---
name: kmp-architecture-footguns
description: "Kotlin Multiplatform structure and language traps: module splits, expect/actual, Koin and ViewModel scoping, layers, version catalogs, erased overloads, Char and string-resource formatting limits. Use when shaping modules or DI, when a format specifier renders verbatim, or code misbehaves on one platform."
---

# Kotlin Multiplatform architecture and language footguns

25 traps mined from a production Kotlin and Compose Multiplatform app, one short file each
under `references/`. Every file gives the working pattern, the **Traps** (the specific ways it
fails in practice, and why), and a **Verifying it** section with commands to run against the
user's own tree.

**How to use this index.** Match the code about to be written, or the symptom being chased,
against the entries below: each names its topic and the symptom that should send you to it. Read
every file that plausibly applies with the Read tool before proposing code or a fix; each is under
150 lines. Where a Verifying command names the source project's paths, substitute the equivalent
paths in the user's tree.

**Cross-references.** A backticked trap name inside a file that is not listed here lives in a
sibling area skill: glob `../*/references/<name>.md` to open it.

## Module structure, dependency injection and architecture

- [`kmp-module-split-for-packaging`](references/kmp-module-split-for-packaging.md) — Split one Kotlin Multiplatform UI module into a shared app LIBRARY plus thin per-platform launcher modules — an Android application module that only packages, and a JVM/desktop module that owns main() and hands off to a public function in the library. Reach for it when the Android Gradle Plugin refuses to let your app module also be a multiplatform target, when packaging config and shared UI are tangled in one build script, or when a resource accessor class stopped generating after a module became a library.
- [`foss-vs-proprietary-module-pairs`](references/foss-vs-proprietary-module-pairs.md) — Ship one codebase in two forms — a full build carrying a proprietary or credentialed integration and an open build carrying a no-op stub — using twin modules with an identical public API selected by a Gradle property rather than product flavors, which do not exist for non-Android multiplatform targets. Reach for it when a tracking, casting, or paid-service dependency must be absent from an open-source build, when call sites are littered with build-flavor branches, or when the "clean" build still pulls the proprietary artifact through a transitive path.
- [`clean-arch-kmp-readiness`](references/clean-arch-kmp-readiness.md) — Lay out a Kotlin Multiplatform app in layers that actually hold — a domain module carrying interfaces and models, repository implementations kept internal to the data module, and one module per external integration so a breaking service cannot spread — plus how to verify each boundary with a grep instead of trusting the diagram. Use when starting a multiplatform app, when splitting a monolithic module, or when platform types have started appearing in shared feature code.
- [`no-use-case-layer-decision`](references/no-use-case-layer-decision.md) — Decide whether a mid-size app needs an interactor or use-case tier at all, how a clean boundary survives without one (repository interfaces plus pure mapping functions), how to prove an absence rather than assume it, and the specific signal that says it is finally time to add the tier back. Use when the tier feels like typing with no payoff, when reviewing an architecture that has none, or when the same orchestration has been pasted into a third view model.
- [`hilt-to-koin-migration`](references/hilt-to-koin-migration.md) — Move dependency injection from an annotation-processed compile-time framework (Hilt/Dagger) to the multiplatform runtime container (Koin) — the mechanical mapping for providers, view models and qualifiers, what happens to assisted injection, and the two failure modes the migration introduces: a graph that no longer fails at compile time, and a module definition that blocks the thread starting the container. Use when planning the migration, when a binding resolves to nothing at runtime after it, or when app start got slower afterwards.
- [`koin-viewmodel-scoping-traps`](references/koin-viewmodel-scoping-traps.md) — Wiring view models through a runtime dependency-injection container without losing track of their lifetime — the service-locator base class and what it costs, annotation-based definitions that compile but register nothing, which store owner each accessor addresses and why that (not the accessor's spelling) decides whether two screens share an instance, and what registering a view model as a process-wide singleton makes you responsible for. Use when a view model resolves to a fresh instance that should have been shared, when a lookup fails at runtime for a class that is clearly annotated, or when state vanishes between screens.
- [`repository-resource-flow-pattern`](references/repository-resource-flow-pattern.md) — An envelope family for repository results — a remote wrapper, a local wrapper with a loading state, and a payload-free variant — plus the wrap-side and collect-side helpers that stop every view model from hand-writing the same branch, where the mapping from transport model to domain model belongs, and the one thing the envelope must never swallow. Use when designing repository return types, when error handling has drifted apart between screens, or when a cancelled screen reports a failure it never had.
- [`kmp-gradle-settings-catalog`](references/kmp-gradle-settings-catalog.md) — Settings-file patterns for a many-module Kotlin Multiplatform repo — mapping deeply nested in-repo directories onto flat Gradle project paths, turning on typesafe project accessors and knowing how they mangle names, declaring repositories in the two places that need them, and pinning one transitive artifact repo-wide for a conflict that only shows at runtime. Reach for it when Gradle reports a project that "does not exist" from a module you never edited, when a project accessor will not resolve, or when a repository you added is invisible to plugin resolution.
- [`kmp-git-submodule-module-mapping`](references/kmp-git-submodule-module-mapping.md) — Consume a git submodule as a set of Gradle modules in a multiplatform repo — mapping its nested directories onto flat project paths, making the recursive clone a hard prerequisite instead of tribal knowledge, and enabling submodules in every continuous-integration job that configures the build. Reach for it when a fresh clone fails with a project that "does not exist", when a build passes locally but fails on a runner, or when shared code changes vanish because the recorded submodule pointer was never moved.
- [`two-vendors-one-package-kmp-api-skew`](references/two-vendors-one-package-kmp-api-skew.md) — Two vendors ship the same package name at different versions into different source sets of one multiplatform build, so a member function that one vendor has already turned into a top-level extension resolves on exactly one target — a specific import compiles for Android and fails for desktop, or the reverse. Covers spotting the duplicate coordinate, why a wildcard import is the correct fix here rather than a smell, and the pinning discipline that keeps the pair readable. Use when shared UI code stops compiling on one target only after a routine dependency bump, when an unresolved-reference error names a symbol you can plainly see in the other target's sources, or when two catalog entries carry the same artifact name.

