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CONCEPT Cited by 1 source

Capability registry

Definition

A capability registry is a governed metadata store that catalogs reusable processing functions (capabilities) with their identifiers, input/output schemas, invocation details (e.g., Lambda ARNs), permission boundaries, version references, and behavioral annotations (e.g., data sensitivity propagation). A composer or orchestrator queries the registry to validate workflow specifications and locate the correct capability implementations at assembly time.

Key properties

  • Governed artifact — definitions live in version control; CI/CD validates metadata and runs tests before publishing new versions.
  • Versioned capabilities — specifications include explicit version references to support reproducible runs.
  • Discoverable — supports full-text and semantic search over capability metadata (descriptions, schemas, tags), enabling discovery by intent rather than exact identifier.
  • Approval gating — in regulated systems, new capabilities require separate validation and approval workflows before registration.

Relationship to specification-driven composition

In the patterns/specification-driven-composition pattern, the capability registry is the bridge between the intent layer (specification) and the processing layer (execution). The composer:

  1. Reads capability references from the specification.
  2. Queries the registry to validate they exist.
  3. Retrieves metadata (ARNs, schemas, sensitivity declarations).
  4. Assembles the pipeline using the retrieved metadata.

Without a governed registry, the pattern cannot validate specifications before execution or guarantee reproducibility.

(Source: sources/2026-07-09-aws-specification-driven-composition-for-flexible-data-workflows)

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