Software Architecture Principles We Live By at Aporia Systems
The seven architecture principles that guide every technical decision at Aporia Systems, from simplicity to zero-trust components to treating the browser as a first-class runtime.
Every engineering team accumulates principles over time — some explicit, most implicit. At Aporia Systems, we have made ours explicit. Here are the seven architecture principles that guide every technical decision we make.
1. Simplicity Is the Hardest Feature
It is easy to add complexity. It is hard to remove it. We bias toward the simplest solution that meets the requirements — not the most elegant, and certainly not the one that "we might need later."
2. Data Lives Where It Is Used
Browser-native products process data in the browser. Server-side features store data on the server. We do not shuttle data between tiers "just in case."
3. Zero-Trust Between Components
Every component validates its inputs, regardless of source. This has prevented every data corruption bug we have caught in review.
4. Failure Is a Feature
We design failure states before success states. The error message is written before the happy-path code.
5. Measure Before Optimizing
We do not optimize based on intuition. Before touching a performance-critical path, we measure — with real data, on real devices.
6. The Browser Is a First-Class Runtime
We treat the browser as a legitimate application platform, using Web Workers, IndexedDB, and Service Workers.
7. Documentation Lives in the Code
Architecture Decision Records are committed alongside the code they describe, versioned with the software.