Architecture

Component decomposition and per-component facts. The cell (cell-design skill) declares WHAT exists; this skill owns deciding the decomposition and ENRICHING each component's design.json.

Scaffold first, enrich second

When the cell is saved, the platform scaffolds specs/design/components/<id>/design.json for every deployable component — the mechanical fields (name, type, version, buildpack, appPath, entrypoint, a default exposure) plus a "language": "TBD" sentinel. Your job is the JUDGMENT fields, and the build gate refuses a deployable component left unenriched:

• language — Language is decided in this order: the organization skill's Tech stack

default first, then a language the requirements name, then the platform default — Ballerina for backend services, TypeScript for web apps. Replace the scaffold's "language": "TBD" sentinel with the decided value; the build gate refuses a component whose language is still TBD. That choice is a fact you record, not a preference you re-derive per component: write it as the component's language and pin the matching stack skill in skillsPinned.

• stories — the PRD story numbers this component serves, as an integer

array (e.g. "stories": [1, 2, 4]). Claim every story the component actually serves: the build gate refuses the tag while any PRD story is claimed by no component.

• dependencies — the playbook below.
• description — one paragraph: single responsibility, port/entrypoint

expectations, and what it explicitly does NOT do.

• skillsPinned — After emitting or changing a component's design, record the skills that

component's build actually needs as a skillsPinned array inside that component's specs/design/components/<name>/design.json — use the exact catalog names, e.g. a Ballerina API service → ["openapi-conventions", "ballerina"] (a Go one → ["openapi-conventions", "go"]); a web-application → ["wireframes", "react-webapp", <design system>], where <design system> is the skill name in the UI design system section of the Organization defaults block in your instructions. A web app's UI toolkit is a settled organization decision, so pin it on every web-application rather than leaving it to a description to trigger — and read the name from that section every time instead of remembering one, because it differs per organization. If that section is absent or empty, pin only the two stack skills. Never substitute a design system the organization defaults do not name.

Pin the design system; do not consult it. A design system is built against, not designed with — it is the coding run's to load, and its theming is a settled organization decision that no design-time question reopens. Never ask the user about colors, themes, or look and feel. Add "api-management" to any service that sits behind the gateway, and "thunder-authentication" to both sides of sign-in — the SPA and every protected backend it calls, since that skill owns how each resolves the caller's role. It is a JSON key on the component's design object, so include it when you write that design.json (addFile/editFile) — design.json is its only home. Each component carries only the skills its own build needs.

Writing the whole enriched file yourself (removeFile + addFile with every field) is equally valid — the scaffold is a safety net, not a required intermediate.

Deriving components — deployment units the requirements justify

A component is one independently deployable unit, NOT a domain concept. The right number comes from the requirements: for every component you must be able to say "this deploys and evolves independently because <something the requirements state>". Write that justification into the component's description.

A requirement justifies a SEPARATE component when it shows:

• a distinct user-facing surface — e.g. an internal admin portal AND a

customer-facing app with different users and lifecycles → two web-applications;

• a genuinely different runtime or scaling profile — e.g. an async

worker/batch processor beside an interactive API, or a long-running AI/inference service;

• a technology the rest of the system doesn't share — e.g. a Python ML

service beside a Ballerina API;

• an explicitly separate lifecycle or ownership stated in the requirements.

Do NOT split by:

• entity or domain concept — claims-service, users-service,

receipts-service... is a domain model dressed as a topology; those are modules of ONE service;

• layer — auth, notifications, file storage as own services when they are

modules of the API; a single frontend split into ui-shell + ui-pages when it is one bundle;

• infrastructure — api-gateway, database, queue, auth server are NEVER

components; the platform provides them;

• periodic work — a nightly digest or a cleanup sweep is a background task the

owning service starts, not a component of its own. Only a genuinely different runtime or scaling profile (above) justifies splitting one off.

When nothing above forces a split, a small system naturally lands at one service + one web-application — that is an outcome of the rule, not a target. Name components in kebab-case after their responsibility (expense-api, expense-webapp, report-worker).

Component type is a fixed vocabulary — use the EXACT string. A backend is "service"; a browser app is "web-application" (OpenChoreo's own term). Write "web-application" verbatim — NOT "webapp", "web-app", or "webApplication" (those are rejected, and a wrong value silently breaks the app's deployment and runtime config). The -webapp in a component NAME is fine; the type is still "web-application". Other kinds the requirements imply ("scheduled-task", "worker", …) are captured verbatim, but the platform installs component types for service and web-application ONLY — anything else records intent and does not deploy, so reach for one when the requirements truly force it, never as the default home for periodic work.

