Architecture Documenter

Architecture Documenter Skill

Document system architecture and technical design decisions for effective team communication and knowledge sharing.

Instructions

You are a software architecture documentation expert. When invoked:

1. Analyze System Architecture:

• Identify key components and services
• Understand data flows and interactions
• Map dependencies and integrations
• Recognize architectural patterns
• Assess scalability and reliability

1. Create Architecture Documentation:

• System overview and context
• Component diagrams and relationships
• Data flow diagrams
• Deployment architecture
• Security architecture
• Decision records (ADRs)

1. Document Technical Decisions:

• What was decided
• Why it was decided
• Alternatives considered
• Trade-offs made
• Implementation details
• Future considerations

1. Use Visual Diagrams:

• System architecture diagrams
• Sequence diagrams
• Entity-relationship diagrams
• Infrastructure diagrams
• Network topology
• State machines

1. Maintain Living Documentation:

• Keep docs synchronized with code
• Version architecture docs
• Track evolution over time
• Mark deprecated components
• Update with lessons learned

Architecture Documentation Templates

System Architecture Document Template

# E-Commerce Platform - System Architecture

**Version**: 2.3
**Last Updated**: January 15, 2024
**Status**: Current
**Authors**: Engineering Team
**Reviewers**: Alice (EM), Bob (Tech Lead)

---

## Table of Contents

1. [Executive Summary](#executive-summary)
2. [System Context](#system-context)
3. [Architecture Overview](#architecture-overview)
4. [Core Components](#core-components)
5. [Data Architecture](#data-architecture)
6. [Infrastructure](#infrastructure)
7. [Security Architecture](#security-architecture)
8. [Scalability & Performance](#scalability--performance)
9. [Deployment](#deployment)
10. [Monitoring & Observability](#monitoring--observability)
11. [Future Considerations](#future-considerations)

---

## Executive Summary

### What This System Does

The E-Commerce Platform is a modern, cloud-native application that enables small to medium businesses to sell products online. It handles the complete e-commerce lifecycle from product catalog management to order fulfillment.

### Key Capabilities

- **Product Management**: Create, update, and manage product catalogs
- **Shopping Experience**: Browse products, search, filter, and compare
- **Checkout & Payments**: Secure checkout with multiple payment options
- **Order Management**: Track orders from placement to delivery
- **User Accounts**: Customer profiles, order history, preferences
- **Admin Dashboard**: Business analytics, inventory management

### System Scale

| Metric | Current | Target (6 months) |
|--------|---------|-------------------|
| Active Users | 5,000 businesses | 15,000 businesses |
| Products | 500,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Daily Orders | 10,000 | 50,000 |
| Monthly GMV | $2M | $10M |
| Peak RPS | 500 | 2,000 |
| Data Storage | 2 TB | 10 TB |

### Technology Stack Summary

- **Frontend**: React, TypeScript, Redux, Material-UI
- **Backend**: Node.js, Express, TypeScript
- **Database**: PostgreSQL (primary), Redis (cache)
- **Storage**: AWS S3
- **Hosting**: AWS (ECS, RDS, ElastiCache, CloudFront)
- **CI/CD**: GitHub Actions
- **Monitoring**: DataDog, Sentry

---

## System Context

### Business Context

**Problem We Solve**: Small businesses struggle with expensive, complex e-commerce solutions. Our platform provides an affordable, easy-to-use alternative.

**Target Users**:
- Small business owners (10-1000 products)
- Digital creators selling physical products
- Retail stores expanding online

**Business Model**: SaaS subscription ($29-$299/month) + transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30)

### System Boundary

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ E-Commerce Platform │ │ │ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ │ │ Customer │ │ Merchant │ │ Admin │ │ │ │ Web │ │Dashboard │ │ Portal │ │ │ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Backend Services │ │ │ │ (Auth, Product, Order, Payment, etc.) │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Data & Storage Layer │ │ │ │ (PostgreSQL, Redis, S3) │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ Stripe │ │ SendGrid│ │ Shippo │ │ Payment │ │ Email │ │ Shipping │ └─────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘

### External Dependencies

| Service | Purpose | SLA | Fallback Strategy |
|---------|---------|-----|-------------------|
| Stripe | Payment processing | 99.99% | Queue retries, manual processing |
| SendGrid | Email delivery | 99.95% | Alternative provider (AWS SES) |
| Shippo | Shipping labels | 99.9% | Manual label generation |
| AWS | Infrastructure | 99.99% | Multi-AZ deployment |
| Cloudflare | CDN/DNS | 99.99% | Direct origin access |

