Subatom Architecture

This page describes the application-level architecture supported by the supplied framework/reference material. It intentionally avoids presenting internal implementation classes as stable application APIs.

Request lifecycle

Conceptually, a request moves through:

Node HTTP request
      │
      ▼
 Request / Context creation
      │
      ▼
 Global/path middleware
      │
      ▼
 Route matching
      │
      ▼
 Route middleware + schema validation
      │
      ▼
 Pipeline modifiers
      │
      ▼
 Controller / handler
      │
      ▼
 Response / serialization
      │
      ▼
 Node HTTP response

The exact ordering between individual pipeline modifiers should be verified against the installed framework version when building lifecycle-sensitive middleware.

Main components

Subatom

Application composition and lifecycle.

Router

Route registration, matching, groups, resources, middleware, route metadata, and URL generation.

Request / Response

Typed facades over the underlying Node HTTP request and response.

Context

The primary controller-facing facade combining request data and response operations.

Middleware and pipeline

Middleware handles cross-cutting request processing. Transformers, interceptors, and serializers provide additional lifecycle extension points.

Validation

Route schemas validate request body, query, params, headers, and files through the supported schema protocol.

File uploads

Multipart upload helpers provide file metadata, memory/disk handling, streaming, cleanup, and validation.

Companion-package boundary

WebSocket functionality in the supplied working application is implemented by subatom-pulse, mounted on the HTTP server returned by Subatom. This keeps the core HTTP framework and real-time transport responsibilities separate.

Production boundary

Database connections, Redis clients, external authentication providers, reverse proxies, TLS termination, and deployment orchestration belong to the application/infrastructure layer.