ekklesiaandClaude Opus 5
8d651c427d
ADR 0021 established that a module may own UI and added a statically
validated, never-executed `entrypoints.ui` path, but deliberately left
five questions open: what the artifact exports, what a host provides,
how one artifact runs under both Ekklesia and a standalone host, what
the browser-side trust model is, and how module UI avoids being welded
to a Dashboard that does not exist. This answers them.
React and TypeScript are the supported module UI authoring model. The
repository already leaned this way: `packages/typescript-config` ships a
`browser.json` preset and a `react-native.json` preset with
`"jsx": "react-jsx"`, and ADR 0002 names browser and React Native
configurations. One framework is supported; every other stays rejected.
React is deliberately not part of the contract. A module's compiled
artifact default-exports `defineModuleUi({ id, version, mount })`, and
`mount(container, context)` takes a DOM element and returns an unmount
function. `id` and `version` are build-artifact identity markers a host
verifies against the manifest, mirroring `defineModuleRuntime` exactly.
A host needs an element and a context, never a matching rendering
library, so a module's framework, a host's framework, and the platform
boundary between them stay independent.
The contract lives in a new `@ekklesia/module-ui-sdk` rather than in
`@ekklesia/module-sdk`, for a concrete reason: that package re-exports
all of `@ekklesia/contracts`, so routing module UI through it would drag
Zod, Drizzle, and semver into every browser bundle. The new package has
no runtime dependencies, and its one dependency on contracts is
type-only — the emitted `host-context.js` is `export {};`, and a test
pins that so it cannot regress.
The host context is four members: `moduleId`, `api`, `principal`, and
`permissions`. Navigation, theme, module configuration, organization
context, and diagnostics are deliberately absent; each needs a design
that does not exist. Module UI reaches its backend through
`api.request(path)` with a path relative to its own API root and never
constructs `/api/v1/modules/<id>/...`, which is Ekklesia's private
deployment detail — a module that builds that URL is silently unhostable
anywhere else. One fixture artifact is mounted under two hosts with
different origins and URL shapes to prove it.
Client-side permission hints are presentation only, and both the docs
and a test say so plainly: a denied hint does not stop the module from
calling its API, because server-side `requirePermission` is the only
authority. Module UI is trusted code in the host's own browser realm —
no iframe, no sandbox — which matches the backend model rather than
overstating it, since a module's server half already holds the API's
database authority.
The boundary guard is narrowed precisely, not removed: `.tsx`, `react`,
and `react-dom` are un-denied and modules may depend on the new
`module-ui-sdk` role. `.jsx`, `.css`, every other framework,
`react-router-dom`, `react-native`, and `@vitejs/plugin-react` stay
denied, layer rules are untouched, and an unsupported framework aliased
behind an allowed name (`"react": "npm:vue@3"`) is resolved and rejected
by its real target. Fixtures prove each case, including that module UI
source still cannot import Core.
Core, apps/api, and the manifest contract are untouched. Discovery still
validates the `entrypoints.ui` path and never evaluates it; hosts
perform their own dynamic import and validate the result with
`parseModuleUiExport`. No Dashboard shell, UI runtime, navigation,
grouping, standalone host, build or styling pipeline, installer,
hot-loading, or feature module is added.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
207 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
207 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# Platform architecture
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Ekklesia is a long-lived platform from which churches can compose many applications and user
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experiences. It begins as a modular monolith so contracts can stabilize before distribution is
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introduced.
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> **Trust boundary.** Installed modules are trusted compiled code, not sandboxed plugins: a module
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> runs arbitrary JavaScript in the API process and shares its PostgreSQL role. The layering
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> described below is a correctness and ownership boundary, not hostile-code isolation. A module that
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> ships its own UI ([ADR 0021](decisions/0021-modules-as-hostable-products.md)) is exactly as
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> trusted as one that does not. See
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> [Security model and deployment trust boundaries](../development/security.md).
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## Dependency model
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The arrows below mean "depends on." Presentation and composition depend on stable lower-level
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contracts; infrastructure never learns individual feature names.
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```text
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Surface Builder configuration -> Surfaces -> public capability contracts
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^
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HTTP/API and client contracts
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Feature Modules -> Module SDK / platform contracts <- Core implementations
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```
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The four ownership layers are:
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1. **Core** orchestrates generic platform infrastructure: startup, identity, permissions,
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configuration, database connectivity, storage, events, jobs, module discovery, and lifecycle.
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2. **Modules** own domain behavior, data schemas, resources, actions, routes, events, permissions,
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jobs — and, per [ADR 0021](decisions/0021-modules-as-hostable-products.md), their own UI, authored
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in React against `@ekklesia/module-ui-sdk`
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([ADR 0022](decisions/0022-module-ui-authoring-and-host-contract.md)). A module
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is an independently versioned product, not only a backend capability. It does not own the
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containing application shell or any platform policy.
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3. **Surfaces** own the presentation concerns a module does not: the containing application shell,
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layout, navigation, accessibility, interaction, branding, and client state — including the shell
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that hosts a module's own UI.
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4. **Surface Builder** stores validated declarative composition. It selects capabilities and
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surface-owned renderers but contains neither executable code nor module business logic.
