🧠 Clean Architecture Is for LLMs Now

May 14

You’re not writing code for people anymore. You’re writing it for machines that will help you — but only if you tell them exactly what to do. Clean architecture gives LLMs the clarity they need to avoid doom loops and actually ship something useful.

🤖 The New Reality

We’re all working with AI now — Cursor, Copilot, GPT, take your pick.

These tools are no longer “assistants.” They’re co-authors. They autocomplete your thoughts, generate services, write tests, and even refactor your domain logic.

But here’s the catch:

They’re only as smart as your structure.

If your codebase is chaotic, procedural, and mashed together — they hallucinate.
If it’s clean, explicit, and well-shaped — they thrive.

🏗️ What Clean Architecture Actually Gives You

We don’t do clean architecture because we’re purists. We do it because we want:

Explicit intent (commands, queries, events)
Separated responsibilities (domain logic vs. infra vs. orchestration)
Composable units AI can understand and test
Readable structure with predictable naming and layering

These patterns weren’t invented for LLMs. But they work brilliantly with them.

🛠️ LLMs Aren’t Magic — They’re Pattern Matchers

LLMs don’t “know” your system. They:

Parse your folder structure
Scan your class names
Follow your method shapes
Predict completions based on patterns

If your code follows no pattern, they guess. If your code is structured like a system, they help you build more of it.

Structure isn’t overhead anymore — it’s AI prompt engineering.

💡 Why It Matters

Because with AI tools:

You can scaffold new features in minutes — if the system is predictable
You can generate unit tests — if responsibilities are clear
You can refactor with confidence — if side effects are isolated

The more disciplined your architecture, the more powerful your LLM becomes.

Clean architecture makes AI tools less like autocomplete — and more like full-stack engineers who already understand the patterns.

🚫 But Devs Still Push Back

“It’s too much ceremony.”
“It slows me down.”
“Why do we need all these layers?”

Because:

The layers give your AI enough clarity to generate code that actually works
The ceremony reduces ambiguity
The separation makes your code safe to extend

You’re not writing code for one person. You’re writing it for the person after you — and the machine sitting next to them.

🏁 TL;DR

Clean architecture isn’t about being right — it’s about being understandable.

In the age of LLMs, architecture is no longer just for humans.
It’s scaffolding for the machines helping us build the future.

Write systems they can read.
Write patterns they can learn from.

That’s clean architecture — now.

Glenn Eggleton