Julien Gautier
e2fae02731
Documents the security middleware stack shipped across the five most recent BFF PRs (#115, #117, #120, #122, #123) as a single MADR ADR. Today the rationale lives in code comments and PR descriptions; the next contributor reaching for `csurf`, cookie-only CSRF, or a hardcoded localhost CORS fallback didn't have one place to read why those are wrong here. Contents: - Response envelope: { error: { code, message, traceId } }, single contract across Nest's filter and raw middlewares via the errorResponse() helper. Status-code mapping documented. 500s never leak the underlying exception. - CSRF session-bound double-submit, not cookie-vs-header. The cookie is the SPA's read-only mirror; the source of truth is req.session.csrfToken — subdomain-takeover injection can't bypass. - CORS allowlist env-driven, mandatory, no fallback. Catches the "works in dev breaks in prod" misconfiguration at boot. - Rate limit: sessionID-then-IP bucket key, 10/min auth + 120/min general, /api/health skipped, in-memory v1 store. - Helmet defaults + three overrides (HSTS prod-only, COR cross-origin, CSP prod-only) with code-anchored justifications. Considered options mirror the actual debate — each rejected alternative has its "Bad, because" line so a reader sees why we didn't go that way. Each Decision Outcome line cross-references the file that enforces it. Scope is the IMPLEMENTATION-level baseline. The STRATEGIC baseline (ASVS reference level, HDS / GDPR / NIS 2 framing, RSSI sign-off) remains paused per CLAUDE.md. When it lands it confirms or supersedes pieces of 0021; the ADR is explicit about which choices are tactical. Index entry in docs/decisions/README.md updated in the same commit per the project convention. CLAUDE.md §"Repository status" still says the workspace is "not yet bootstrapped" and refs ADRs up to 0020 — that paragraph is stale (22 ADRs in place, project fully scaffolded). Worth a small dedicated docs PR; out of scope here.
Architectural Decision Records
This project records architecturally-significant decisions as ADRs in the MADR 4.0.0 format. References: adr.github.io.
Why ADRs
ADRs capture the why behind a decision — context, drivers, options considered, trade-offs accepted — at the moment the decision is made. They make architecture reviewable, onboarding faster, and prevent the same debate from being re-litigated later.
Conventions
- Format: MADR 4.0.0. Start from template.md.
- Filename:
NNNN-kebab-case-title.md, e.g.0007-adopt-tailwind-for-design-tokens.md. - Numbering: globally sequential 4-digit prefix. Numbers never reset, never get reused — even when an ADR is superseded or deprecated.
- Layout: flat folder. ADRs are not nested into category subfolders; topical organization happens via tags.
- Tags: every ADR carries a
tags:array in the MADR frontmatter, drawn from the tag vocabulary below. An ADR may carry several tags. Propose new tags (or renames) in the same PR that needs them; never invent ad-hoc tags inline. - Status lifecycle:
proposed→accepted→ optionallydeprecatedorsuperseded by [ADR-NNNN](NNNN-other.md). Update the YAML frontmatter; never delete an ADR. - Index maintenance: every ADR addition or status change must update the Index below in the same commit.
When to write an ADR
Write one whenever a development decision is non-trivial: tool or library choice, framework pattern, security control, perf budget, a11y target, naming convention, deprecation, breaking change, or any choice that future contributors would benefit from understanding the why of.
Tag vocabulary
The vocabulary below is the source of truth. It is intentionally coarse — propose extensions only when an existing tag genuinely doesn't fit, and avoid overly narrow tags.
| Tag | Scope |
|---|---|
frontend |
UI, Angular, components, design system, client-side state |
backend |
API, BFF, server-side services |
security |
AuthN, AuthZ, sessions, CSP, dependency scanning, secret management |
performance |
Perf budgets, caching, bundle size, Lighthouse |
accessibility |
WCAG, a11y testing, keyboard, ARIA, contrast |
infrastructure |
CI/CD, hosting, deployment, runtime |
observability |
Logs, metrics, traces, correlation IDs, monitoring |
data |
Persistence, schemas, migrations, data flow |
process |
Team conventions, workflows, repo policy |
Status: starter vocabulary, to be refined as ADRs accumulate. Update this table whenever a tag is added, renamed, or retired.
Index
ADRs are listed in numerical order. To slice by topic, filter on the Tags column.
| # | Title | Status | Tags | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0001 | Use ADRs to record architectural decisions | accepted | process |
2026-04-29 |
| 0002 | Adopt Nx monorepo with the apps preset |
accepted | infrastructure, frontend, backend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0003 | Workspace and app naming convention | accepted | process |
2026-04-29 |
| 0004 | Frontend stack — Angular (latest LTS), standalone, zoneless, Signals, CSR-only, Vitest | accepted | frontend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0005 | Backend stack — NestJS over Express, Fastify, Hono | accepted | backend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0006 | Persistence — PostgreSQL with Prisma | accepted | data, backend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0007 | Pre-commit hooks and Conventional Commits | accepted | process |
2026-04-29 |
| 0008 | Identity model — multi-tenant Entra ID for workforce, dual-audience design for future External ID | accepted | security, data |
2026-04-29 |
| 0009 | Authentication flow — OIDC Authorization Code + PKCE via MSAL Node, BFF session pattern | accepted | security, backend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0010 | Session management — opaque session IDs in cookies, payload in self-hosted Redis with AES-GCM at rest | accepted | security, backend, infrastructure |
2026-04-29 |
| 0011 | MFA enforcement — Entra ID Conditional Access baseline, BFF claim sanity-check, step-up hooks designed-in | accepted | security |
2026-04-29 |
| 0012 | Observability — Pino structured logs + OpenTelemetry tracing, W3C Trace Context propagation, stdout + collector | accepted | observability, backend, frontend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0013 | Audit trail — separated append-only Postgres schema, decoupled from app logs | accepted | security, observability, data |
2026-04-29 |
| 0014 | Downstream API access — On-Behalf-Of pattern, unified DownstreamApiClient, audience-aware authorization |
accepted | security, backend |
2026-04-29 |
| 0015 | CI/CD pipeline — Gitea Actions, trunk-based + squash-merge, thin YAML over portable scripts | accepted | infrastructure, process |
2026-04-30 |
| 0016 | Accessibility baseline — WCAG 2.2 AA + targeted AAA, Angular CDK + spartan-ng + Tailwind, APF panel testing | accepted | accessibility, frontend, process |
2026-04-30 |
| 0017 | Performance budgets — Core Web Vitals + Lighthouse CI gates, bundle budgets, BFF p95/p99 SLOs | accepted | performance, frontend, backend, process |
2026-04-30 |
| 0018 | Environment configuration — Angular environment.ts, BFF env vars, audit pool split |
accepted | frontend, backend, infrastructure, process |
2026-05-10 |
| 0019 | Internationalisation — @angular/localize, build-time per-locale bundles, /fr + /en path-based routing |
accepted | frontend, accessibility, performance, process |
2026-05-11 |
| 0020 | portal-admin — dedicated SPA for portal administration, sharing the existing BFF |
accepted | frontend, backend, security, infrastructure, process |
2026-05-11 |
| 0021 | Phase-2 security baseline — helmet, CORS allowlist, double-submit CSRF, rate limiting, structured error envelope | accepted | security, backend |
2026-05-13 |