ANALYSIS 001: SEA™ (Sentient Enterprise Architecture) - Domain-Driven Design Analysis

Type

Architecture Analysis / Reference Documentation

Purpose

Documents the comprehensive Domain-Driven Design analysis of the original SEA™ (Sentient Enterprise Architecture) project that informed the evolution to SEA-Forge™. This serves as historical context and domain knowledge foundation.

Executive Summary

SEA™ was conceived as an “intelligent city brain” for enterprise architecture - a system that makes organizational architecture self-documenting, self-validating, and semantically grounded. The project identified 15 distinct bounded contexts organized around 4 core pillars.

The Core Concept: “A City That Builds Itself”

SEA™ revolves around the concept of Self-Aware, Living Enterprise Architecture—the idea that an enterprise’s architecture, knowledge, and documentation should be sentient, automatically understanding, documenting, and evolving itself rather than being manually maintained.

Central Metaphor

SEA™ treats your company’s architecture like a living organism or intelligent city that:

• Observes its own structure (services, rules, patterns)
• Understands its own meaning (semantic definitions, business vocabulary)
• Documents itself automatically (always-current docs, diagrams, APIs)
• Governs itself (validates architectural compliance, prevents drift)
• Communicates with inhabitants (generates contextual artifacts, guides developers)

Problems Addressed

1. Semantic Drift: Different teams call the same thing different names
2. Architectural Decay: Systems degrade, rules get violated
3. Documentation Debt: Docs lag behind code, become obsolete
4. Cognitive Overload: Too many manuals, diagrams, memos
5. Ungrounded AI: AI tools hallucinate because they lack business context

The Four Pillars (Original SEA™ Architecture)

Pillar Integration Philosophy

• Semantic Core = The “brain” (what things mean)
• Architectural Governance = The “immune system” (keeps structure healthy)
• Cognitive Extension = The “nervous system” (senses context, responds with guidance)
• Automated Documentation = The “memory” (records and recalls everything)

Domain Model: 15 Bounded Contexts

Core Domains (Strategic) - The Four Pillars

1. Semantic Domain Management

Bounded Context: Semantic Core (SBVR + DSL)

Purpose: Manages business vocabulary, rules, and terminology

Key Concepts:

• Business terms
• Domain definitions
• Semantic rules
• SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules)

Entities:

• BusinessTerm
• DomainConcept
• SemanticRule
• Vocabulary

2. Architectural Governance Domain

Bounded Context: CALM Integration & Architecture Validation

Purpose: Ensures architectural compliance and prevents drift

Key Concepts:

• Architecture patterns
• Design rules
• Validation
• Version control

Entities:

• ArchitecturePattern
• DesignRule
• ValidationResult
• ArchitectureVersion

3. Cognitive Extension Domain

Bounded Context: CADSL (Cognitive Artifact DSL)

Purpose: Generates context-aware interactive artifacts

Key Concepts:

• Artifacts (maps, checklists, diagrams, timelines)
• Context-awareness
• Interactive generation

Entities:

• Artifact
• ArtifactTemplate
• Context
• ArtifactType (checklist, map, timeline, plan)

4. Documentation Generation Domain

Bounded Context: ADG (Automated Documentation Generation) Framework

Purpose: Automatically generates and maintains documentation

Key Concepts:

• Documentation types
• API references
• Diagrams
• Always-current docs

Entities:

• Documentation
• APIReference
• Diagram
• DocumentationTemplate

Supporting Domains

5. Project/Service Management Domain

Purpose: Manages microservices, projects, and their metadata

Key Concepts: Services, projects, service boundaries, dependencies

Entities: Project, Service, ServiceBoundary, Dependency

6. Knowledge Graph Domain

Bounded Context: Oxigraph-based knowledge representation

Purpose: Stores and queries relationships between concepts, services, and architecture

