Primitive Obsession

Kind: anti-pattern

Layer: Enforcement Core

Record: architecture:primitive-obsession

Severity: discouraged

Scope: correctness_verification, domain_boundary

Formed by: Represent meaningful domain concepts as raw strings, numbers, booleans, or maps without type, validation, or behavior.

Canonical: Ontology

A defect in which domain concepts are held in raw primitives with no type or validation.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Data Clumps and before Stringly Typed Programming.

Refactored by

• Value Object
• Narrow Type
• Replace Boolean with Enum
• Encapsulate Validation

Severity

• discouraged

Category

• Anti-patterns

Force

• Correctness verification
• Domain boundary

Linked from

• Anti-patterns
• Domain Architecture
• Core Vocabulary
• Correctness / Determinism / Verification
• Schema / Canonical Data / Semantics
• Severity levels
• The forces