Overview and Core Concepts

What is Machanism?

At its core, Machanism is a platform designed to transform how applications are built. It provides a framework for creating, sharing, and integrating modular, reusable components, or "bricks," that are tailored to solve specific business problems across diverse technologies and domains. Machanism embodies the guiding principle "Divide and Use", encouraging developers to break down complex systems into smaller, independent modules that are reusable, maintainable, and adaptable. By adhering to Clean Architecture principles, Machanism ensures that business logic remains central to the system, while technical details such as frameworks, tools, and delivery mechanisms are pushed to the periphery. In short, Machanism is not just a platform—it’s a philosophy for designing modular, scalable, and reusable software systems that are prepared for tomorrow’s challenges.

What is This Guide For?

The purpose of this guide is simple: to empower developers, architects, and teams with the knowledge and best practices required to build applications in line with Machanism's principles. This guide provides:

• A structured roadmap for understanding the Machanism ecosystem.
• Step-by-step guidance for working with its key components, such as Seed Projects, MachaOn Projects, and artifact repositories.
• Best practices for following modular design philosophies and implementing Clean Architecture principles.
• Tools and workflows for leveraging Machanism to its full potential.

If you are a:

• Developer, looking to implement modular, reusable solutions within your projects…
• Architect, striving to build scalable systems that prioritize business logic and adaptability…
• Or an organization, seeking a future-proof strategy for software development…

This guide is for you.

Principles of Machanism Development

The foundation of Machanism lies in five core principles that define its approach:

Modularity

Every project, component, or functionality should exist as an independently deployable and reusable "brick," designed to solve a single purpose or responsibility.

Reusability

Once built, a component should seamlessly integrate into other projects or systems, enabling developers to avoid redundancy and speeding up development.

Scalability

Machanism allows applications to grow organically, with loosely coupled components that can evolve independently without breaking existing systems.

Clean Boundaries

Adhering to Clean Architecture, Machanism enforces strict boundaries between business logic and implementation details. This prevents unexpected dependencies and promotes long-term maintainability.

Technology Independence

The platform’s architecture is agnostic of specific frameworks, languages, or tools. Whether it’s TypeScript, Java, Python, or any other technology, Machanism components are designed to integrate effortlessly, ensuring maximum flexibility for evolving needs.

Why Choose Machanism?

Modern software development faces a variety of challenges:

• Monolithic Systems: Large, interdependent systems that are difficult to scale or update.
• Reinventing Solutions: Teams spending time recreating solutions that could be reused across different projects or domains.
• Framework Lock-In: Applications tightly coupled to specific frameworks, making them hard to adapt to future requirements.
• High Maintenance Costs: Keeping systems aligned often leads to fragile and complex codebases. Machanism addresses these challenges by:
• Breaking down systems into smaller, more manageable bricks, ensuring adaptability and scalability.
• Promoting reusable artifacts through an ecosystem of shared modules hosted in centralized artifact repositories.
• Aligning all projects with Clean Architecture principles to foster consistency and maintainability.
• Allowing teams to experiment with and adopt new technologies without rewriting core business logic. With Machanism, you build smarter, reusable systems that grow with your demands, without ever sacrificing flexibility.

Core Concepts

In this section, we will dive into the foundational principles and key ideas that shape the Machanism platform. These concepts provide the tools and structure needed to design modular, reusable, and scalable systems, all while adhering to Clean Architecture principles.

Machanism Overview

Machanism is a modular development platform designed to facilitate the creation, sharing, and integration of reusable components ("bricks"). These bricks are independently deployable modules, each designed to solve a specific business function. Key Attributes of Machanism:

1. Reusable Bricks:

   Each brick is a self-contained module that can be used across multiple systems. Examples:

   • A payment processing module shared across different e-commerce platforms.
   • An authentication module that integrates seamlessly regardless of the front-end or back-end technology.

2. Modularity:

   Loose coupling between bricks ensures that systems can scale naturally. Changes or improvements to a brick do not impact other parts of the system.

3. Alignment with Clean Architecture:

   The system is organized into logical layers, ensuring that business logic is isolated from implementation details.

4. Future-Proof Design:

   Built for growth, Machanism anticipates changes in technology, frameworks, and business needs while minimizing refactoring.

Clean Architecture Fundamentals

"A system's architecture should scream the use cases of the system."

– Robert C. Martin

Machanism adopts Clean Architecture to guarantee scalability, maintainability, and adaptability. This separation of concerns allows your code to grow while remaining understandable and flexible.

Principles of Clean Architecture:

1. Separation of Concerns:

   Each part of the system has a single responsibility:

   • Business logic lives in the core.
   • External tools (databases, frameworks, UI) are pushed to the outer layers.

2. Dependency Rule:

   The direction of dependencies should always point inward toward the business logic. Outer layers (e.g., frameworks) should depend on inner layers (e.g., core functionality)—never the opposite.

