Architecture Ownership

Architecture Ownership

Use this skill for repo-specific ownership and placement decisions in layered systems.

Focus on long-term canonical ownership, not only the layer where the current bug appears.

Required Discovery

Before deciding ownership:

• Read the repo docs that define architecture, boundaries, or responsibilities.
• Read ADRs or design docs that define runtime flow, request flow, or package boundaries.
• Inspect the top-level project structure to map the repo's concrete module or package names onto the generic layers in this skill.

When docs are incomplete:

• infer the current layer model from the codebase
• state the assumption explicitly
• keep the recommendation aligned to one canonical owner

Required Output

When answering an ownership or placement question, explicitly separate:

• Runtime owner
• First fix owner
• Canonical long-term owner
• Competing owners that are wrong
• Cleanup direction

Do not collapse these into a single answer.

Decision Order

• Identify the runtime concern:
• visible UI state
• platform shell or OS bridge
• runtime composition or request dispatch
• canonical domain or application workflow
• pure shared logic
• concrete adapter or integration behavior
• Name the layer where the wrong behavior currently happens.
• Decide whether that layer is only the First fix owner or also the Canonical long-term owner.
• If the behavior is reusable product or business policy, move the long-term owner out of the runtime orchestration layer.
• Remove duplicate policy, fallback logic, or dual paths once the canonical owner is clear.

Layer Map

• UI layer
• owns visible UI state, navigation, rendering, presentation-oriented derived state, and view composition
• Platform shell
• owns native shell concerns, OS bridges, local device integrations, filesystem or permission bridges, process or session plumbing, and platform-local persistence helpers
• Runtime orchestration layer
• owns runtime composition, request dispatch, background coordination, worker management, event publication, and process-level orchestration
• this is often the First fix owner
• this is not automatically the Canonical long-term owner
• Domain or application layer
• owns canonical product workflow, business rules, reusable application services, and cross-interface behavior
• Shared core layer
• owns shared types, enums, validation, normalization, capability logic, and pure logic used across runtimes
• Adapter or integration layer
• owns concrete protocol, provider, vendor, transport, or API integration behavior
• does not own cross-provider or cross-integration product policy

Translate these generic layers into the repo's actual module, package, crate, or service names before making a recommendation.

Hard-Cut Rules

• Do not leave reusable domain policy in the runtime orchestration layer just because the wrong behavior currently happens there.
• Do not put UI state, layout state, restore state, or user-facing presentation ownership in the runtime orchestration layer.
• Do not put platform shell or native integration concerns in the domain or application layer.
• Do not put cross-provider or cross-vendor product policy in adapter or integration layers.
• Do not put pure validation, normalization, or capability logic in orchestration code when it can live in shared core or a narrow domain module.

Common Judgments

• If the question is "who should decide this for all future interfaces?" the answer is usually the domain or application layer, a narrow domain package, or shared core, not the runtime orchestration layer.
• If the question is "where do I patch this bug first so the product stops doing the wrong thing?" the answer may still be the runtime orchestration layer.
• If the question is "who owns the wire shape or payload type?" the answer is usually the shared API or core type layer, not the runtime orchestration layer.
• If the question is "who owns vendor-specific behavior?" the answer is the relevant adapter or integration layer, but only for adapter behavior, not canonical product policy.

Example Pattern

Example: a planning policy bug currently lives in a runtime runner module.

• Runtime owner: runtime orchestration layer
• First fix owner: runtime orchestration layer
• Canonical long-term owner: domain or application layer
• Type or capability owner: shared core layer
• Competing owners that are wrong: UI layer, platform shell, adapter or integration layers

Additional Resource

For a reusable classification matrix and example splits, see references/ownership-matrix.md.