Backend Design
Workflow
Follow this systematic design process:
- Requirements Analysis
- Gather functional requirements (features, operations) - Define non-functional requirements (performance, scalability, availability) - Identify constraints (budget, timeline, technology, compliance)
- Architecture Selection
- Choose architecture pattern (monolith, microservices, serverless) - Select technology stack based on requirements - Define service boundaries and responsibilities
- API Design
- Design RESTful endpoints with proper resource modeling - Define request/response schemas and contracts - Plan versioning strategy and documentation - See api-design-guide.md for REST/GraphQL/gRPC patterns
- Database Design
- Model entities and relationships - Design schema with normalization - Plan indexing and partitioning strategies - See database-design.md for relational and NoSQL patterns
- Security Design
- Design authentication flow (OAuth 2.0, JWT) - Plan authorization model (RBAC, ABAC) - Define data encryption and protection strategy
- Scalability & Performance
- Design caching strategy (Redis, CDN) - Plan load balancing and auto-scaling - Define asynchronous processing with message queues
- Documentation
- Create API specifications (OpenAPI/Swagger) - Document architecture decisions with Mermaid diagrams - Provide implementation guidelines and roadmap
Output Structure
Present your backend design with these sections:
- System Overview - High-level architecture, components, technology stack
- API Specification - Endpoints, schemas, authentication, OpenAPI docs
- Database Design - ERD, schema, indexes, migration plan
- Architecture Decisions - Service decomposition, communication patterns, consistency model
- Security Implementation - Authentication/authorization flows, encryption
- Scalability Plan - Load balancing, caching, database scaling, auto-scaling
- Deployment Architecture - Containers, infrastructure, CI/CD, monitoring
- Implementation Roadmap - Phases, milestones, dependencies, risks
Core Principles
- API-first approach - Design and document APIs before implementation
- Security by design - Build authentication, authorization, and encryption from the start
- Design for scalability - Plan for growth with caching, load balancing, and horizontal scaling
- Plan for failure - Include error handling, retries, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation
- Document thoroughly - Create clear API specs, Mermaid architecture diagrams, and implementation guides
Reference Files
Load additional resources based on specific needs:
- Detailed Design Process: See backend-design-process.md for comprehensive step-by-step workflow with examples for API design, database modeling, authentication flows, and microservices patterns
- API Design Guide: See api-design-guide.md when designing RESTful APIs, GraphQL schemas, or gRPC services - includes resource modeling, status codes, versioning strategies, and documentation
- Database Design: See database-design.md for detailed guidance on relational and NoSQL database design, normalization, indexing, partitioning, and replication strategies
- Best Practices: See best-practices.md for API design, database optimization, security hardening, performance tuning, and reliability patterns
- Common Patterns: See common-patterns.md for code examples of repository pattern, service layer, dependency injection, and other architectural patterns
- Example Projects: See examples.md for complete architecture examples including e-commerce systems, real-time chat applications, and microservices implementations