Key Concepts: Nodes, relationships, graph traversal, semantic connections

Entities: GraphNode, Relationship, SemanticConnection

7. Validation & Compliance Domain

Purpose: Validates business rules, architecture, and data boundaries

Key Concepts: Validation rules, compliance checks, violation detection

Entities: ValidationRule, ComplianceCheck, Violation, ValidationReport

8. User & Access Management Domain

Purpose: Handles authentication, authorization, and user profiles

Key Concepts: Users, roles, permissions, authentication

Entities: User, Role, Permission, AuthToken

9. API Gateway & Integration Domain

Bounded Context: Kong-based API management

Purpose: Manages external integrations and API routing

Key Concepts: API routes, plugins, rate limiting, service discovery

Entities: APIRoute, Plugin, Gateway, ServiceRegistry

10. Workflow & Orchestration Domain

Purpose: Manages system workflows and event processing

Key Concepts: Workflows, events, event handling, process orchestration

Entities: Workflow, Event, EventHandler, Process

Generic Subdomains

11. Notification & Messaging Domain

Purpose: Handles system notifications and inter-service messaging

Entities: Notification, Message, MessageQueue

12. Configuration Management Domain

Purpose: Manages system and service configurations

Entities: Configuration, ConfigurationKey, Environment

13. Monitoring & Health Domain

Purpose: Tracks system health and performance

Entities: HealthCheck, Metric, MonitoringData

14. Audit & Versioning Domain

Purpose: Tracks changes and maintains audit trails

Entities: AuditLog, Version, ChangeRecord

15. Collaboration Domain

Purpose: Enables team collaboration on artifacts and documentation

Entities: CollaborationSession, Comment, SharedArtifact

Domain Relationships - Context Map

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┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│         SEMANTIC CORE (Upstream - Core)                 │
│    Business Rules, Terms, Domain Definitions            │
└────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────┘
             │ Shared Kernel
             ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│    ARCHITECTURAL GOVERNANCE (Core)                      │
│    Validates against semantic rules                     │
└────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │ Customer-Supplier
         ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│    COGNITIVE EXTENSION (Core)                           │
│    Generates artifacts using semantic + architecture    │
└────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │ Conformist
         ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│    DOCUMENTATION GENERATION (Core)                      │
│    Consumes all above to generate docs                 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

         Supporting:
    ┌─────────────────────┐
    │  Knowledge Graph    │ ← (Anti-Corruption Layer)
    │  Project Management │
    │  Validation         │
    └─────────────────────┘

Context Map Interpretation

• Semantic Core acts as the Upstream domain influencing all others
• Shared Kernel relationship between Semantic Core and Architectural Governance
• Customer-Supplier relationship: Cognitive Extension consumes validated architecture
• Conformist relationship: Documentation Generation adapts to upstream contexts
• Anti-Corruption Layer protects core domains from external Knowledge Graph complexities

Technology Stack (Original SEA™)

Backend

• Language: Python 3.11+
• Graph Database: Oxigraph (knowledge graph, semantic relationships)
• Relational Database: PostgreSQL (structured data)
• API Gateway: Kong (service routing, plugins, rate limiting)

Frontend

• Runtime: Node.js
• Framework: React (initially), Remix (recommended)

Infrastructure & DevOps

• Containerization: Docker
• Orchestration: Docker Compose
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions

Architecture Pattern

• Style: Microservices
• Communication: RESTful APIs
• Health Monitoring: Spring Boot Actuator pattern

Testing

• Python: pytest
• JavaScript: npm test

Specifications & Standards

• SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules)
• CALM (Architectural modeling integration)
• CADSL (Cognitive Artifact DSL - custom/proprietary)
• ADG Framework (Automated Documentation Generation - custom/proprietary)

Evolution to SEA-Forge™

The original SEA™ (Sentient Enterprise Architecture) concept evolved into SEA-Forge™, which expanded the vision:

Original SEA™ → SEA-Forge™ Mapping

Key Differences

• SEA™: 4 pillars, focused on “living documentation”
• SEA-Forge™: 5 pillars, expanded to “organization compiler” with continuous governance and executive intelligence

Strategic Insights

What Made SEA™ Unique

1. Upstream Semantic Authority: Unlike most architectures, SEA™ made semantics the source of truth
2. Continuous Self-Documentation: Documentation as a runtime property, not a manual artifact
3. Context-Aware Artifact Generation: Dynamic, intelligent assistance rather than static templates
4. Graph-Based Knowledge: Oxigraph enabling true relationship-driven understanding

Domain Prioritization

Core Domains (Never Outsource):

1. Semantic Domain Management
2. Architectural Governance
3. Cognitive Extension
4. Documentation Generation

Supporting Domains (Critical but Could Use COTS):

• Knowledge Graph (Oxigraph)
• API Gateway (Kong)
• Monitoring

Generic Subdomains (Use Off-the-Shelf):

• User/Access Management
• Notification/Messaging
• Configuration Management

Relationship to SEA-Forge™ Vision

This domain analysis informed the SEA-Forge™ Master Vision (see VISION-001). The 15 bounded contexts identified here represent the problem space that SEA-Forge™ aims to solve through its “organization compiler” approach.

Traceability

• Vision: Documented in docs/specs/shared/vision/001-sea-forge-master-vision.md
• Core Principles: Documented in docs/specs/shared/adr/001-core-principles.md
• Frontend Decision: Documented in docs/specs/shared/adr/002-technology-stack-frontend-framework.md

References

• Original Analysis Source: Conversational DDD analysis of SEA™ project
• Technology Stack: Listed in original SEA™ README
• Frontend Decision Rationale: Expert analysis comparing Remix vs Next.js for SEA™’s capabilities

Note: This document captures the original SEA™ design for historical context. The current SEA-Forge™ implementation may diverge as the vision evolves. Always refer to current ADRs and technical specifications for active architectural decisions.