arch(domain): ADR-0009 external-task job-worker pattern (refs #6, #60)

The Domain Service drives the OpenZaakAanmaken external-worker task as a
hosted job worker (PRD §36): POST /registrations starts the registratie
process and returns; a polling worker acquires the job, opens a zaak via
the ACL (§8.1), attaches the zaak URL to the aggregate, and completes the
job. The Workflow Client is the only Flowable client (§8.2); the worker
logic is an Application service over ports. Registration state is in-memory
for the minimal slice (the read path is the projection, S-06).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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# ADR-0009: The Domain Service drives Flowable as an external-task job worker
- **Status:** Accepted
- **Date:** 2026-06-30
- **Deciders:** Respellion engineering
- **Relates to:** S-05 (#6); proposal #60; builds on ADR-0001 (loose coupling, §8.1/§8.2), S-03 (#4, the `registratie` BPMN), S-04 (#5, the ACL `OpenZaak` operation)
## Context
S-05 (#6) adds the **BIG Domain Service**. Submitting a registration must: create a
`Registration` aggregate, **start the Flowable `registratie` process** (S-03), have the
`OpenZaakAanmaken` task **open a zaak via the ACL** (S-04), and store the resulting zaak URL
back on the aggregate.
`OpenZaakAanmaken` is a Flowable **external-worker** service task (`flowable:type="external-worker"`,
topic `OpenZaakAanmaken`). Flowable does not push it anywhere — it parks the job and waits for a
worker to **acquire and lock** it, do the work, and **complete** it. Two coupling rules constrain
who may do what:
- **§8.2 — the Workflow Client is the only code that talks to Flowable.** BPMN models never embed
OpenZaak knowledge; they ask the Workflow Client to execute external tasks.
- **§8.1 — the ACL is the only code that talks to ZGW.** The worker opens the zaak *through the ACL*,
never by constructing ZGW URLs itself.
This is an ADR-worthy moment (§14): a service boundary is defined and both coupling rules are
exercised. The open question is *how* the external task is driven.
## Decision
**The Domain Service drives the `OpenZaakAanmaken` task as a hosted external-task job worker
(PRD §36). Orchestration is eventually consistent, not request-synchronous.**
- **`POST /registrations` is fast and side-effecting only on the domain side.** It creates the
`Registration` aggregate in state `INGEDIEND`, persists it, and asks the Workflow Client to start
one `registratie` process instance, recording the process-instance id on the aggregate. It returns
immediately; it does **not** wait for the zaak to be opened.
- **A hosted worker polls Flowable for `OpenZaakAanmaken` jobs.** It acquires and locks a job, calls
the ACL `OpenZaak` operation (§8.1), attaches the returned zaak URL to the matching aggregate
(`Registration.AttachZaak`), and completes the job in Flowable. The process then runs to its end
event.
- **The Workflow Client is the only Flowable client (§8.2).** It lives in the Domain Service's
`Infrastructure` layer and speaks Flowable's REST API (start process-instance; acquire/lock/complete
external-worker jobs). No other code — not the Application layer, not the BPMN — knows Flowable
exists.
- **The worker *logic* is an Application service over ports**, not Flowable-aware code. `OpenZaakWorker`
takes an acquired job (topic + the registration id it carries), calls `IAclClient` and
`IRegistrationStore`, and returns the zaak URL to complete with. The **polling loop** is a thin
`BackgroundService` in `Infrastructure` that fetches jobs via the Workflow Client and feeds them to
the worker. So the orchestration is covered by fast unit tests against fakes; only the REST framing
needs a container integration test.
## Scope decisions for the minimal slice
- **Registration persistence is in-memory.** The walking skeleton's *read* path is fed by
NRC → Event Subscriber → projection (S-06, #7), not by the domain database. An EF-backed domain
store buys nothing the demo needs yet, so it is a documented follow-up; the `IRegistrationStore`
port keeps that change additive. (PRD §88 envisions EF Core for the domain DB eventually.)
- **The aggregate's state machine is minimal:** `INGEDIEND` on submission. Later flows (withdrawal,
beoordeling, herregistratie) add states in their own slices — they are out of scope here.
- **No bsn flows to ZGW yet.** The ACL `OpenZaak` operation already default-fills the ZGW-mandatory
fields (ADR-0003) and takes the bsn as its domain payload; the domain hands it through unchanged.
## Consequences
- **Positive:** the submit request is decoupled from ACL/OpenZaak latency; the documented Common
Ground pattern (external-task worker) is realised; both coupling rules (§8.1, §8.2) hold with the
Flowable knowledge isolated to one Infrastructure class; the orchestration is unit-testable.
- **Negative / deferred:**
- Eventual consistency: immediately after `POST /registrations` the aggregate has no zaak URL yet.
Acceptable — the read side is the projection, not the domain store.
- In-memory registration state is lost on restart; fine for the skeleton, replaced by an EF store
in a follow-up.
- The worker polls (no push); poll interval is a tuning knob, not a correctness concern, since
Flowable holds the job until completed.
## Alternatives considered
- **Synchronous acquire+complete inside the `POST /registrations` request** — rejected: simpler and
deterministic, but couples the submit request to ACL/OpenZaak latency and failure, and is not the
external-task worker pattern PRD §36 mandates. It would also make the request fail if OpenZaak is
briefly down, instead of the job simply staying parked for the worker to retry.
- **A standalone Workflow Client service, separate from the Domain Service** — rejected for this
slice: the worker needs the domain's aggregate store and the ACL client anyway, and PRD §9 places
the Workflow Client inside the Domain Service deployment. A separate process adds a hop and a
shared store for no current benefit.
- **Flowable pushes to a webhook instead of being polled** — rejected: Flowable's external-worker
model is pull-based (acquire/lock/complete); a push shim would re-implement it with weaker
delivery guarantees.

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@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ nav:
- "ADR-0006: ACL integration test provisioning": architecture/adr-0006-integration-test-provisioning.md
- "ADR-0007: OpenZaak → NRC notification wiring": architecture/adr-0007-notification-wiring.md
- "ADR-0008: Read projection store": architecture/adr-0008-read-projection-store.md
- "ADR-0009: External-task job worker": architecture/adr-0009-external-task-job-worker.md
- Working in Gitea: gitea-workflow.md
- Demo script: demo-script.md
- Runbooks: