# ADR-0029: Microservices Architecture

## Status
Accepted

## Context
The platform needs to scale independently, support team autonomy, and enable flexible deployment. A microservices architecture provides these benefits from day one, and the complexity of supporting both monolith and microservices modes is unnecessary.

## Decision
Design the platform as **microservices architecture from day one**:

1. **Core Services**: Core business services are separate microservices:

   - **Auth Service** (`cmd/auth-service/`): JWT token generation/validation
   - **Identity Service** (`cmd/identity-service/`): User CRUD, password management
   - **Authz Service** (`cmd/authz-service/`): Permission resolution, authorization
   - **Audit Service** (`cmd/audit-service/`): Audit logging
   - Each service has its own process, database connection, and deployment

2. **API Gateway**: Core infrastructure component (implemented in Epic 1):
   - Single entry point for all external traffic
   - Routes requests to backend services via service discovery
   - Handles authentication, rate limiting, CORS at the edge
   - Not optional - required for microservices architecture

3. **Service-Based Architecture**: All modules are independent services:
   - Each module/service is a separate service with its own process
   - Services communicate via gRPC (primary) or HTTP (fallback)
   - Service client interfaces for all inter-service communication
   - No direct in-process calls between services

4. **Service Registry**: Central registry for service discovery:
   - All services register on startup
   - Service discovery via registry
   - Health checking and automatic deregistration
   - Support for Consul, etcd, or Kubernetes service discovery

5. **Communication Patterns**:
   - **Synchronous**: gRPC service calls (primary), HTTP/REST (fallback)
   - **Asynchronous**: Event bus via Kafka
   - **Shared Infrastructure**: Cache (Redis) and Database (PostgreSQL instance)
   - **Database Access**: Each service has its own connection pool and schema

6. **Service Boundaries**: Each service is independent:
   - Independent Go modules (`go.mod`)
   - Own database schema (via Ent) - schema isolation
   - Own API routes (gRPC/HTTP)
   - Own process and deployment
   - Can be scaled independently

7. **Development Mode**: For local development, services run in the same repository:
   - Each service has its own entry point and process
   - Services still communicate via service clients (gRPC/HTTP)
   - No direct in-process calls
   - Docker Compose for easy local setup

## Consequences

### Positive
- **Simplified Architecture**: Single architecture pattern, no dual-mode complexity
- **Independent Scaling**: Scale individual services based on load
- **Team Autonomy**: Teams can own and deploy their services independently
- **Technology Diversity**: Different services can use different tech stacks (future)
- **Fault Isolation**: Failure in one service doesn't bring down entire platform
- **Deployment Flexibility**: Deploy services independently
- **Clear Boundaries**: Service boundaries are explicit from the start

### Negative
- **Network Latency**: Inter-service calls have network overhead
- **Distributed System Challenges**: Need to handle network failures, retries, timeouts
- **Service Discovery Overhead**: Additional infrastructure needed
- **Debugging Complexity**: Distributed tracing becomes essential
- **Data Consistency**: Cross-service transactions become challenging
- **Development Setup**: More complex local development (multiple services)

### Mitigations
- **API Gateway**: Implemented in Epic 1 as core infrastructure - handles routing, authentication, rate limiting
- **Service Mesh**: Use service mesh (Istio, Linkerd) for advanced microservices features (optional)
- **Event Sourcing**: Use events for eventual consistency
- **Circuit Breakers**: Implement circuit breakers for resilience
- **Comprehensive Observability**: OpenTelemetry, metrics, logging essential
- **Docker Compose**: Simplify local development with docker-compose
- **Service Clients**: All inter-service communication via service clients (gRPC/HTTP)

## Implementation Strategy

### Epic 1: Core Kernel & Infrastructure
- Core kernel (infrastructure only): config, logger, DI, health, metrics, observability
- API Gateway implementation (core infrastructure component)
- Service client interfaces for all core services
- Service registry interface and basic implementation

### Epic 2: Core Services Separation
- Separate Auth, Identity, Authz, Audit into independent services
- Each service: own entry point (`cmd/{service}/`), gRPC server, database connection
- Service client implementations (gRPC/HTTP)
- Service registration with registry

### Epic 3: Service Registry & Discovery (Epic 3)
- Complete service registry implementation
- Service discovery (Consul, Kubernetes)
- Service health checking and deregistration

### Epic 5: gRPC Services (Epic 5)
- Complete gRPC service definitions for all services
- gRPC clients for service communication
- HTTP clients as fallback option

## References
- [Service Abstraction Pattern](https://microservices.io/patterns/data/service-per-database.html)
- [Service Discovery Patterns](https://microservices.io/patterns/service-registry.html)
- [gRPC Documentation](https://grpc.io/docs/)

