Android Clean Architecture

Android Clean Architecture

Clean Architecture patterns for Android and KMP projects. Covers module boundaries, dependency inversion, UseCase/Repository patterns, and data layer design with Room, SQLDelight, and Ktor.

When to Activate

• Structuring Android or KMP project modules
• Implementing UseCases, Repositories, or DataSources
• Designing data flow between layers (domain, data, presentation)
• Setting up dependency injection with Koin or Hilt
• Working with Room, SQLDelight, or Ktor in a layered architecture

Module Structure

Recommended Layout

project/
├── app/                  # Android entry point, DI wiring, Application class
├── core/                 # Shared utilities, base classes, error types
├── domain/               # UseCases, domain models, repository interfaces (pure Kotlin)
├── data/                 # Repository implementations, DataSources, DB, network
├── presentation/         # Screens, ViewModels, UI models, navigation
├── design-system/        # Reusable Compose components, theme, typography
└── feature/              # Feature modules (optional, for larger projects)
    ├── auth/
    ├── settings/
    └── profile/

Dependency Rules

app → presentation, domain, data, core
presentation → domain, design-system, core
data → domain, core
domain → core (or no dependencies)
core → (nothing)

Rule: domain depends only on core (or nothing). It contains pure Kotlin — no framework imports.

Domain Layer

UseCase Pattern

Each UseCase represents one business operation. Use operator fun invoke for clean call sites:

class GetItemsByCategoryUseCase(
    private val repository: ItemRepository
) {
    suspend operator fun invoke(category: String): Result<List<Item>> {
        return repository.getItemsByCategory(category)
    }
}

// Flow-based UseCase for reactive streams
class ObserveUserProgressUseCase(
    private val repository: UserRepository
) {
    operator fun invoke(userId: String): Flow<UserProgress> {
        return repository.observeProgress(userId)
    }
}

Domain Models

Domain models are plain Kotlin data classes — no framework annotations:

data class Item(
    val id: String,
    val title: String,
    val description: String,
    val tags: List<String>,
    val status: Status,
    val category: String
)

enum class Status { DRAFT, ACTIVE, ARCHIVED }

Repository Interfaces

Defined in domain, implemented in data:

interface ItemRepository {
    suspend fun getItemsByCategory(category: String): Result<List<Item>>
    suspend fun saveItem(item: Item): Result<Unit>
    fun observeItems(): Flow<List<Item>>
}

Data Layer

Repository Implementation

Coordinates between local and remote data sources:

class ItemRepositoryImpl(
    private val localDataSource: ItemLocalDataSource,
    private val remoteDataSource: ItemRemoteDataSource
) : ItemRepository {

    override suspend fun getItemsByCategory(category: String): Result<List<Item>> {
        return runCatching {
            val remote = remoteDataSource.fetchItems(category)
            localDataSource.insertItems(remote.map { it.toEntity() })
            localDataSource.getItemsByCategory(category).map { it.toDomain() }
        }
    }

    override suspend fun saveItem(item: Item): Result<Unit> {
        return runCatching {
            localDataSource.insertItems(listOf(item.toEntity()))
        }
    }

    override fun observeItems(): Flow<List<Item>> {
        return localDataSource.observeAll().map { entities ->
            entities.map { it.toDomain() }
        }
    }
}

Mapper Pattern

Keep mappers as extension functions near the data models:

// In data layer
fun ItemEntity.toDomain() = Item(
    id = id,
    title = title,
    description = description,
    tags = tags.split("|"),
    status = Status.valueOf(status),
    category = category
)

fun ItemDto.toEntity() = ItemEntity(
    id = id,
    title = title,
    description = description,
    tags = tags.joinToString("|"),
    status = status,
    category = category
)

Room Database (Android)

@Entity(tableName = "items")
data class ItemEntity(
    @PrimaryKey val id: String,
    val title: String,
    val description: String,
    val tags: String,
    val status: String,
    val category: String
)

@Dao
interface ItemDao {
    @Query("SELECT * FROM items WHERE category = :category")
    suspend fun getByCategory(category: String): List<ItemEntity>

