Backend Design

Workflow

Follow this systematic design process:

1. Requirements Analysis

   • Gather functional requirements (features, operations)
   • Define non-functional requirements (performance, scalability, availability)
   • Identify constraints (budget, timeline, technology, compliance)

2. Architecture Selection

   • Choose architecture pattern (monolith, microservices, serverless)
   • Select technology stack based on requirements
   • Define service boundaries and responsibilities

3. API Design

   • Design RESTful endpoints with proper resource modeling
   • Define request/response schemas and contracts
   • Plan versioning strategy and documentation
   • See api-design-guide.md for REST/GraphQL/gRPC patterns

4. Database Design

   • Model entities and relationships
   • Design schema with normalization
   • Plan indexing and partitioning strategies
   • See database-design.md for relational and NoSQL patterns

5. Security Design

   • Design authentication flow (OAuth 2.0, JWT)
   • Plan authorization model (RBAC, ABAC)
   • Define data encryption and protection strategy

6. Scalability & Performance

   • Design caching strategy (Redis, CDN)
   • Plan load balancing and auto-scaling
   • Define asynchronous processing with message queues

7. Documentation

   • Create API specifications (OpenAPI/Swagger)
   • Document architecture decisions with Mermaid diagrams
   • Provide implementation guidelines and roadmap

Output Structure

Present your backend design with these sections:

1. System Overview – High-level architecture, components, technology stack
2. API Specification – Endpoints, schemas, authentication, OpenAPI docs
3. Database Design – ERD, schema, indexes, migration plan
4. Architecture Decisions – Service decomposition, communication patterns, consistency model
5. Security Implementation – Authentication/authorization flows, encryption
6. Scalability Plan – Load balancing, caching, database scaling, auto-scaling
7. Deployment Architecture – Containers, infrastructure, CI/CD, monitoring
8. Implementation Roadmap – Phases, milestones, dependencies, risks

Core Principles

• API-first approach – Design and document APIs before implementation
• Security by design – Build authentication, authorization, and encryption from the start
• Design for scalability – Plan for growth with caching, load balancing, and horizontal scaling
• Plan for failure – Include error handling, retries, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation
• Document thoroughly – Create clear API specs, Mermaid architecture diagrams, and implementation guides

Reference Files

Load additional resources based on specific needs:

• Detailed Design Process: See backend-design-process.md for comprehensive step-by-step workflow with examples for API design, database modeling, authentication flows, and microservices patterns

• API Design Guide: See api-design-guide.md when designing RESTful APIs, GraphQL schemas, or gRPC services – includes resource modeling, status codes, versioning strategies, and documentation

• Database Design: See database-design.md for detailed guidance on relational and NoSQL database design, normalization, indexing, partitioning, and replication strategies

• Best Practices: See best-practices.md for API design, database optimization, security hardening, performance tuning, and reliability patterns

• Common Patterns: See common-patterns.md for code examples of repository pattern, service layer, dependency injection, and other architectural patterns

• Example Projects: See examples.md for complete architecture examples including e-commerce systems, real-time chat applications, and microservices implementations