Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Distributed Architecture Reconstruction of Polyglot and Multi-Repository Microservice Projects

Oscar Manglaras, Alex Farkas, Thomas Woolford, Christoph Treude, Markus Wagner

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of maintaining accurate documentation for polyglot, multi-repository microservice systems by introducing a modular static-analysis framework. It features extractors—language- and technology-specific analysis modules—that operate on a shared, JSON-based architecture model, with a reconstruction algorithm to integrate outputs and support distributed reconstruction across repositories. Key contributions include a formal API for extractors, a robust aggregation mechanism with conflict handling, and retroactive linking to express inter-service relationships without tight coupling. The approach enables up-to-date architectural views in multi-repo environments and is designed for interoperability with existing static-analysis tools, with open-source tooling under ModARO. The framework has practical potential for automated documentation, dependency graph generation, and CI/CD integration, addressing practical constraints of modern microservice ecosystems.

Abstract

Microservice architectures encourage the use of small, independently developed services; however, this can lead to increased architectural complexity. Accurate documentation is crucial, but is challenging to maintain due to the rapid, independent evolution of services. While static architecture reconstruction provides a way to maintain up-to-date documentation, existing approaches suffer from technology limitations, mono-repo constraints, or high implementation barriers. This paper presents a novel framework for static architecture reconstruction that supports technology-specific analysis modules, called \emph{extractors}, and supports \emph{distributed architecture reconstruction} in multi-repo environments. We describe the core design concepts and algorithms that govern how extractors are executed, how data is passed between them, and how their outputs are unified. Furthermore, the framework is interoperable with existing static analysis tools and algorithms, allowing them to be invoked from or embedded within extractors.

Distributed Architecture Reconstruction of Polyglot and Multi-Repository Microservice Projects

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of maintaining accurate documentation for polyglot, multi-repository microservice systems by introducing a modular static-analysis framework. It features extractors—language- and technology-specific analysis modules—that operate on a shared, JSON-based architecture model, with a reconstruction algorithm to integrate outputs and support distributed reconstruction across repositories. Key contributions include a formal API for extractors, a robust aggregation mechanism with conflict handling, and retroactive linking to express inter-service relationships without tight coupling. The approach enables up-to-date architectural views in multi-repo environments and is designed for interoperability with existing static-analysis tools, with open-source tooling under ModARO. The framework has practical potential for automated documentation, dependency graph generation, and CI/CD integration, addressing practical constraints of modern microservice ecosystems.

Abstract

Microservice architectures encourage the use of small, independently developed services; however, this can lead to increased architectural complexity. Accurate documentation is crucial, but is challenging to maintain due to the rapid, independent evolution of services. While static architecture reconstruction provides a way to maintain up-to-date documentation, existing approaches suffer from technology limitations, mono-repo constraints, or high implementation barriers. This paper presents a novel framework for static architecture reconstruction that supports technology-specific analysis modules, called \emph{extractors}, and supports \emph{distributed architecture reconstruction} in multi-repo environments. We describe the core design concepts and algorithms that govern how extractors are executed, how data is passed between them, and how their outputs are unified. Furthermore, the framework is interoperable with existing static analysis tools and algorithms, allowing them to be invoked from or embedded within extractors.
Paper Structure (19 sections, 4 figures)

This paper contains 19 sections, 4 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Existing Work
  3. The Problems and Proposed Solutions
  4. Concepts and Terminology
  5. Extractors
  6. Design Principles
  7. Extractor Schemas
  8. Internal Model Fields
  9. The Reconstruction Algorithm
  10. Triggering the Algorithm
  11. The Algorithm
  12. API Framework
  13. Scanning the directory tree for valid files and folders
  14. Extracting data from the contents of the file
  15. Distributed Architecture Reconstruction
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Am example of an extractor that tests if the microservice source code contains any Java files. The $path field in the microservice entity would have been set by another extractor. getPaths is an example of an API function (see Section \ref{['section:api']}).
  • Figure 2: Initialisation process of the reconstruction approach.
  • Figure 3: The createModelEntity function.
  • Figure 4: The algorithm for the runExtractors function. In the flowchart entity refers to the model entity passed to runExtractors.