Per-component design.json

Each component's structured facts live in ONE JSON document (no markdown, no frontmatter). The platform validates each write against this schema and rejects violations:

{
  "name": "expense-api",              // MUST equal the directory name
  "type": "service",                  // EXACT kind: "service" or "web-application" (NEVER "webapp"/"web-app"), or another the requirements imply ("scheduled-task", "worker", ...)
  "version": "0.1.0",                 // semantic version; 0.1.0 for a new component
  "language": "Ballerina",            // implementation language — "Ballerina" for a service unless the requirements say otherwise; "TypeScript" for a web-application
  "buildpack": "docker",              // always "docker"
  "appPath": "expense-api",           // repo-relative source dir — the component name
  "entrypoint": "deployment/service", // deploy entry — PAIRS with `type`: "deployment/service" for a service, "deployment/web-application" for a web-application
  "exposure": "internet",             // "internet" (public) | "intranet" (internal only)
  "dependencies": [ /* see below — every dependency edge touching this component appears here */ ],
  "description": "One paragraph: single responsibility, port/entrypoint expectations, and what it explicitly does NOT do.",
  "stories": [1, 2, 4],               // PRD story numbers THIS component serves — the build gate refuses the tag while any story is claimed by nobody
  "skillsPinned": ["openapi-conventions", "ballerina"], // the skills this component's build needs — see the field above
  "endpoint": { "name": "http" } // optional; see below
}

name, type, version, language, buildpack, appPath, entrypoint, exposure, description, dependencies, stories and skillsPinned are required — stories and skillsPinned are as required as the rest, and a component missing either fails the build gate, so emit them in the SAME write rather than as a follow-up edit. To CHANGE a design.json, re-emit the whole corrected file (removeFile + addFile) — never patch JSON with anchored edits. On INVALIDJSON or SCHEMAVIOLATION, fix what the message lists and re-emit.

endpoint is optional: omit it and a service's endpoint takes the default name "http". Declare { "name": "<endpoint-name>" } only when the endpoint must be named otherwise — name is the single source of truth the coding agent copies into workload.yaml and the managed-API gateway binds to. The port lives in workload.yaml, not here.

Platform-owned fields you never author, in two kinds:

• Preserved verbatim where the platform has already written them:

exposesAPI, componentAgentInstructions, and any dependency status/reason.

• Recomputed and overwritten on every save: a dependency's wiring object.

The platform derives its ref and its env-var names from the dependency's name and its resource type's declared outputs, so anything you write there is discarded. stories is NOT in this class — it is yours to author, per the stories field above.

dependencies — one entry per design.cell edge

dependencies mirrors the DEPENDENCY edges of design.cell: every arrow between this component and another node appears here and vice versa — a mismatch is a defect. The north -> / west -> gateway arrows are exposure, not dependencies: they live in this component's exposure field and never become entries here. The platform enforces the membership half as you write: a dependency whose name is not a node the cell declares is refused (UNKNOWN_DEPENDENCY) with the cell statement to add. A resource you discover here — a database, a cache — is a cell node too: editFile specs/design/design.cell to add component <name> as "…" database inside the cell before the design.json that depends on it, or the diagram will not draw what the build provisions. Each entry is a kind plus a name, and you pick the kind by WHAT the target is. The kind-only fields below are exhaustive: one of them on another kind is a schema violation that both the zod write-gate and the Go fold gate reject.

The four kinds

Reuse. Call that last column's tool before authoring the entry, and take the name and schema from the matching row rather than from the requirement's wording — a Registered External resource described as "transactional email delivery" is the right reuse for an "email" need even when its name (sendgrid) doesn't echo the requirement. When several rows could fill the role, the org-level one wins (a Registered External over a new Project External name; an org-service over a sibling you would otherwise add; a listed cluster resource type for resourceType). This step is done when every external, org-service, and platform-resource emitted this turn is taken from this turn's matching list* result (exact name or resourceType), unless this turn is a user-asked reconsider. When nothing the catalog returns fills the role, omit the entry and list the gap under Needs your input rather than coining a name: a resourceType that was not in this turn's listplatformresourcetypes result fails Build.

"dependencies": [
  { "kind": "component", "name": "expense-api" },
  { "kind": "platform-resource", "name": "orders-db", "resourceType": "postgres-cnpg" },
  { "kind": "external", "name": "github",
    "config": [ { "key": "GITHUB_TOKEN", "secret": true, "description": "GitHub personal access token" } ],
    "description": "Call GitHub issues + PRs — consumption instructions from the Registered row." }
]

The github entry is authored from the catalog row.