## Kotlin and multiplatform language traps and utilities

- [`levenshtein-fuzzy-match-pure-kmp`](references/levenshtein-fuzzy-match-pure-kmp.md) — Match a string against a candidate list with a two-row edit-distance loop and no dependency, so the matcher lives in shared multiplatform code. Covers the two-row memory shape, normalizing before comparing, a similarity threshold that refuses rather than returning the least-bad candidate, picking a top-N without corrupting the indices, and the cases where fuzzy matching is the wrong tool. Use when a title-to-title lookup picks a confidently wrong candidate, when a "top 3" helper returns indices that point at the wrong rows or at -1, or when a matcher cannot move into shared code because the library it uses is platform-only.
- [`kmp-html-entity-decoder`](references/kmp-html-entity-decoder.md) — Decode named, hexadecimal and decimal character entities in shared multiplatform code, where the platform's own markup helpers are unavailable. Covers the named table, the two numeric passes, the range check that keeps an out-of-range code point from ending the operation, why running the passes in one order over-decodes, and the rule that decoding happens once and at a boundary. Use when entity text such as `&#39;` or `&amp;` reaches the screen undecoded, when text decoded twice loses characters a user typed, or when a large code point stops the parse.
- [`kotlinx-datetime-helper-kit`](references/kotlinx-datetime-helper-kit.md) — Wrap the multiplatform date-time library's instant-to-local-date-time conversions in a few named helpers — now, epoch converters, comparisons, a shifted-window helper and a relative "time ago" formatter — so call sites read as intent instead of ceremony. Covers what each wrapper must pin explicitly, and the trap family behind it: a helper reading one time zone while persistence reads another, arithmetic done on wall-clock types, a formatter that can only run during composition, and a parse failure that returns a legal value. Use when stored timestamps come back shifted by the device's offset, when a duration is wrong only around a clock change or only for some users, or when a relative label stays stale on screen.
- [`bitmask-event-wrapper`](references/bitmask-event-wrapper.md) — Wrap an integer flag set handed up from a lower layer in a single-field value class exposing contains and containsAny, so call sites stop writing raw bitwise tests against library constants. Covers keeping the wrapper allocation-free, why the flag constants must travel with it, the difference between "any of these bits" and "all of these bits", and what happens when a non-flag constant is passed to a flag test. Use when the same bitwise expression is copied across call sites, when a flag test is written as an equality check, or when a wrapper type exists but nothing ever calls it.
- [`empty-sentinel-instance`](references/empty-sentinel-instance.md) — Give a model a canonical empty instance on its companion object so its holders can declare the field non-null, instead of threading a nullable through every layer. Covers when this genuinely removes a whole family of null checks and when it only adds a second check beside the one already there, the emptiness predicate that has to ship with it, keeping the sentinel out of persistence and out of rendered lists, and where a nullable is the honest signal. Use when call sites test both for null and for the sentinel, when an empty-keyed row appears in storage, or when a list renders one blank entry at startup.
- [`jvmname-disambiguate-erased-overloads`](references/jvmname-disambiguate-erased-overloads.md) — Resolve two extension functions that differ only in their generic receiver's type argument and so compile to a single JVM method, using @JvmName on one of them. Covers what the annotation changes, why it beats renaming the Kotlin function, and what non-Kotlin callers see afterwards. Use when the compiler reports a platform declaration clash between declarations you can plainly see are different, when adding a second converter over the same collection type breaks a file that compiled yesterday, or when a Java caller cannot find a function every Kotlin caller uses.
- [`model-entity-mapping-extension-layer`](references/model-entity-mapping-extension-layer.md) — Put every conversion between transport payloads, domain models and persistence rows in dedicated files of pure extension functions — one direction per function, no suspending work, no logging, nothing else in the file — and keep the layer honest with a grep. Use when conversion code is spreading into data classes, data-access objects or service clients, when a field turns out to be holding a value that belongs to a different field, or when re-reading a row wipes a flag the user set.
