Raise the friction for adding a new domain

Every new feature shouldn't become its own domain — a domain is a business capability, not a widget.

Nx·Domain Isolation·Medium·Since 2026-05-01

nx-isolation-gov-friction-new-domain

Why it matters

Failure modes if this rule is ignored

Stake	If ignored
Spreads failure	Anti-pattern: every new feature becomes a domain → 40 micro-domains → the platform turns into the inverse mess of a monolith.
No ownership	A domain is a business capability, not a feature — without that bar, the catalog dilutes. Simple test: if domain X disappears tomorrow, what business capability vanishes? If the answer is "kind of a widget" — that's not a domain, it's a feature lib inside an existing domain.
Agent gets lost	enforce-module-boundaries can't protect libs that were never tagged. Platform graph grows unreadable when every feature is a top-level domain.

How to fix

Creating a new domain is not a casual decision. It requires tech review, a defined owner, a README, and a CODEOWNERS entry. A domain is a commitment.

Examples

Bad

New feature "export widget" → new domain export-widget with one lib and no owner.

Good

New domain checklist:
- Tech review with platform leads
- Named owner team
- README in /apps/<domain>/README.md
- CODEOWNERS for /apps/<domain>/ and /libs/<domain>/
- Nx tags on every lib for enforce-module-boundaries

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