Canonical Model

Kind: principle

Layer: Contracts Core

Record: architecture:canonical-model

Severity: contextual

Scope: domain, integration, data

Canonical: Ontology

A design rule that a concept has one authoritative representation, and every other representation is translated to and from it.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Type Safety and before Canonical Data Model.

Requires

• Semantic Consistency
• Ubiquitous Language

Reinforces

• Single Source of Truth

Enables

• Normalized Translation

Conflicts with

• Multiple Competing Models

In tension with

• Bounded Context Autonomy

Tensions

• Canonical Model / Bounded Context Autonomy

Violated by

• Multiple Competing Models

Refactored by

• Canonical Data Model
• Anti-Corruption Layer

Severity

• contextual

Category

• Schema / Canonical Data / Semantics

Enforced by

• runtime/entrypoints/canon.entrypoint.ts

Linked from

• Separate, trade, or mitigate
• The principle architecture
• Schema / Canonical Data / Semantics
• Schema / Canonical Data / Semantics
• Severity levels
• The resolutions