module-boundary-design

To prevent circular dependencies and coupling creep, you must design module boundaries based on business-capability ownership. This approach requires explicit cross-boundary contracts and tooling-backed dependency enforcement so that structural violations fail your CI pipeline automatically.

The best way to enforce module boundaries is to implement CI dependency rules that reject forbidden imports. You define an allowed dependency map, restrict cross-boundary access to public APIs, and configure automated tooling to fail the pipeline when modules bypass these explicit contracts.

To stop business logic from leaking into shared modules, you must enforce a shared-code discipline that restricts these directories to pure technical utilities. Any attempt to import business-specific bounded contexts into shared code should be treated as a structural violation.

Cross-module imports should go through a public API to maintain strict encapsulation and minimal public API surface. Relying on internal types or persistence details bypasses module boundaries, destroys test isolation, and causes uncontrolled coupling that automated CI rules cannot catch.

Yes, you can and should use automated tooling to enforce bounded contexts. By assigning named ownership via CODEOWNERS and configuring CI dependency rules, structural violations like circular dependencies or illegal internal imports will fail the build rather than relying on convention.

You need to redesign module boundaries when proposed changes add, move, split, or merge modules, or when new cross-module imports threaten encapsulation. This ensures dependency direction remains explicit and bounded context ownership stays protected against coupling creep.