Manifest-Based Design

Kind: pattern

Layer: Declarative Core

Record: architecture:manifest-based-design

Severity: contextual

Scope: plugin, module, deployment

Canonical: Ontology

A design pattern that loads modules or plugins from a validated manifest listing each entry, version and dependency.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Capability Declaration and before Homoiconicity.

Requires

• Manifest Schema

Reinforces

• Self-Describing Architecture
• Runtime Discovery

Enables

• Plugin Loading
• Capability Declaration

Conflicts with

• Hardcoded Registration

In tension with

• Manifest Drift

Tensions

• Manifest-Based Design / Manifest Drift

Violated by

• Implicit Capability
• Hidden Dependency

Refactored by

• Discovery Validation

Severity

• contextual

Category

• Metadata / Self-Description / Declarative Systems

Enforced by

• runtime/entrypoints/manifest.entrypoint.ts

Refactors

• Opaque Runtime Behavior
• Self-Describing Structures

Linked from

• Documentation is code
• Definitions own what, code owns how
• Anti-patterns
• Runtime Discovery / Dynamic Binding
• Metadata / Self-Description / Declarative Systems
• Causality / Ordering / Distributed Time
• Metadata / Self-Description / Declarative Systems
• Runtime Discovery / Dynamic Binding
• Severity levels
• The resolutions

in this codebase

• core/plugins/manifest.readme.plugin.ts