Define Contract

Kind: technique

Layer: Contracts Core

Record: lexicon:define-contract

Canonical: Lexicon

A technique for publishing the operations, shapes and guarantees of a boundary before implementing either side of it.

Listed in Lexicon terms, after Consumer-Driven Contract Tests and before Standardize the Interface.

Category

• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility

Refactors

• Schema Drift
• Implicit Contract
• Distributed Monolith
• Inappropriate Intimacy
• Pattern Cargo Cult
• Explicit Boundaries
• Contract-First Design
• API Contract
• Schema Contract
• Predictability
• Correctness
• Design Review
• Self-Describing API
• Pipeline Architecture
• Component-Based Architecture

Linked from

• Anti-patterns
• Domain Architecture
• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility
• Correctness / Determinism / Verification
• Architecture Review / Evolution / Governance Artifacts
• Metadata / Self-Description / Declarative Systems
• Streaming / Pipeline / Dataflow Processing
• Codebase / System Architecture Styles