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Shield Architecture

SDD Classification: L2-System Authority: Engineering Team Review Cycle: Quarterly
This document details the internal architecture of the Shield authentication service, including component design, data models, caching strategies, and integration patterns.

High-Level Architecture


Component Architecture

Authentication Pipeline

Permission Validation Flow


Data Models

User Model

Workspace Model

Membership Model

Token Models


Database Schema


Caching Strategy

Permission Cache

User Context Cache

Session Cache


Internal API Design

Service-to-Service Authentication

Response Format


Event System Integration

Event Publishing

Event Consumption


Security Architecture

Defense in Depth

Key Security Controls


Scaling Considerations

Horizontal Scaling

  • Stateless service design (all state in PostgreSQL/Redis)
  • Gunicorn workers (2 × CPU cores + 1)
  • Database connection pooling (pgbouncer)
  • Redis connection pooling

Performance Optimizations

  • Permission result caching (95%+ hit rate)
  • JWT public key caching (5-minute TTL)
  • Database query optimization with proper indexes
  • Async event publishing (non-blocking)


Document Status: Complete Version: 2.0