Developers discover Clean Architecture, get excited about its principles, and then..

So here's how it goes: A team of developers stumbles upon Clean Architecture for the first time. They dig into its principles, the idea of structuring code in a way that makes it maintainable, flexible, and testable. Naturally, they get really excited — it all sounds so good. But then something happens. They come across that famous Clean Architecture diagram—you know, the one with all the circles—and they make a big mistake.

Instead of focusing on the *real* purpose of Clean Architecture, which is all about managing dependencies, they decide to turn the diagram into their project structure. They set up their folders to match the layers in the diagram—things like “Entities,” “Use Cases,” “Controllers,” and so on. It looks clean, seems organized... but it’s missing the point.

The truth is, Clean Architecture isn’t about where you place your files or how you name your folders. It’s about making sure your code dependencies don’t flow in the wrong direction. The rule is simple: high-level policies (like your core business logic) should stay independent of low-level details (like frameworks, databases, or the UI). Folders? They don’t really matter. What matters is how your code is structured to keep those dependencies in check.

So when developers focus too much on folders, they often miss what Clean Architecture is *really* about. Dependencies are the core of it, not the file system. If you get that right, the rest naturally falls into place.