---

## Architecture Overview

### High-Level Architecture

Internet │ ▼ ┌──────────────┐ │ Cloudflare │ (CDN, DDoS protection) └──────┬───────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ │ AWS CloudFront │ (Static assets) └──────────────────────┘ │ ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ React │ │ API Gateway │ │ Admin │ │ Frontend │ │ (Express) │ │ Portal │ │ (CloudFront) │ │ (ALB+ECS) │ │ │ └───────────────┘ └───────┬───────┘ └──────────────┘ │ ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ Auth │ │ Product │ │ Order │ │ Service │ │ Service │ │ Service │ └────┬────┘ └────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘ │ │ │ └────────────────┼──────────────────┘ │ ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │PostgreSQL│ │ Redis │ │ S3 │ │ (RDS) │ │(ElastiCache) │(Images) │ └──────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘

### Architecture Style

**Primary Pattern**: Modular Monolith (transitioning to Microservices)

**Rationale**:
- **Current**: Modular monolith provides simplicity while maintaining clear boundaries
- **Future**: Easy migration path to microservices as scale increases
- **Trade-off**: Accepts coupling cost for development velocity at current scale

### Key Architectural Principles

1. **Separation of Concerns**: Clear boundaries between modules
2. **API-First**: All features exposed via REST APIs
3. **Stateless Services**: No server-side session state (JWT-based auth)
4. **Caching Strategy**: Cache aggressively, invalidate carefully
5. **Eventual Consistency**: Accept eventual consistency for non-critical data
6. **Fail Fast**: Return errors quickly rather than retry indefinitely
7. **Observability**: Comprehensive logging, metrics, and tracing

---

## Core Components

### Frontend Application

**Technology**: React 18 + TypeScript + Redux Toolkit

**Structure**:

client/ ├── components/ # Reusable UI components ├── pages/ # Route-level pages ├── store/ # Redux state management ├── api/ # API client ├── hooks/ # Custom React hooks └── utils/ # Utility functions

**Key Features**:
- Server-side rendering (SSR) for SEO
- Code splitting by route
- Progressive Web App (PWA) capabilities
- Optimistic UI updates
- Offline support (service workers)

**State Management**:
- **Redux**: Global application state
- **React Query**: Server state caching
- **Local Storage**: User preferences, cart (guest users)

**Performance Targets**:
- First Contentful Paint: 90

---

### API Gateway

**Technology**: Express.js + TypeScript

**Responsibilities**:
- Request routing
- Authentication/authorization
- Rate limiting
- Request/response transformation
- API versioning
- CORS handling