3. Framework Independence:

   Frameworks are tools, not drivers of the architecture. Any framework, database, or third-party tool can be replaced without altering the core business rules.

4. Testability:

   All layers can be tested independently. Business rules can be validated without requiring the database, UI, or external systems. Layered Structure:

   The Machanism architecture follows a layered design aligned with Clean Architecture:

   Entities (Core):

   • Represent domain-specific data and rules.
   • Define the business logic that is central and reusable across projects.

   Use Case Interactors (Core):

   • Coordinate workflows between entities, defining actions a system can perform.

   Adapters (Interface Layer):

   • Translate data between the application's core and external systems (e.g., databases, APIs).

   Frameworks & Drivers (Outer Layer):

   • Contain specific implementations like web servers (e.g., FastAPI, Spring Boot) or databases.

Key Design Principles

To develop with Machanism, it is essential to understand and follow its core design principles, which guarantee modularity, reusability, and long-term maintainability.

Modularity at Every Level

Every brick in Machanism has a dedicated responsibility:

• Microservices, workflows, UI components, or domain-specific entities.
• Bricks are independent and interoperable, allowing them to grow and evolve without breaking other parts of the system.

Clear Boundaries

• Boundaries between core business logic and external elements (e.g., databases, APIs, delivery mechanisms) must remain intact:
• Core modules must not depend on frameworks, tools, or infrastructure.
• External layers can be swapped without rewriting the core.

Reusable Artifacts

• Instead of cloning or duplicating, use artifacts published into a centralized artifact repository.
• Bricks are built once, validated, and shared as versioned artifacts:
• Example: A library for calculating taxes can be reused across multiple e-commerce applications by referencing it in the build configuration.

Framework as a Tool, Not the Driver

• Frameworks and external tools serve your application, not the other way around.
• They should be interchangeable without impacting the core functionality.

"Screaming Architecture"

• Systems built with Machanism should scream their intent:
• Example: An e-commerce Seed Project should showcase modules like product, cart, payment, and order clearly in its structure, leaving no ambiguity about its purpose.

Building Blocks of Machanism

Machanism projects are composed of modular bricks organized into logical layers. These layers represent reusable components that align with Clean Architecture principles. Here’s how they work together:

Core (Base Brick)

The Core module serves as the foundational layer of a Machanism project. It is more than just a domain layer—it provides all necessary layers of Clean Architecture (Domain, Use Cases, Interface Adapters) and acts as a base brick for reusable functionality. The Core module typically contains:

• Entities: Domain objects and rules (e.g., "Order," "Product"). These represent business-specific data and policies.
• Interactors: Business workflows that coordinate the interaction between entities. For example, orchestrating "Process Payment" or "Calculate Tax."
• Adapters: Interfaces for connecting the core logic to external layers such as APIs, databases, or user interfaces.
• Shared Logic: Reusable code that ensures consistency across all dependent modules.

Core modules are intended to be technology-independent, making them the backbone of scalability, adaptability, and reusability for Machanism projects. They can function as standalone bricks and serve as a stable foundation for higher layers in the ecosystem.

Applications (Customization Layer)

Application modules customize and adapt the generic functionality provided by the Core to fit specific workflows or unique requirements. While the Core defines the what, the Application layer focuses on the how for distinct scenarios. Applications typically include:

• Custom Implementations: Extending core objects like "Orders" or "Products" to meet deployment-specific needs, such as integrating tax policies, regional regulations, or business-specific workflows.
• Configuration Settings: Deployment strategies that adapt core functionality, such as converting workflows for serverless or microservice environments.
• Special Logic: Unique adjustments without altering the Core itself, ensuring maintainability while handling specialized cases. Applications provide the bridge between reusable bricks and real-world use cases, paving the way for tailored integrations within Machanism projects.

MachaOn (Deployment Layer)

The MachaOn module is the final step in building deployable solutions. It integrates Core and Application bricks with infrastructure-specific logic to deliver fully operational systems. The MachaOn layer is responsible for bringing everything together and adapting it for deployment across modern environments like cloud-native systems. The MachaOn project typically includes:

• Containerized Deployments: Building Docker images and Kubernetes manifests for scalable applications.
• Serverless Functions: Configuring lightweight, event-driven builds for platforms such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions.
• Service Orchestration: Managing the operational environment with infrastructure rules, ensuring smooth communication between components and external services.
• Reference Implementations: Providing examples of how to compose and deploy reusable bricks in a working application.

The MachaOn layer ensures flexibility, allowing teams to deploy applications tailored to specific environments or customer needs without altering the underlying reusable bricks. By designing projects with these structured layers, developers can leverage Machanism to create modular systems that are scalable, reusable, and adaptable for future requirements—all while maintaining strict boundaries between functionality and infrastructure.