# Future Considerations for Bangstack

This document outlines features and improvements for future iterations beyond the MVP.

## Workflow Authoring at Scale

### Problem
For enterprise applications with hundreds of actors and workflows, manually writing YAML is unmanageable.

### Solutions

#### 1. Visual Workflow Builder (High Priority)
A web-based UI for creating workflows:
- Drag and drop components/endpoints
- Visual dependency graph editor
- Property configuration forms
- Real-time validation
- Export to YAML automatically

**Similar to:** n8n, Zapier, AWS Step Functions visual editor

**Benefits:**
- Non-technical users can create workflows
- Reduces YAML syntax errors
- Instant visual feedback
- Easier to understand complex dependency graphs

#### 2. AI-Assisted Generation (High Priority)
Use LLMs to generate workflows from natural language:

```
User: "Add a password reset workflow that sends an email and updates the database"
AI: Generates complete workflow YAML with:
  - Frontend: Reset password form
  - Backend: Email sending + DB update endpoints
  - Docs: User instructions
  - Tests: Full coverage
```

**Benefits:**
- Fastest way to create new features
- Reduces learning curve
- Maintains consistency across workflows

#### 3. Reverse Engineering / Code Inference (Critical for Migration)
Scan existing codebases to generate workflow definitions:

```bash
bangstack infer --frontend ./src/components --backend ./api
```

The tool would:
- Analyze React components to extract UI patterns
- Scan API endpoints to understand backend logic
- Detect relationships between frontend/backend
- Generate workflow YAML from existing code
- Request human validation/refinement

**Benefits:**
- Essential for migrating existing apps
- Creates documentation for legacy code
- Validates that code matches intent

#### 4. Workflow Templates & Composition
Build from reusable patterns:

```yaml
# Import common patterns
extends:
  - templates/crud-workflow.yaml
  - templates/authenticated-endpoint.yaml

# Override specifics
workflow:
  id: user-profile
  resource: User
```

**Benefits:**
- DRY principle for workflows
- Enforces best practices
- Faster development

#### 5. Workflow Marketplace/Library
Pre-built workflows for common patterns:
- Authentication (OAuth, JWT, SAML)
- Payment processing (Stripe, Braintree, PayPal)
- File uploads (S3, Cloudinary, Azure Blob)
- Email (SendGrid, Mailgun, AWS SES)
- Analytics (Segment, Mixpanel, Google Analytics)

**Benefits:**
- Instant integration with popular services
- Battle-tested patterns
- Reduced development time

## Bi-Directional Sync

### Workflow → Code (Generation)
Current MVP approach:
- Define workflow
- Generate implementation

### Code → Workflow (Inference)
Future enhancement:
- Scan existing code
- Extract workflow
- Keep workflow and code in sync
- Detect drift between workflow definition and actual implementation

### Smart Merging
When both workflow and code change:
- Detect conflicts
- Suggest resolutions
- Preserve manual customizations
- Flag breaking changes

## Workflow Management at Scale

### 1. Modular Workflows
Split large workflows into smaller, composable units:
- Microservices for workflows
- Clear boundaries and contracts
- Version independently

### 2. Workflow Composition
Import and extend workflows:
- Inheritance
- Mixins
- Dependency injection

### 3. Workflow Visualization
Graph view of all workflows and relationships:
- Interactive dependency graph
- Filter by actor, domain, or tag
- Zoom into specific workflow details
- Export diagrams for documentation

### 4. Change Impact Analysis
Answer: "If I change this workflow, what else is affected?"
- Traverse dependency graph
- Identify affected workflows
- Estimate effort
- Generate migration guide

### 5. Workflow Diffing
Visual diffs for workflow changes:
- Side-by-side comparison
- Highlight breaking changes
- Show what code will be regenerated
- Preview before committing

### 6. Automated Testing
Validate workflows before deploying:
- Schema validation
- Dependency resolution
- Integration tests
- Performance impact

### 7. Workflow Versioning
- Semantic versioning for workflows
- Migration scripts between versions
- Rollback capability
- A/B testing different workflow versions

