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Backend Engineering Glossary

Term Meaning
Application service Use-case orchestration component owned by a module.
Aggregate Domain consistency boundary that protects invariants.
Controller HTTP boundary that maps API contracts to application services.
DTO API contract object that is separate from domain and persistence models.
Domain event Past-tense fact produced by owning domain behavior.
Infrastructure Persistence, messaging, integration, and provider adapter implementation area.
Modulith Modular monolith implementation style using explicit Spring Boot module boundaries.
Outbox Transactional event persistence boundary for reliable publication.
Repository Module-private persistence boundary for owned records.
Shared kernel Minimal shared primitives and metadata used across modules.
Tenant context Tenant and organization boundary required for customer data.
Value object Immutable domain value with business meaning and validation.