Reading a provider's real contract

Once you have an org-service provider's name, call listorgcomponent_endpoints and base that dependency's description on the operations its contract actually exposes:

Traps

• Never the reverse edge. Declare a dependency ONLY on the caller, naming the

callee: a web-app depends on the API it calls; the API does not depend on the web-app. A component this one doesn't call is not a dependency of it — don't list one "for reference".

• A role is not a name. The requirement says "the organization's directory

service"; the provider is usually called something else (employee-service). The same for a platform-resource: the PRD names a capability, resourceType is the catalog row's name from this turn's listplatformresource_types. Copy that name. Look it up — a name coined from the role or capability words matches no provider or type and hard-fails the build.

• A platform-resource's name becomes the env-var prefix for every one of

its outputs (orders-db → ORDERSDBHOST, and for a SPA window.env.ORDERSDB*), so pick a clear one: renaming it later renames the component's whole config surface.

• **Secret-bearing dependencies belong on a service, not a

web-application.** A web-application ships to the browser, so anything it holds is visible in dev tools — and every output of a platform-resource it declares is emitted into window.env, so a database dependency on a SPA publishes its password. The secure default: attach the dependency to a backend service and give the web-app a component edge to it, so the service proxies and the SPA never sees the credential. A web-application may declare an external dependency directly only when NONE of its config keys need secret: true — a genuinely public API, or one the END USER authenticates with their own in-browser OAuth. The one exception is thunder-app (next bullet): its outputs are public OIDC client config by design. The schema does not reject a secret on a web-application, so apply this as the architect's judgment call, not a rule to route around.

• thunder-app is how sign-in happens, and nothing else provisions it. When

the spec implies users sign in, declare it on BOTH the SPA and each protected service under the SAME dependency name — that shared name is what ties sign-in to token-carrying API calls. With no such dependency the SPA deploys unable to sign in. thunder-app takes no parameters: security-design authors the Thunder client on security.json, and the platform registers the callback URI (redirectUris — platform-managed, never proposed here). thunder-authentication owns the coding-time rule, and security-design owns which roles sign in through it.

Resolving an external dependency

external is the one kind with real-world discovery to do. Work it in order:

1. Reuse first. Call listexternalresources. Prefer a fitting

Registered External resource — take its exact name, config-key schema, consumption instructions, and org resource docs pointers. Write consumption instructions into the dependency description. That name resolves from the registry regardless of style/specPath/package. A user-asked reconsider may switch to a different Registered name, or create a Project External resource under a new name — a separate catalog record; org values stay on the Registered name.

1. web_search for candidates when nothing registered fits. Stop at the

options actually worth presenting — often 2–3 genuine contenders, sometimes one when a real signal already points to it.

1. Classify each candidate's style. rest-api when the component calls

specific HTTP endpoints; sdk when it codes against a vendor SDK/library — the candidate's own docs make it obvious ("REST API reference" vs "install our SDK").

1. Resolve the contract. A rest-api needs a specPath: prefer an OpenAPI

URL from org resource docs on the Registered row, else a URL you discovered — confirm it is a real OpenAPI document with fetchopenapispec (it fetches and validates, stores nothing), then set specPath to that URL. If the user hands you a spec file, or the API is private/undocumented, addFile it to specs/design/components/<component>/dependencies/<dep-name>.openapi.yaml and point specPath at that repo-relative path. With NO specPath and no catalog hit the dep stays needs-spec and the build gate asks the user for one. Don't hand-author a whole spec — the coding agent researches the API. An sdk needs package instead: one ecosystem-prefixed identifier (npm:, go:, pypi:), version inline but optional.

1. Derive config keys from the contract — a rest-api's

components.securitySchemes, an sdk's auth documentation. A reused Registered row already named the keys — keep them.

1. Emit the outcome, never a status/reason:

- A real SIGNAL points to one option → emit it resolved, with style + (package or specPath) and config. A signal is one of: the requirement names or implies the vendor, a registered resource fits, an org or platform skill mandates it, or a concrete technical reason forces it. "This one is popular" is not a signal — it is a guess dressed as a resolution, and it belongs in candidates. - No signal and 2+ viable equivalents → emit candidates — 2 or more, never one. This is the EXPECTED outcome for a genuinely-choosable dependency (transactional email: SendGrid/Resend/Postmark); don't force a pick the requirements don't justify. One option fully known resolves outright, one only partly known is a partial dep — leave what you know on the dependency itself and let the missing field compute the reason. Each candidate carries its own style and a lean package; the dependency's own style/package/specPath stay unset until one is pinned. - You can't identify the system at all → a style-less entry: name plus a description saying what is missing and what the user must supply.

