations
3. Service → Business logic orchestration
4. Router → HTTP endpoints
```
**Rationale:** Each layer depends on layers below. Can't implement service without entity, can't implement router without service.
### Task Granularity
**One task per layer:**
- Implement Order entity with validation
- Implement OrderRepository with data access
- Implement OrderService with business logic
- Implement order API endpoints
**For complex features, break down further:**
- Entity: Order, OrderItem, OrderStatus
- Repository: OrderRepository, InventoryRepository
- Service: OrderService, PaymentService
- Router: Order routes, Payment routes
## Architect → Testing Flow
Architectural decisions inform testing strategy:
```
Architect Outputs → Testing Inputs
────────────────────────────────────────────────
Component responsibilities → What to test
Layer boundaries → Where to test
Pure vs effectful → Unit vs integration
Entity transformations → Property-based tests
Service orchestration → Stub-driven tests
```
The testing skill uses architectural structure to determine:
- What gets unit tested (core) vs integration tested (edge)
- Where to place test boundaries
- What to stub and what to test for real
- What test cases validate business rules
## Reference Materials
For detailed patterns and examples:
- **See [references/ddd-patterns.md](references/ddd-patterns.md)** - Aggregates, Value Objects, Domain Events, Bounded Contexts, composition patterns
- **See [references/data-modeling.md](references/data-modeling.md)** - Entity design principles, schema patterns, access pattern optimization, data transformation
- **See [references/api-design.md](references/api-design.md)** - REST conventions, request/response contracts, error handling, versioning patterns
This skill guides feature design using Domain-Driven Design and hexagonal architecture with a functional core pattern. It prescribes a clear separation: a pure, testable functional core for business rules and an effectful edge for IO and integration. Use it to drive spec-first implementations, keep business logic deterministic, and make components easy to test and reason about.
The skill defines responsibility boundaries: Entities and Services live in a pure functional core; Routers, Repositories, Clients, Producers and Consumers form the effectful edge. The core exposes interfaces that the edge implements (dependency inversion). Tasks are ordered bottom-up—implement entities, then repositories, then services, then routers—so each layer has concrete inputs to work against.
How do I decide what belongs in the core vs the edge?
Put deterministic business rules, validation, and data transforms in the core. Put anything that interacts with IO—databases, HTTP, file systems, external APIs—in the edge.
Should services ever perform IO directly?
No. Services should call repository/client interfaces defined in the core; the edge provides concrete implementations. This keeps services pure for testing and reasoning.