Contract Lifecycle and Distribution
The full lifecycle of architectural contracts - from import through approval to distribution - with version coexistence, phased migration support, and signed distribution artefacts targeted at specific consumers.
The Contract Lifecycle
Contract Detail View
The contract detail view provides full visibility into a contract's history and current state. It is accessible from the contracts section in the hub sidebar.
Version Coexistence
Multiple versions of a contract can be active at the same time. When a producer publishes version 3, consumers on version 2 are not forced to upgrade immediately. The contract registry tracks which consumers are on which version, and the mesh view shows the version drift. This supports real-world migration patterns where teams adopt changes at different speeds.
Phased Migration
When a breaking change affects multiple consumers, the estate architect can assign them to migration phases. Phase 1 might include the most critical or most capable teams, Phase 2 the next tier, and so on. The task board tracks progress per phase with counters showing how many services have migrated versus how many are pending.
Distribution Artefacts
Once contracts are approved, the estate architect creates distribution artefacts - curated packages targeted at specific consumer projects. Unlike project-to-hub imports (which contain everything a project exports), distribution artefacts contain only the approved contract versions that a specific consumer needs.
Upstream and Downstream Flows
The hub handles two directions of artefact flow. Upstream flows bring content from project teams into the hub for governance. Downstream flows distribute approved content from the hub to consumer projects. This bidirectional model ensures that every cross-project dependency passes through the hub, creating a complete picture of the estate's integration topology.