Cyborg as a Framework

Milan Herda

2025-03

Framework

Definition on Wikipedia

Framework - User expectations

• It will provide me with an installer
• I will have a working website after the installation
• I can configure it
• I can choose my set of additional libraries (plugins)
• I can rewrite the initial website code
• I am able to do upgrades of the framework and of the plugins
  • I may be forced to do some rewrites during the upgrade (when upgrading to new major versions and possibly some minor versions)
• I have an option not to do upgrades

Cyborg Framework needs to provide

• Philosophy
• Set of core libraries
• Set of additional libraries (DS, plugins)
• Skeleton for default application
• Installer
• Ways to configure the application
• Ways to override parts of the application
• Semantic versioning for its parts

Mindset

We no longer develop

an application

We are now developing

a set of tools and libraries

Usage & Development Examples

Four points of view & four types of teams

• 📰 Job Board Teams

• 🤖 Cyborg Team

• 🎨 Design System Team

• 🧩 Feature Teams

📰 Job Board Team

📰 Job Board Team: Installation

• Every Job Board has its own Git repository
• Initial creation is done via @almacareer/create-cyborg command
  • Creates new default Job Board
  • Plugin selection
• Configuration & possible overrides & overwrites
• Push to the repository

📰 Job Board Team: Local Development

• clone of the Job Board repository installed locally
• customization done via
  • configuration (yaml files)
  • environment variables
  • code modification of their copy of installed application
  • custom plugins

📰 Job Board Team: Release

Release = Deployment to production

• Independently of Cyborg, Design System or Feature Component teams

📰 Job Board Team: Upgrades

• Needs to update all Cyborg packages (core, DS, plugins...)
• Team should do upgrades regularly
• Upgrades are done the same way as of any other NPM packages
  • Read Changelogs for every library and plugin
  • Follow the advices
  • Apply codemods if able and were provided

📰 Job Board Team: Requests for Features

Job Board team needs some new features in core libraries, Design System libraries or plugins

• asks other team to implement it
• creates a PR in a repository of another team

📰 Job Board Team: Responsibilities

• Works in its own repository
  • Every Job Board has its own Git repository
• Responsible for:
  • specific Job Board
  • selection of enabled plugins
  • customization
  • which version of Cyborg and libs to use

🤖 Cyborg Team

🤖 Cyborg Team

🤖 Cyborg Team: Setup

• clone of platform-frontends monorepo installed locally
• apps/jobportal works both
  • as a testing application
  • and as a skeleton for new Job Boards
• possible another testing installation inside repository, but outside of monorepo workspace

🤖 Cyborg Team: Local Development

• working inside monorepo
• possible testing inside ad-hoc installation(s) created by @almacareer/create-cyborg command

🤖 Cyborg Team: Release

Release = Publishing of a new version of core NPM packages

• using conventional commits to determine next version number
• generated CHANGELOG for each release
• all core packages versioned by the same number*
• publishing done manually on a regular basis (once per week/sprint)*

🤖 Cyborg Team: Upgrades

• Needs to upgrade all packages developed outside of monorepo
• Team should do upgrades regularly and often (each sprint)

🤖 Cyborg Team: Requests for Features

Cyborg Team should not need to ask other teams for new features

🤖 Cyborg Team: Responsibilities

• Works in platform-frontends monorepo
• Responsible for:
  • framework philosophy & documentation
  • core framework libraries (configuration, routing, DI...)
  • support framework libraries (translations)
  • installation command
  • default (initial) Job Board skeleton
  • codemods and tutorials for easy upgrades

🎨 Design System Team

🎨 Design System Team: Setup

• clone of spirit-design-system monorepo installed locally
• clone of platform-frontends monorepo installed locally
• apps/jobportal works both
  • as a testing application
  • and as a skeleton for new Job Boards

🎨 Design System Team: Local Development

• working inside Spirit and Cyborg monorepos
• possible testing inside ad-hoc installation(s) created by @almacareer/create-cyborg command

🎨 Design System Team: Release

Release = Publishing of a new version of DS and UI NPM packages

• using their own versioning strategy, tooling and regularity in Spirit repository
• versioning strategy and regularity in Cyborg repository is a subject of further discussions

🎨 Design System Team: Upgrades

Team should not need to update Cyborg packages:

• they work in monorepos
• plugins from feature teams will be upgraded by Cyborg team

🎨 Design System Team: Requests for Features

Procedure:

🎨 Design System Team: Responsibilities

• Works in spirit-design-system and platform-frontends monorepos
• Responsible for:
  • Design System philosophy & documentation
  • UI components tailored for Job Boards
  • generic UI components

🧩 Feature Team

🧩 Feature Team: Setup

• works in their own Git repository
• some changes temporarily made inside Cyborg repository (Next.js routes)
• concrete setup (single repo, monorepo, multiple repos) is a decision of each Feature Team (approved by Architects)
• Cyborg and DS packages are installed via NPM

🧩 Feature Team: Local Development

• working inside their own repo(s)
• probably beneficial to have their own installation of Cyborg (similar to Job Board Team)
  • default Job Board (prace.cz in the beginning)
  • without any changes to initially generated code to allow easy upgrades

🧩 Feature Team: Release

Release = Publishing of a new version of plugin package(s)

• using their own versioning strategy, tooling and regularity in their repository

🧩 Feature Team: Upgrades

• Team should upgrade their dependencies on Cyborg packages regularly (per sprint).
  • at least after each new major version

🧩 Feature Team: Requests for Features

Procedure:

🧩 Feature Team: Responsibilities

• works inside their own repository(ies)
• and platform-frontends (temporarily)
• responsibilities:
  • developing functionally-specific plugins or libraries for Cyborg
  • UI components for this functionality
  • published as NPM package to private registry

Mind Shift

1. We are now developing a set of tools and libraries

2. We do not control which of our libraries and their versions will be used*

3. We do not push code to production*

4. We do not control when, how and which version of our code gets into production