---
id: "action-create-module-manifests"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["00:11:58", "00:12:10"]
tags: ["software-architecture"]
related: ["concept-structural-context", "concept-context-engineering", "framework-dark-code-solution"]
speakers: ["Nate B. Jones"]
action: "Add a manifest to every module detailing its purpose, its dependencies, and what depends on it."
outcome: "Prevents AI from creating tangled, hidden dependencies by making the architecture explicitly legible."
sources: ["s23-amazon-16k-engineers"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s23-amazon-16k-engineers"
originDay: 23
---
# Create Structural Manifests for Modules

## Action

For every module or service in the codebase, add a **structural manifest** that explicitly states:

1. **Purpose** — what this module does, in one paragraph.
2. **Outbound dependencies** — what external services / modules this code depends on.
3. **Inbound dependencies** — what other services / modules depend on this code.

## Outcome

- AI agents stop *guessing* the architecture when generating new code.
- Hidden, tangled dependencies are prevented at the source.
- Human engineers can answer 'where does this belong?' without tribal knowledge.

## Format Suggestion (not specified by speaker)

A `MANIFEST.md` or `module.yaml` at every module root, parseable by both humans and AI agents.

## Connects To Concept

This is the concrete operationalization of [[concept-structural-context]] — one of the two pillars of [[concept-context-engineering-d23]] (the other being [[concept-semantic-context]], operationalized in [[action-define-rules-of-engagement]]).

Layer 2 of [[framework-dark-code-solution]].