THE PROJECT NOTEBOOK

A little clarity.
The whole system.

Explore the decisions behind the astrology platform.
Start with the vocabulary. Follow the sky into the system.

READ IN ORDER, OR FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY

31 documents · 4 collections

01

Foundations

The language of the sky, from the ground up. Start here.

1 documents
  1. 01

    Astrology Vocabulary, Bottom Up

    A working glossary for building an astrology app. Terms come from the feature matrix in the order the domain is built — sky and clock, zodiac, signs and houses, bodies,…

    32 min read
02

Ephemeris

The astronomy beneath every calculation.

13 documents
  1. 02

    Ephemeris

    Designs for the astronomy layer behind every astrology calculation: planetary and lunar positions, houses, zodiac and ayanamsa handling, and their provider contracts.

    1 min read
  2. 03

    Astro Binder — Package Architecture

    Astro Binder is a collection of reusable TypeScript packages for astronomical calculations. Consumer applications choose the packages they need and own execution, lifecycle…

    5 min read
  3. 04

    Swiss Ephemeris adapter — workspace module

    The reusable @astrology/swiss-ephemeris-adapter package implements the standalone @astrology/adapter-contract port. Consumers import it into their own applications. Neither…

    3 min read
  4. 05

    Swiss adapter module implementation

    The implemented slice consists of two reusable TypeScript ESM workspace packages: adapter-contract and swiss-ephemeris-adapter. The former HTTP host, routes, HTTP status…

    5 min read
  5. 06

    NASA Adapter — High-Level Design

    The NASA adapter is the only component that knows JPL Horizons. It builds a query, guards the call, verifies the response signature, parses the text table into typed values…

    5 min read
  6. 07

    NASA adapter module design

    This is the module-level design of the @astrology/nasa-adapter workspace package. It maps the HLD onto the @astrology/adapter-contract, the same way the Swiss implementation…

    9 min read
  7. 08

    Provider Router — High-Level Design

    The router turns a canonical request into exactly one provider decision: a provider, a reason and a cache key, or a typed error when nothing can serve. It holds no results…

    5 min read
  8. 09

    Canonical Normalizer — High-Level Design

    The normalizer converts one provider answer into the canonical contract: canonical identifiers, units and frame, exactly one zodiac conversion, one rounding point and a…

    4 min read
  9. 10

    Astrology Semantics — High-Level Design

    The module turns canonical astronomy into signs, nakshatras, padas, motion, aspects and houses. It is pure, in-process, with no provider, network, clock or locale.

    4 min read
  10. 11

    Drift Validator — High-Level Design

    The drift validator recomputes sampled cases with Swiss Ephemeris and JPL Horizons, then alerts if the primary engine drifts from it. It never runs on a request path.

    4 min read
  11. 12

    Calculation Facade — High-Level Design

    The facade is the single entry point for every calculation: cache, one provider, normalisation, enrichment and provenance. It computes no astronomy and no astrology.

    4 min read
  12. 13

    Result Cache — High-Level Design

    The cache stores normalised provider results for an exact request, with the provenance that produced them. A hit returns the same canonical values without a provider call.

    4 min read
  13. 14

    Provenance Store — High-Level Design

    Each response yields one immutable audit record: the provider, engine version, ephemeris files, flags and precision behind its values. No request body is stored.

    4 min read
03

Astrology

Turning chart facts into a coherent system.

9 documents
  1. 15

    Astrology

    Designs for the chart layer above the ephemeris: how canonical positions become natal charts, divisional charts, dashas, panchang, transits, compatibility, and muhurta.

    2 min read
  2. 16

    Astro Composer — High-Level Design

    Astro Composer turns canonical astronomy into astrology charts. It reads positions and houses from Astro Binder and composes natal charts, vargas (divisional charts),…

    21 min read
  3. 17

    Panchang Engine — High-Level Design

    The panchang engine turns one local day into five limbs — tithi (lunar day), vara (weekday), nakshatra (lunar mansion), yoga and karana (half-tithi) — each with exact start…

    9 min read
  4. 18

    Transit Engine — High-Level Design

    The transit engine compares a moving sky against an immutable reference chart: gochara (transit) positions from the natal Moon, Sade Sati phases and ashtakavarga scores,…

    9 min read
  5. 19

    Matching Engine — High-Level Design

    The matching engine evaluates ashtakoota (eight-factor compatibility) for two charts: eight kootas, thirty-six points, the doshas (faults) they imply and the cancellation…

    9 min read
  6. 20

    Chart Core — High-Level Design

    Chart core turns one binder snapshot plus one profile into the D1 chart: frame, houses, bodies and planet judgements. It is the only engine that picks the chart frame, and…

    6 min read
  7. 21

    Varga Engine — High-Level Design

    The varga engine maps one sidereal D1 (natal chart) longitude into each of the sixteen Shodasavarga signs, then builds the varga frame from the same mapping. It is pure…

    7 min read
  8. 22

    Dasha Engine — High-Level Design

    The dasha engine turns the Moon's position at birth into a Vimshottari timeline: mahadasha, antardasha and pratyantardasha (first-, second- and third-level planetary periods)…

    7 min read
  9. 23

    Astro Composer — Research and Convention Register

    This register records the rules the composer must pin, where implementations disagree, what the binder can supply, and how the result is validated. It lets a reviewer…

    24 min read
04

Research

The landscape, the patterns, and the possibilities.

8 documents
  1. 24

    Research

    Market and domain research behind the ephemeris and astrology designs. Neither document describes shipped behaviour; both inform product and vocabulary decisions.

    1 min read
  2. 25

    Astrology App Competitor Analysis Research

    1. report.md — Market bifurcation, three paths, Kotlin positioning 2. notes/consumerapps.md — Pricing, features, platforms, USPs (15 apps) 3. notes/professionalapis.md —…

    3 min read
  3. 26

    Mapping the Astrology App Competitive Landscape

    Western apps dominate U.S. revenue through social features and live-reading upsells; Vedic apps hold India with 70M+ downloads and consultation marketplaces. With calculation…

    5 min read
  4. 27

    Competitive Landscape — Visual Guide

    Four charts show what competitors ship, where that depth lives, what they charge and which engine sits underneath.

    6 min read
  5. 28

    Astrology Platform Feature Comparison Matrix

    12 min read
  6. 29

    Consumer Astrology Apps Competitor Analysis

    1. Revenue/download precision: Sensor Tower and data.ai need paid subscriptions; estimates vary. 2. Astra: the 2025 download leader, but little public information. 3.…

    12 min read
  7. 30

    Professional Astrology APIs and Platforms — Competitor Analysis

    13 min read
  8. 31

    Vedic Astrology Platforms — Competitive Research

    Sources: - AstroSage features: Google Play listing - ClickAstro languages: ClickAstro horoscope page - Drik Panchang: App description, Settings - Parashara's Light: Feature…

    14 min read
ASTROLOGY / DESIGN LIBRARYBuilt for understanding. One document at a time.