1. On pin (a chat turn collapses candidates to one): REMOVE candidates

entirely — a one-item array is a schema violation — and set the chosen option's style and package/specPath.

Config-key conventions

config is the env-var schema the consuming component codes against. Use SCREAMINGSNAKECASE keys and keep them minimal — only what the component reads. secret is opt-in: set "secret": true ONLY for credentials (they route through the secret path), and OMIT it entirely otherwise. Give each key a description saying what the value is and where the user finds it ({ "key": "STRIPEAPIKEY", "secret": true, "description": "Your Stripe secret API key" }) — the Build dependency drawer shows it under the field. For a NON-secret key whose sensible default you can infer, add defaultValue and the drawer pre-fills it ({ "key": "AWS_REGION", "defaultValue": "us-east-1" }). NEVER set defaultValue on a secret — a credential has no default to invent. An external dependency should almost always carry at least one key: the value-collection gate needs something to collect.

How the platform derives status/reason

You never author status/reason. The platform computes them at read time from which fields are present, first match wins:

1. candidates present (2+) → ambiguous
2. name matches a registered external resource → resolved (registry reuse,

regardless of style)

1. style absent → unresolved/needs-input
2. style: "rest-api" with no specPath → unresolved/needs-spec
3. style: "sdk" with no package → unresolved/needs-input
4. otherwise → resolved

component is always resolved here. A platform-resource is too — once emitted — so only emit one whose resourceType is a name from this turn's listplatformresource_types. An org-service resolves on catalog visibility, and is blocked/access-required when the provider exists but this project cannot see it. The old needsSpec boolean is REMOVED from the schema — a draft carrying it fails the write-gate; migrate needsSpec: true to style: "rest-api".

Narrating the design turn

The design-generate turn runs in the chat panel, so your turn text is what the user watches live. Narrate each dependency decision in one plain-prose line as you settle it, before moving to the next:

• resolved → ✓ <capability>: using <choice>
• candidates → `<capability>: options are A / B / C — tell me which (I'll

continue meanwhile)`

• needs-input → `<capability>: I couldn't identify the system — tell me which +

how it authenticates`

Never block the design on an ambiguous or unresolved dependency — print the line and keep emitting the rest; the user replies in the same chat to steer it, now or later. Then close with three parts and nothing more: one line per component (name, type, one-clause role); a "Needs your input" block listing ONLY the dependencies still ambiguous or unresolved, each with the single thing you need; and a one-line pointer to specs/design/. The narration already carried the play-by-play, so a file-by-file recap would only bury the user's next action.

Resolving or reconsidering a named dependency on request

A later chat turn may point you at a single dependency by name — "resolve the email dependency on notification-service", "reconsider the stripe dependency on billing-api". It carries no dependency JSON and no playbook by design: read that entry from the component's design.json (it is in the turn's snapshot) and act on its current state.

• Ambiguous — it already carries candidates. The user clicked to CHOOSE, so

hand them the choice: each option with a one-line distinction, plus that they may name another. Pin the one they name — the same signal rule as discovery, so with no signal the choice stays theirs — then remove candidates per step 7.

• Unresolved. Apply that kind's row in the table above.
• Already resolved — reconsider. This is the only branch that may leave a

catalog row that still fills the role. Present fresh alternatives as candidates, or repin to the Registered name the user picks, or emit a Project External resource under a new name.

Edit ONLY that one dependency's entry: re-emit the component's whole design.json (never a patch) with every other field and dependency carried over exactly as they were.

Descriptions, and the per-component artifacts

Every dependency carries a one-line description: what the target is and how this component uses it. Source it per kind — an external's is the consumption instructions when the name is a Registered External resource; an org-service's says the specific operations it calls from the discovered contract, or plainly that no contract was resolvable, never a guess; a platform-resource's says what it stores. The console shows it in the dependency drawer and the coding agent relies on it to integrate correctly.

One component per directory. Every web-application gets a wireframes.dsl (wireframes governs it); every service gets an openapi.yaml (openapi-conventions governs it), emitted after domain-model.md's ER model. Other kinds (scheduled tasks, workers, …) carry no extra artifact yet — capture their behaviour fully in description and dependencies.