| name | deep-modules |
| description | Use when refactoring into deep modules, choosing seams, classifying dependencies, deciding adapter strategy, or planning tests around a refactor. |
Deep Modules
How to deepen a cluster of shallow modules safely, given its dependencies. The aim is testability and AI-navigability.
Load skill: code-design.
Signals
- Where does understanding one concept require bouncing between many small modules?
- Where are modules shallow — interface nearly as complex as the implementation?
- Where have pure functions been extracted just for testability, but the real bugs hide in how they're called (no locality)?
- Where do tightly-coupled modules leak across their seams?
- Which parts of the codebase are untested, or hard to test through their current interface?
Apply the deletion test to anything you suspect is shallow: would deleting it concentrate complexity, or just move it? A "yes, concentrates" is the signal you want.
Dependency categories
When assessing a deep-module candidate, classify its dependencies. The category determines how the deepened module is tested across its seam.
1. In-process
Pure computation, in-memory state, no I/O. Always deepenable — merge the modules and test through the new interface directly. No adapter needed.
2. Local-substitutable
Dependencies that have local test stand-ins (PGLite for Postgres, in-memory filesystem). Deepenable if the stand-in exists. The deepened module is tested with the stand-in running in the test suite. The seam is internal; no port at the module's external interface.
3. Remote but owned (Ports & Adapters)
Your own services across a network boundary (microservices, internal APIs). Define a port (interface) at the seam. The deep module owns the logic; the transport is injected as an adapter. Tests use an in-memory adapter. Production uses an HTTP/gRPC/queue adapter.
Recommendation shape: "Define a port at the seam, implement an HTTP adapter for production and an in-memory adapter for testing, so the logic sits in one deep module even though it's deployed across a network."
4. True external (Mock)
Third-party services (Stripe, Twilio, etc.) you don't control. The deepened module takes the external dependency as an injected port; tests provide a mock adapter.
Seam discipline
- One adapter means a hypothetical seam. Two adapters means a real one. Don't introduce a port unless at least two adapters are justified (typically production + test). A single-adapter seam is just indirection.
- Internal seams vs external seams. A deep module can have internal seams (private to its implementation, used by its own tests) as well as the external seam at its interface. Don't expose internal seams through the interface just because tests use them.
Testing strategy: replace, don't layer
- Old unit tests on shallow modules become waste once tests at the deepened module's interface exist — delete them.
- Write new tests at the deepened module's interface. The interface is the test surface.
- Tests assert on observable outcomes through the interface, not internal state.
- Tests should survive internal refactors — they describe behaviour, not implementation. If a test has to change when the implementation changes, it's testing past the interface.
