Architecture documentation
This section describes how Ethica’s systems fit together at a high level: applications, backend services, data stores, and how requests and data move between them. It is written for engineers, tech leads, and DevOps.
What you will find here
- System overview — Context and major boundaries.
- Applications — The main repos and what each one is for.
- Data flows — Typical request and data paths (no secret values).
- Deployment — Where workloads run; day-to-day deploy and rollback steps live in Runbooks.
- Environment setup — How local and hosted environments relate (no API keys or secrets).
- Diagrams — Index for narrative diagrams; many pages also embed Mermaid diagrams inline.
- Finance module — Posting pipeline, invariants, and how each phase fits in.
Principles
- Document approaches and boundaries, not credentials or internal security mechanisms.
- Prefer diagrams and short sections over long prose.
- When something is undecided, say TBD and link to the owning team’s backlog or doc.
Related documentation
- Operations documentation — How staff and customers use the products (non-technical).
- Technical documentation — API reference, database, auth, integrations, and conventions.
- Runbooks — Deployment, rollback, monitoring, and incident response for operators.