### 8. Multi-Environment Support
Enhanced environment management:
- Preview environments per PR
- Feature flags integrated with workflows
- Environment-specific workflow overrides

## Developer Experience

### Interactive CLI
Create workflows through guided prompts:

```bash
$ bang create workflow

? Workflow name: User Profile Management
? Type:
  ❯ CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
    Authentication
    Payment Processing
    Custom

? Frontend framework:
  ❯ React
    Vue
    Angular

? Backend language:
  ❯ TypeScript
    Go
    Python
```

### IDE Integration
- VSCode extension with:
  - Syntax highlighting for workflow YAML
  - IntelliSense for workflow properties
  - Visual workflow editor
  - Jump to generated code
  - Real-time validation

### Hot Reload
Watch workflow files and regenerate code on change:
```bash
bangstack dev --watch
```

## Code Generation Enhancements

### 1. Incremental Generation
Only regenerate what changed:
- Track generated files
- Detect manual modifications
- Merge strategies
- Conflict resolution

### 2. Custom Code Preservation
Mark sections as "safe to customize":
```typescript
// @bangstack-preserve-start
// Custom business logic here
// @bangstack-preserve-end
```

### 3. Plugin System
Allow custom generators:
```typescript
bangstack.registerGenerator('custom-framework', {
  frontend: CustomFrontendGenerator,
  backend: CustomBackendGenerator,
});
```

### 4. Code Quality
Generated code should be:
- Properly formatted (Prettier, gofmt, etc.)
- Linted (ESLint, golint, etc.)
- Type-safe
- Well-documented
- Tested

## Integration & Deployment

### 1. CI/CD Integration
- GitHub Actions workflow
- GitLab CI pipeline
- Jenkins plugin
- Pre-commit hooks

### 2. Cloud Platform Integration
- Deploy directly to Vercel, Netlify, AWS, Azure, GCP
- Infrastructure as code generation (Terraform, CloudFormation)
- Container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)

### 3. Monitoring & Observability
Generate monitoring code:
- Logging
- Metrics
- Tracing
- Error tracking

## Security & Compliance

### 1. Security Scanning
Scan generated code for:
- SQL injection
- XSS vulnerabilities
- CSRF protection
- Authentication bypasses

### 2. Compliance
Generate compliance artifacts:
- GDPR data processing docs
- HIPAA security controls
- SOC 2 control mappings

### 3. Access Control
Workflow-level permissions:
- Who can modify workflows
- Approval process for changes
- Audit trail

## Documentation

### 1. Living Documentation
Docs that stay in sync with code:
- Architecture diagrams from workflows
- API documentation
- User guides
- Onboarding tutorials

### 2. Multi-Audience Docs
Generate docs for different audiences:
- End users: "How to use features"
- Developers: "How to extend the system"
- Ops: "How to deploy and monitor"
- Business: "What features exist"

### 3. Interactive Docs
- API playground
- Code examples in multiple languages
- Try-it-now functionality

## Analytics & Insights

### 1. Workflow Analytics
Track workflow usage:
- Which workflows are most used
- Which are never used (tech debt)
- Complexity metrics
- Change frequency

### 2. Impact Prediction
Before making changes:
- Estimate affected users
- Calculate migration effort
- Predict performance impact

### 3. Optimization Suggestions
AI-powered recommendations:
- "These workflows could be combined"
- "This endpoint is never called"
- "Consider adding caching here"

## Timeline Recommendation

**Phase 1 (MVP - Current)**
- Manual YAML authoring
- Basic code generation
- Core engine

**Phase 2 (Usability)**
- Interactive CLI
- Code inference for migration
- Workflow validation

**Phase 3 (Scale)**
- Visual workflow builder
- Workflow marketplace
- Change impact analysis

**Phase 4 (Enterprise)**
- AI-assisted generation
- Bi-directional sync
- Advanced security & compliance

**Phase 5 (Ecosystem)**
- Plugin system
- IDE integration
- Cloud platform integration
