phoenix-contexts

To structure Elixir Phoenix contexts, organize modules by business domain to ensure clean separation of concerns. This approach uses bounded context principles to group related data and logic, preventing cross-domain coupling and maintaining scalable application architecture.

A bounded context in Phoenix is an architectural pattern that isolates specific business domains into separate module groups. It manages data ownership and scoping independently, ensuring that features like user accounts and blog posts do not tightly couple their internal logic or database schemas.

Phoenix 1.8 scope integration uses a built-in `%Scope{}` struct to manage authorization and data scoping. This struct passes user-specific context through your application, allowing contexts to automatically filter data access and enforce permissions based on the current user session.

Common Phoenix context anti-patterns include making direct repository calls from controllers instead of through context modules, and embedding side effects directly within schemas. These practices break the bounded context boundaries and reduce overall code maintainability.

Cross-context communication in Elixir Phoenix should be managed through public context API functions rather than direct database queries. This maintains strict bounded context boundaries, ensuring modules interact via documented function calls and preserving robust application architecture.

Phoenix contexts are suitable for Elixir applications of any scale needing clean separation of concerns. Structuring modules by bounded context early prevents future refactoring headaches and ensures a maintainable codebase as your application's features and data ownership grow.