- [`marker-interface-nested-enum-polymorphism`](references/marker-interface-nested-enum-polymorphism.md) — Render one heterogeneous list with one composable by tagging unrelated classes with an empty interface, plus a nested enum each implementor answers where the renderer has to branch. Covers when a tag beats a sealed hierarchy, the exhaustiveness you give up in exchange, and the ways an item silently stops rendering. Use when the items come from modules that cannot be sealed into one file, when a newly added item type appears as a blank row nobody noticed, or when two tags want the same accessor name and one class needs both.
- [`expect-actual-composable-capability`](references/expect-actual-composable-capability.md) — Expose a device capability to shared Compose code as a @Composable expect function, with a full implementation on the platform that has it and a stub that returns the neutral value on the platform that does not. Covers the three shapes these take — a measurement, an effect with an undo, and a subscription read as state — and why a stub must still be correct. Use when shared UI needs a window measurement, a keep-awake flag or a windowing-mode state, when one platform stops the app the first time a screen paints, or when a shared screen behaves as if a capability is off on a platform that has it.
- [`small-collection-utilities`](references/small-collection-utilities.md) — Four small helpers worth carrying in a shared module, each with the one way it misleads — a symmetric set difference for diffing two id sets, a position index for constant-time lookups, a tolerant parse/serialize pair for timestamped tokens that returns null instead of throwing, and a translator that rewrites an external link into your own scheme. Use when a diff reports every item as changed, when a position lookup returns the wrong index for a repeated element, when one malformed line takes down a whole screen, or when pasting a link into a search box searches for the link.
- [`identity-compare-immutable-setting`](references/identity-compare-immutable-setting.md) — Bundle a multi-field setting into one immutable value and hand it to a hot consumer as a supplier, so the consumer asks "has this changed?" with a single reference comparison instead of diffing N numbers per buffer — and can never observe the fields half-updated. Use when a per-buffer or per-frame consumer has to react to a user setting, or when a setting made of several fields is read inconsistently.
- [`restricted-marker-is-not-an-opt-in`](references/restricted-marker-is-not-an-opt-in.md) — Tell an opt-in marker from a restricted-to marker before adding suppressions — the first is enforced by the compiler and demands acknowledgement, the second demands nothing and means something different and worse; includes how to read which one an API carries straight out of the cached artifact, and why both conventions coexist in one library. Use when an `@OptIn` looks necessary but the same API compiles without it elsewhere, when the IDE offers a suppression for an annotation you have not read, or when deciding whether a library call is safe to depend on.
- [`string-resource-format-limits`](references/string-resource-format-limits.md) — The multiplatform resource formatter substitutes plain positional placeholders and nothing else — no flags, no width, no escaped percent — so padding, rounding, units and symbols belong in code and the resource only ever joins already-formatted pieces. Covers the same omission in its other two shapes: a raw stored number printed straight to screen, and a date-time library's month names that are constants rather than locale lookups. Use when a format specifier renders verbatim on screen, when a label appears in English regardless of language, or when a screen prints a number in the unit the database happens to store.
- [`script-aware-romanization-pipeline`](references/script-aware-romanization-pipeline.md) — Adding a "show pronunciation" or transliteration feature across many non-Latin scripts in a Kotlin Multiplatform module — without pulling in ICU — needs a per-script dispatch built on Unicode block ranges rather than a locale, one line at a time rather than one song at a time, and a hard line between scripts that reduce to a table and the one or two that need a real dictionary. Use when a transliteration result is guessed for the wrong language, an unsupported platform fails outright instead of falling back, or a line that mixes two scripts (an original lyric plus an English aside) picks the wrong one.
- [`combining-chars-break-char-literals`](references/combining-chars-break-char-literals.md) — A Devanagari, Gurmukhi, or other diacritic-marked letter that looks like one glyph in the editor fails to compile as a `'x'` character literal with "Too many characters in a character literal," because it is a base letter plus a separate combining mark — two `Char`s, not one. Use when a lookup table keyed by `Char` needs an entry for a marked or accented letter outside plain Latin, or when per-character text processing garbles exactly the words that carry an accent.