Clean Architecture & DDD Mastery

ArchUnit .NET: Enforcing architectural rules via tests

1 Views Updated 5/4/2026

Automated Governance

How do you ensure that a new developer doesn't accidentally add a reference from the Domain project to the Infrastructure project? You use ArchUnit .NET.

1. Architecture as Code

ArchUnit allowed you to write tests that check the 'Design' of your application.
Types().That().ResideInNamespace("Domain").Should().NotDependOnAny(Types().InNamespace("Infrastructure")).
If anyone breaks this rule, the build fails. This is a massive improvement over traditional code reviews, where architectural slips can be easily missed.

2. Naming Conventions

You can also enforce conventions like "All Handlers must end with the word 'Handler'" or "All Domain Services must reside in the 'Services' folder". This keeps a large codebase consistent and predictably organized, which is vital for long-term maintenance.

3. Architect Insight

Q: "Is this overkill?"

Architect Answer: "For a 2-person project? Maybe. For an enterprise project with 20 developers and 500,000 lines of code? NO. It's essential. It prevents 'Architectural Drift' where the project slowly decays into a monolith because someone took a shortcut. ArchUnit is your 'Architectural Sentry' that never sleeps."

Clean Architecture & DDD Mastery
1. Architectural Patterns
The Evolution of Architecture: Monolith to Clean Onion Architecture: Dependency Inversion at the core Clean Architecture: The 'Screaming' architecture Hexagonal Architecture (Ports and Adapters)
2. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Foundations
Ubiquitous Language: Aligning code with business Entities vs Value Objects: Managing identity and state Aggregates & Aggregate Roots: Defining consistency boundaries Bounded Contexts: Handling complexity in large domains
3. Advanced DDD Patterns
Domain Services: When logic doesn't fit in an entity Domain Events: Decoupling side effects via events Repositories: Mediating between domain and data Unit of Work: Ensuring atomic transactions
4. Implementing the Clean Layers
The Domain Layer: Zero dependencies, pure C# The Application Layer: Orchestrating use cases The Infrastructure Layer: Bridging to the outside world The Presentation Layer: Decoupling the UI from logic
5. Patterns for Data & Logic
CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) MediatR: Implementing the Mediator pattern in .NET Specification Pattern: Encapsulating business rules Policy Pattern: Handling complex authorization rules
6. Enterprise Domain Challenges
Handling Persistence Ignorance with EF Core Mapping Layers: AutoMapper vs Manual Mapping Validation Strategies: FluentValidation in the App Layer Error Handling: Result patterns vs Exceptions
7. Testing Clean Architecture
Unit Testing the Domain: Fast and pure Testing Use Cases with Mocks Integration Testing the Infrastructure ArchUnit .NET: Enforcing architectural rules via tests
8. Real-World Case Study
Refactoring a 'Spaghetti' Monolith to Clean Architecture DDD in Action: Modeling a complex Logistics system