The Origami Architecture Side Effect Expulsion as a Structural Design Principle
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Contemporary software systems are routinely more complex than their computationalrequirements warrant. We argue that this complexity is a historical artifact: theresidue of compensatory tools — IoC Containers, AOP, ORM identity managementcrossing architectural boundaries, APM — invented when refactoring wasimpractical. This paper introduces The Origami Architecture: a structural theory ofwhat happens when side effects are expelled from program logic. Viewing a programas a directed graph, expulsion relocates all side-effecting nodes to the periphery. Theresulting fold line is an information aggregation point: the unique structurallocation through which all cross-boundary data must pass. We prove the informationaggregation theorem and derive four necessary consequences: design signalgeneration (Data Clumps at the fold line signal missing domain abstractions),dependency visibility, performance bottleneck localization, and test simplification.We further prove that IoC Containers are the paradigm violation: a singlecontainer-injected edge destroys all four properties simultaneously. The theoryapplies to any program in which fold-line overhead is acceptable given the system'slatency requirements — encompassing the overwhelming majority of contemporarysoftware systems.
Author: Sophia, Franny Philos
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7161399065
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: