micro-frontends

Micro-frontends

Micro-frontends extend microservices to the browser: each team owns a vertical slice (UI down to API) and ships it independently, then the slices compose into one page. You trade build-time simplicity for team autonomy — only worth it past a certain organizational scale.

When to use this skill

• Deciding whether to adopt micro-frontends, or which composition technique fits.
• Wiring Module Federation, single-spa, import maps, or server-side fragment composition.
• Designing cross-app communication (events, shared state, URL) or a shell/host app.
• Migrating a frontend monolith incrementally (strangler-fig).

The core decision: where does composition happen?

This choice drives everything else. Pick the latest stage that meets your constraints.

Where	Techniques	Pick when	Cost
Build-time	npm packages, monorepo imports	strong type safety + one optimized bundle matter more than independent deploy	releases are coupled — every change redeploys the host
Routing-based (zones)	edge/proxy path routing — microfrontends.json, Next.js Multi-Zones, reverse proxy	each team deploys a whole app behind a URL path; you want the simplest independent deploy with no shared runtime and page-level boundaries are fine	hard nav between zones (soften with prefetch), duplicated shell/layout, asset-prefix collisions to manage
Server-side	SSI/ESI, Podium/Tailor, universal rendering	SEO + fast first paint are critical; you need fragment-level (sub-page) composition	needs server/edge infra; client interactivity layered on top
Client-side (runtime)	iframes, web components, Module Federation, import maps	true independent deploy + tech-stack freedom + fine-grained in-page composition	runtime overhead, larger aggregate bundle, harder shared deps

Defaults: start build-time (a monorepo) and only move down when team-coordination pain justifies it. The simplest independent-deploy step up is routing-based (zones) — each app stays a standalone deployment and an edge/proxy stitches them by URL path; reach for server-side or runtime composition only when you need fragment- or component-level composition rather than whole-page boundaries. For runtime, prefer web components for framework-agnostic isolation (Shadow DOM) and Module Federation when teams share a bundler and want dependency singletons; use iframes only when hard security/CSS isolation outweighs their UX cost. See composition.md.

Integration techniques → where to read

Need	Read
All composition techniques compared (server-side, web components, iframes, import maps) + how to choose	composition.md
Module Federation config: host/remote, exposes/remotes, shared singletons, dynamic remotes	module-federation.md
Routing across apps: server-side reverse proxy, client-side app-shell, single-spa orchestration	routing-and-orchestration.md
Talking between apps: events up, props down, broadcast, shared event bus, URL-as-state	communication.md
Principles + best practices: team ownership, prefixes, native-over-custom, resilience, governance	principles.md

Non-negotiable principles (details in principles.md)

• One team owns one slice, end to end. Boundaries follow teams (Conway's Law), not technical layers.
• Namespace everything with a team prefix — custom-element tags, CSS classes, events, storage keys (checkout:item-added, not item-added) — so independently shipped slices never collide.
• Favor native browser features over a custom framework (custom elements, CustomEvent, the URL) — they survive framework churn and need no shared runtime.
• A shell/host owns layout, auth, and top-level routing; slices own only their content area.
• Govern with a shared design system. Team autonomy ≠ visual chaos.
• Build a resilient page: server-render a baseline, then hydrate; one slice failing must not blank the page (error boundaries + fallbacks).

When NOT to use micro-frontends

• A single team owns the whole frontend, or the app is small-to-medium.
• A well-organized monorepo with code-splitting already solves it.
• You lack independent build/deploy/integration-test infrastructure.

Micro-frontends are an organizational solution. With one or two teams they add cost without the autonomy payoff — start with a monolith.

Sources

Adapted from Tyler-R-Kendrick/agent-skills (MIT) and grounded in Micro Frontends in Action (M. Geers, MIT), micro-frontends.org, and Martin Fowler — Micro Frontends.