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System Architecture

This document breaks down how the system is designed and why certain architectural decisions were made.

High Level Architecture

[ASCII diagram showing major components and how they connect]

Example:
┌─────────────┐
│   Client    │
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Component  │
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│   Storage   │
└─────────────┘

Component Breakdown

[Component 1]

Purpose: [What this component does]
Responsibilities: [Specific tasks it handles]
Interfaces: [How other components interact with it]

[Component 2]

Purpose: [What this component does]
Responsibilities: [Specific tasks it handles]
Interfaces: [How other components interact with it]

[Component 3]

Purpose: [What this component does]
Responsibilities: [Specific tasks it handles]
Interfaces: [How other components interact with it]

Data Flow

[Primary Use Case Flow]

Step by step walkthrough of what happens when [primary operation]:

1. [Action] → [Component]
   [What happens, what data is passed]

2. [Component] → [Next component]
   [Processing that occurs, transformations]

3. [Next component] → [Result]
   [Final output or state change]

Example with code references:

1. User sends request → API endpoint (src/routes/endpoint.py:42)
   Validates input, extracts credentials

2. API → Service layer (src/services/auth.py:108)
   Business logic runs, queries database

3. Service → Response (src/routes/endpoint.py:67)
   Formats result, returns to user

[Secondary Use Case Flow]

[Repeat for other major operations]

Design Patterns

[Pattern 1 Used in Project]

What it is: [Brief explanation of the pattern]

Where we use it: [Specific files or components that implement this pattern]

Why we chose it: [Advantages for this specific use case, alternatives considered]

Trade-offs:

Pros: [What you gain]
Cons: [What you give up]

Example implementation:

[Code snippet showing the pattern in action from the actual project]

[Pattern 2]

[Same structure]

Layer Separation

[If applicable - explain the layer architecture]

┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│    Layer 1: [Name]                 │
│    - [Responsibility]              │
│    - [What it doesn't do]          │
└────────────────────────────────────┘
           ↓
┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│    Layer 2: [Name]                 │
│    - [Responsibility]              │
│    - [What it doesn't do]          │
└────────────────────────────────────┘
           ↓
┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│    Layer 3: [Name]                 │
│    - [Responsibility]              │
│    - [What it doesn't do]          │
└────────────────────────────────────┘

Why Layers?

[Explain the benefits of this separation]

[Benefit 1]
[Benefit 2]
[Benefit 3]

What Lives Where

[Layer 1]:

Files: [Which files belong to this layer]
Imports: [Can import from which other layers]
Forbidden: [What this layer should never do]

[Layer 2]: [Same structure]

[Layer 3]: [Same structure]

Data Models

[Model 1]

[Actual data structure from the project]

Fields explained:

[field_name]: [What this stores, why it's needed, any constraints]
[field_name]: [Explanation]
[field_name]: [Explanation]

Relationships:

[How this model connects to others]
[Why these relationships exist]

[Model 2]

[Same structure for each major data model]

Security Architecture

Threat Model

What we're protecting against:

[Threat 1] - [Specific attack scenario]
[Threat 2] - [Specific attack scenario]
[Threat 3] - [Specific attack scenario]

What we're NOT protecting against (out of scope):

[Thing 1] - [Why this is out of scope]
[Thing 2] - [Reason]

Defense Layers

[Explain how security is implemented at different levels]

Layer 1: [Defense mechanism]
    ↓
Layer 2: [Defense mechanism]
    ↓
Layer 3: [Defense mechanism]

Why multiple layers? [Explain defense in depth for this specific project]

Storage Strategy

[Storage Type 1]

What we store:

[Data type 1]
[Data type 2]

Why this storage: [Explain choice - performance, durability, cost, etc]

Schema design:

[Show key structure or table design]

[Storage Type 2]

[If using multiple storage backends]

Configuration

Environment Variables

[VARIABLE_NAME]  # [What it configures, default value, why you'd change it]
[VARIABLE_NAME]  # [Explanation]

Configuration Strategy

[Explain how config is managed - files, env vars, secrets, etc]

Development: [How config works in dev]

Production: [How config works in prod, security considerations]

Performance Considerations

Bottlenecks

Where this system gets slow under load:

[Bottleneck 1] - [Why this happens, when it matters]
[Bottleneck 2] - [Explanation]

Optimizations

What we did to make it faster:

[Optimization 1]: [What we changed, impact it had]
[Optimization 2]: [Details]

Scalability

Vertical scaling: [How to scale up - more CPU/RAM] [Where limits are]

Horizontal scaling: [How to scale out - more instances] [What needs to change to support this]

Design Decisions

[Major Decision 1]

What we chose: [The approach taken]

Alternatives considered:

[Option A] - Rejected because [reason]
[Option B] - Rejected because [reason]

Trade-offs: [What we gained and what we gave up with this choice]

[Major Decision 2]

[Same structure for each significant architectural choice]

Deployment Architecture

[If applicable - how this runs in production]

[Diagram showing deployment topology]

Components:

[Service 1]: [What it runs, how many instances, why]

Infrastructure:

[Database/cache/etc]: [How it's deployed]

Error Handling Strategy

Error Types

[Error category 1] - [What causes this, how we handle it]
[Error category 2] - [Details]

Recovery Mechanisms

[How the system recovers from failures]

[Failure scenario 1]:

Detection: [How we know it happened]
Response: [What the system does]
Recovery: [How to get back to normal]

Extensibility

Where to Add Features

Want to add [type of feature]? Here's where it goes:

[Step 1 with file references]
[Step 2]
[Step 3]

Plugin Architecture

[If applicable - how the system can be extended without modifying core code]

Limitations

Current architectural limitations:

[Limitation 1] - [What you can't do, why not, how to fix it]
[Limitation 2] - [Details]

These are not bugs, they're conscious trade-offs. Fixing them would require [what changes].

Comparison to Similar Systems

[Similar tool/approach 1]

How we're different:

[Difference 1]
[Difference 2]

Why we made different choices: [Reasoning specific to this use case]

[Similar tool/approach 2]