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A module owns its own product experience. Calendar data, actions, permissions, and its own
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management UI live in `modules/calendar`; the dashboard or public-website shell that hosts it —
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navigation, theme, layout, and platform chrome — lives in a surface. The module supplies the screen
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for its feature; the surface supplies the application around it.
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Modules are flat peers. `video`, `livestream`, `announcements`, and `calendar` are independent
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first-class modules with no parent/child relationship. A Dashboard may group them into folders such
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as `Media` or `Sunday Production`, but those groups are presentation configuration an administrator
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can reorganize, never module ownership and never a dependency. Genuine module and capability
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dependencies remain the only way one module may require another.
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## Stable seams
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- Modules use public SDK ports and injected Core services, never undocumented Core internals.
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- Modules do not import another module's schema or private code. Integrations use public service
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contracts, capabilities, events, or APIs.
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- Surfaces consume API/client and capability contracts, never feature-module packages.
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- Core discovers feature modules generically. It contains no feature-specific imports or
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conditional branches.
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- Deployable apps are thin composition roots and do not become domain-logic owners.
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- Generated bootstrap artifacts may connect discovered entry points at the application edge;
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they do not become manually maintained Core registries.
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## Security invariants
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- Authorization is enforced server-side.
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- Secrets are isolated from public configuration and logs.
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- Authentication tokens, private form content, prayer requests, and pastoral information are not
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logged.
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- Sensitive actions are designed for auditability without copying sensitive content into audit
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records.
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- Private objects use signed access and namespaced storage paths.
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- Every network service starts from least-privilege and local-only development defaults.
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## Current implementation status
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Implemented now: the Phase 1 repository and infrastructure foundation plus public module contracts,
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static versioned manifests, independent capability versions and dependency ranges, automatic
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filesystem discovery, compiled server loading, runtime-definition verification, staged capability
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registration, dependency-ordered startup and reverse shutdown, rollback, and a backend-only module
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template. Optional compiled schema entrypoints now contribute validated, namespaced module-owned
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Drizzle tables to a deterministic aggregate without connecting to a database. Optional module-owned
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Drizzle migration directories now produce an atomic dependency-ordered offline inventory with
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validated metadata, explicit destructive-change declarations, and exact SHA-256 checksums. Core can
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now compare that inventory with its fixed PostgreSQL history table, produce a read-only plan, and
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apply the complete pending batch under a session advisory lock and one transaction. Destructive
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migrations require an exact externally supplied approval bound to module, identity, and checksum.
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Hermetic integration coverage now exercises those contracts through the production adapter against
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the pinned PostgreSQL container, including real DDL rollback and advisory-lock concurrency. The
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Core-owned Doctor composes those existing services into a deterministic terminal readiness report:
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static module, schema, and migration validation always run when their prerequisites succeed, while
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PostgreSQL history planning runs only when configured. Schema inspection evaluates compiled schema
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definition entrypoints, which the module contract requires to be side-effect-free; Doctor never
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imports or starts module server entrypoints. It does not apply migrations or modify PostgreSQL, and
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it honestly skips object storage because no production Core storage service exists yet.
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Phase 4A added the Core identity foundation. Core owns a Better Auth-backed identity schema
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(`ekklesia_core_user`, `ekklesia_core_session`, `ekklesia_core_account`,
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`ekklesia_core_verification`) reachable only through Ekklesia-owned contracts and an explicit
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Core-owned Better Auth construction boundary; modules never import Better Auth or receive a raw
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database client. That schema ships as a first-class Core-owned migration source that reuses the
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exact migration format, checksum rule, planner, and transactional runner Phase 3 already
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established, ordered before module migrations in the same aggregate. See
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[ADR 0010](decisions/0010-core-identity-and-better-auth-adoption.md).
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Phase 4B adds identity HTTP transport: a minimal Hono-based `apps/api` composition root mounts
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Better Auth at `/api/auth/*` and exposes one Ekklesia-owned route, `GET /api/v1/principal`, behind
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Core's own Fetch-compatible identity runtime (`@ekklesia/core/identity`) — Core still does not
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depend on Hono. Public email/password registration is the intended eventual product policy — every
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account receives identical lowest-privilege baseline status, and signup order never grants
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elevation — but is disabled by default as of Phase 5D pass 1, below. See
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[ADR 0011](decisions/0011-identity-http-transport-and-public-enrollment.md) and
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[the API guide](../development/api.md), and
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[the identity development guide](../development/identity.md) for the underlying schema and
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contracts. It is now possible to publicly register, sign in, resolve a principal, and sign out.
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Phase 4C is complete: Core's authorization foundation — a schema, evaluator, and store for
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platform owners, explicit grants, and relationship-derived grants, plus an immutable permission
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registry — and an explicit, single-use, auditable platform-owner bootstrap command, plus reusable
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Hono enforcement and an `/api/v1/grants` HTTP API in `apps/api`. See
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[ADR 0013](decisions/0013-core-authorization-and-owner-bootstrap.md) and
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[the authorization guide](../development/authorization.md).
