Frontend Engine

Overview

This project aims to create a shared frontend engine used by both the internal and external frontend applications.

The goal is to reduce duplicated code, improve consistency between applications, and simplify long-term maintenance while still allowing each application to evolve independently where needed.

Architecture Direction

The frontend engine will contain shared frontend functionality such as:

• shared components
• utilities
• validation
• queries and mutations
• presenters

The internal and external applications will continue to own:

• routes
• authentication
• app-specific pages and features

Development Approach

We are starting with a small incremental implementation rather than a full migration.

The initial focus is to:

• identify common frontend patterns
• extract reusable functionality into the engine
• prove the shared architecture works cleanly
• minimise disruption to the existing applications

Local Development

During development, the applications will consume the engine as a local package dependency.

Docker-based local development support will be used so engine changes can be picked up quickly during development.

Principles

• keep the implementation simple and explicit
• prefer shared reusable modules over duplication
• avoid premature abstraction
• maintain clear ownership boundaries between the engine and applications
• evolve incrementally