    @Upsert
    suspend fun upsert(items: List<ItemEntity>)

    @Query("SELECT * FROM items")
    fun observeAll(): Flow<List<ItemEntity>>
}

SQLDelight (KMP)

-- Item.sq
CREATE TABLE ItemEntity (
    id TEXT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    title TEXT NOT NULL,
    description TEXT NOT NULL,
    tags TEXT NOT NULL,
    status TEXT NOT NULL,
    category TEXT NOT NULL
);

getByCategory:
SELECT * FROM ItemEntity WHERE category = ?;

upsert:
INSERT OR REPLACE INTO ItemEntity (id, title, description, tags, status, category)
VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?);

observeAll:
SELECT * FROM ItemEntity;

Ktor Network Client (KMP)

class ItemRemoteDataSource(private val client: HttpClient) {

    suspend fun fetchItems(category: String): List<ItemDto> {
        return client.get("api/items") {
            parameter("category", category)
        }.body()
    }
}

// HttpClient setup with content negotiation
val httpClient = HttpClient {
    install(ContentNegotiation) { json(Json { ignoreUnknownKeys = true }) }
    install(Logging) { level = LogLevel.HEADERS }
    defaultRequest { url("https://api.example.com/") }
}

Dependency Injection

Koin (KMP-friendly)

// Domain module
val domainModule = module {
    factory { GetItemsByCategoryUseCase(get()) }
    factory { ObserveUserProgressUseCase(get()) }
}

// Data module
val dataModule = module {
    single<ItemRepository> { ItemRepositoryImpl(get(), get()) }
    single { ItemLocalDataSource(get()) }
    single { ItemRemoteDataSource(get()) }
}

// Presentation module
val presentationModule = module {
    viewModelOf(::ItemListViewModel)
    viewModelOf(::DashboardViewModel)
}

Hilt (Android-only)

@Module
@InstallIn(SingletonComponent::class)
abstract class RepositoryModule {
    @Binds
    abstract fun bindItemRepository(impl: ItemRepositoryImpl): ItemRepository
}

@HiltViewModel
class ItemListViewModel @Inject constructor(
    private val getItems: GetItemsByCategoryUseCase
) : ViewModel()

Error Handling

Result/Try Pattern

Use Result<T> or a custom sealed type for error propagation:

sealed interface Try<out T> {
    data class Success<T>(val value: T) : Try<T>
    data class Failure(val error: AppError) : Try<Nothing>
}

sealed interface AppError {
    data class Network(val message: String) : AppError
    data class Database(val message: String) : AppError
    data object Unauthorized : AppError
}

// In ViewModel — map to UI state
viewModelScope.launch {
    when (val result = getItems(category)) {
        is Try.Success -> _state.update { it.copy(items = result.value, isLoading = false) }
        is Try.Failure -> _state.update { it.copy(error = result.error.toMessage(), isLoading = false) }
    }
}

Convention Plugins (Gradle)

For KMP projects, use convention plugins to reduce build file duplication:

// build-logic/src/main/kotlin/kmp-library.gradle.kts
plugins {
    id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.multiplatform")
}

kotlin {
    androidTarget()
    iosX64(); iosArm64(); iosSimulatorArm64()
    sourceSets {
        commonMain.dependencies { /* shared deps */ }
        commonTest.dependencies { implementation(kotlin("test")) }
    }
}

Apply in modules:

// domain/build.gradle.kts
plugins { id("kmp-library") }

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

• Importing Android framework classes in domain — keep it pure Kotlin
• Exposing database entities or DTOs to the UI layer — map to domain models first
• Putting business logic in ViewModels — extract to UseCases
• Using GlobalScope or unstructured coroutines — prefer viewModelScope or structured concurrency
• Fat repository implementations — split into focused DataSources
• Circular module dependencies — if A depends on B, B should not depend on A

References

See skill: compose-multiplatform-patterns for UI patterns. See skill: kotlin-coroutines-flows for async patterns.