**Middleware Pipeline**:
```javascript
Request
  ↓
Logging (Morgan)
  ↓
Rate Limiting (express-rate-limit)
  ↓
CORS (cors)
  ↓
Authentication (JWT verification)
  ↓
Authorization (permission check)
  ↓
Request Validation (Joi)
  ↓
Route Handler
  ↓
Response Formatting
  ↓
Error Handling
  ↓
Response

API Versioning Strategy:

• URL versioning: /api/v1/products, /api/v2/products
• Maintain 2 versions simultaneously
• Deprecation warnings in headers
• 6-month sunset period for old versions

---

Service Modules

Authentication Service

Responsibilities:

• User registration and login
• JWT token generation and validation
• Password reset flow
• OAuth integration (Google, Facebook)
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Database Schema:

users (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  email VARCHAR UNIQUE NOT NULL,
  password_hash VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  email_verified BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,
  created_at TIMESTAMP,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP
)

sessions (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id UUID REFERENCES users(id),
  token_hash VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  expires_at TIMESTAMP,
  created_at TIMESTAMP
)

oauth_accounts (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id UUID REFERENCES users(id),
  provider VARCHAR NOT NULL, -- 'google', 'facebook'
  provider_user_id VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  access_token VARCHAR,
  refresh_token VARCHAR,
  UNIQUE(provider, provider_user_id)
)

Security Measures:

• Passwords hashed with Argon2id
• JWT tokens with 15-minute expiration
• Refresh tokens with 7-day expiration
• Rate limiting: 5 login attempts per 15 minutes
• Account lockout after 10 failed attempts
• MFA via TOTP (Google Authenticator)

Product Service

Responsibilities:

• Product CRUD operations
• Inventory management
• Search and filtering
• Product recommendations
• Category management

Database Schema:

products (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  merchant_id UUID REFERENCES users(id),
  name VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  description TEXT,
  price DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  inventory_count INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
  category_id UUID REFERENCES categories(id),
  status VARCHAR DEFAULT 'draft', -- draft, active, archived
  created_at TIMESTAMP,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP
)

product_images (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  product_id UUID REFERENCES products(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
  url VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  position INTEGER,
  created_at TIMESTAMP
)

categories (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  parent_id UUID REFERENCES categories(id),
  slug VARCHAR UNIQUE NOT NULL
)

Search Implementation:

• PostgreSQL full-text search with trigram indexes
• Elasticsearch for advanced features (planned)
• Caching: 5-minute TTL for product lists, 1-hour for individual products

Performance Optimizations:

• Database indexes on common query fields
• N+1 query prevention with eager loading
• Image CDN with automatic resizing
• Aggressive caching with Redis

Order Service

Responsibilities:

• Shopping cart management
• Order creation and processing
• Order status tracking
• Order history
• Invoice generation

Database Schema:

orders (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  customer_id UUID REFERENCES users(id),
  status VARCHAR NOT NULL, -- pending, paid, shipped, delivered, cancelled
  subtotal DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  tax DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  shipping DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  total DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  payment_id VARCHAR,
  shipping_address_id UUID REFERENCES addresses(id),
  created_at TIMESTAMP,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP
)

order_items (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  order_id UUID REFERENCES orders(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
  product_id UUID REFERENCES products(id),
  quantity INTEGER NOT NULL,
  price DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  product_snapshot JSONB -- Product details at time of purchase
)

order_events (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  order_id UUID REFERENCES orders(id),
  event_type VARCHAR NOT NULL, -- created, paid, shipped, etc.
  metadata JSONB,
  created_at TIMESTAMP
)

Order State Machine:

pending → paid → processing → shipped → delivered
   ↓       ↓         ↓           ↓
   └───────┴─────────┴───────────┴──→ cancelled

Transaction Handling:

• Database transactions for order creation
• Idempotency keys for payment processing
• Inventory reservation system
• Automatic rollback on payment failure

Payment Service

Responsibilities:

• Payment intent creation
• Payment processing (via Stripe)
• Refund handling
• Payment method management
• Transaction history

Integration with Stripe:

// Payment Intent Flow
1. Client requests payment intent
   ↓
2. Server creates Stripe PaymentIntent
   ↓
3. Client collects payment details
   ↓
4. Client confirms payment with Stripe
   ↓
5. Stripe webhook notifies server
   ↓
6. Server updates order status

Webhook Security:

• Stripe signature verification
• Idempotent webhook processing
• Async processing with job queue
• Retry logic for failed webhooks

Database Schema:

payments (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  order_id UUID REFERENCES orders(id),
  stripe_payment_intent_id VARCHAR UNIQUE,
  amount DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  status VARCHAR NOT NULL, -- pending, succeeded, failed
  payment_method VARCHAR, -- card, bank_transfer
  metadata JSONB,
  created_at TIMESTAMP,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP
)

refunds (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  payment_id UUID REFERENCES payments(id),
  stripe_refund_id VARCHAR UNIQUE,
  amount DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
  reason VARCHAR,
  status VARCHAR NOT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMP
)

---

Data Architecture

Database Design

Primary Database: PostgreSQL 14

Schema Organization:

• public schema: Core application tables
• audit schema: Audit logs and event sourcing
• analytics schema: Denormalized data for reporting

Connection Pooling:

{
  max: 20,              // Max connections
  min: 5,               // Min connections
  idle: 10000,          // Close idle connections after 10s
  acquire: 30000,       // Max time to acquire connection
  evict: 1000           // Check for idle connections every 1s
}

Backup Strategy:

• Automated daily backups (RDS snapshots)
• Point-in-time recovery enabled (7-day window)
• Monthly backups retained for 1 year
• Backup tested quarterly

Caching Strategy

Redis Configuration:

• Deployment: AWS ElastiCache (Redis 7.0)
• Mode: Cluster mode enabled
• Nodes: 3 (primary + 2 replicas)
• Eviction policy: LRU (Least Recently Used)

Cache Patterns:

1. Cache-Aside (Read-heavy data):

async function getProduct(id) {
  // Try cache first
  let product = await cache.get(`product:${id}`);

  if (!product) {
    // Cache miss - fetch from database
    product = await db.products.findById(id);

    // Store in cache (1 hou

…

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [CuriousLearner](https://github.com/CuriousLearner)
- **Source:** [CuriousLearner/devkit](https://github.com/CuriousLearner/devkit)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.