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Phase 5A wired module-declared permissions into that same authorization system — a version-3
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manifest, one composed platform permission registry spanning Core's own declarations and every
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installed module's, enforced through the identical middleware Core's own routes use. Phase 5B let a
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module mount its own framework-neutral HTTP routes in production, under
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`/api/v1/modules/<module-id>`, enforced and response-sanitized exactly like Core's own routes. Phase
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5C added typed module database access (`context.services.database`) for a module's lifecycle hooks
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and authorized HTTP handlers, over the platform's one existing PostgreSQL pool.
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See [ADR 0014](decisions/0014-module-permission-declarations-and-platform-registry.md),
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[ADR 0015](decisions/0015-static-module-http-routing-and-runtime-lifecycle.md),
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[ADR 0016](decisions/0016-module-database-access.md), and the repository root
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[README](../../README.md#current-status) for the complete, current status of every phase.
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**Phase 5D is complete.** Five passes hardened the platform against an independent security audit of
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the Phase 5C checkpoint, and an independent whole-repository re-audit closed the phase:
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1. the public request perimeter — a server-owned client-address resolution boundary for the
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authentication rate limiter, public sign-up disabled by default behind an explicit typed opt-in,
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an enforced request-body ceiling on every public route (including a module route's own declared
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contract), and finite Node header/request timeouts;
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2. identity session resolution, and a mandatory certificate- **and** hostname-verified PostgreSQL
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transport with no plaintext or `rejectUnauthorized: false` exception;
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3. durable authorization history that survives user deletion, a one-time owner bootstrap that
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deleting a user cannot reopen, and bounded, unambiguous explicit-grant management;
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4. module route-overlap rejection at registration, finite startup rollback and shutdown deadlines,
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and hardened migration command timeouts and SQL execution;
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5. deployment and supply-chain closure plus the final re-audit.
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See [ADR 0017](decisions/0017-public-request-perimeter-hardening.md),
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[ADR 0018](decisions/0018-identity-session-resolution-and-database-transport.md),
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[ADR 0019](decisions/0019-durable-authorization-history-and-grant-management.md), and
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[ADR 0020](decisions/0020-module-runtime-and-migration-execution-hardening.md).
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These guarantees hold under a **trusted-contributor, not-yet-deployed** threat model. The remaining
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limitations are operational rather than architectural: CI is a trusted-code-only boundary whose
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runner topology and job-token authority are unverified, and Ekklesia is not deployed, so the origin,
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proxy, and throttling properties a public launch requires are unproven. Neither set of requirements
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blocks Phase 6. Read
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[Security model and deployment trust boundaries](../development/security.md) for what each boundary
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does and does not protect against, and the repository root
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[README](../../README.md#current-status) for the current status of every phase.
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**Phase 6A established the module product contract.**
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[ADR 0021](decisions/0021-modules-as-hostable-products.md) replaces the backend-only module model:
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a module is an independently versioned product that may own its own UI, hostable inside Ekklesia and
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— later, from the same implementation — as a standalone application. Core keeps the host shell and
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every platform policy, the module graph stays flat, and Dashboard grouping stays presentation
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configuration.
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What that pass implemented is the **static contract only**: `manifestVersion: 4` adds one optional
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`entrypoints.ui` field, validated during discovery exactly like the server and schema entrypoints —
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package-relative, inside the package, compiled ESM. Discovery remains inert; nothing imports, mounts,
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or renders that entrypoint.
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**Phase 6B pass 1 defines the module UI authoring model and host contract.**
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[ADR 0022](decisions/0022-module-ui-authoring-and-host-contract.md) selects React and TypeScript as
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the supported way to author module UI, and defines what a compiled `entrypoints.ui` artifact exports
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and what a host provides it. React is the authoring model but deliberately not the contract: an
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artifact default-exports `defineModuleUi({ id, version, mount })`, and `mount(container, context)`
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takes a DOM element and returns an unmount function, so a module's framework and a host's stay
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independent.
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The contract lives in `@ekklesia/module-ui-sdk`, a browser-safe shared package with no runtime
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dependencies, consumed by module authors and hosts alike. Its host context is four members —
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`moduleId`, `api`, `principal`, `permissions`. Module UI reaches its own backend through
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`api.request(path)` with a path relative to the module's own API root, never by constructing
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Ekklesia's `/api/v1/modules/<module-id>` prefix, which is what keeps a standalone host possible.
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Client-side permission hints are presentation only; server-side enforcement remains the sole
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authority. Module UI is trusted code in the host's browser realm — there is no sandbox, matching the
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backend trust model rather than overstating it.
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Core is untouched by this: discovery still validates the `entrypoints.ui` path and never evaluates
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it, and hosts perform their own dynamic import. The Dashboard shell, a UI runtime, the module UI
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build and styling pipeline, the standalone host, and every feature module remain future work.
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Restart-based discovery, explicit operator-invoked migrations, and the trusted compiled-module model
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are all unchanged.
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Target architecture not yet implemented includes production approval-provider
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composition, physical storage-bucket provisioning, jobs/workflow automation, richer public resource
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and action contracts, a Dashboard, a Builder, and reference feature modules; none of these are
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scheduled by this document.
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