# Ports and Adapters

The ports and adapters architecture is a generalization of the traditional layers architecture meant to emphasize that, in modern systems, data sources might be requests initiators as well as receivers. Thus, it creates de `Port` abstraction, meaning any external system that meets a certain protocol. An `Adapter` is then a piece of software which takes that request and converts it into an actually useful structure, usable by the core of the application.

Minos, aiming at building reactive microservices, follows a Ports and Adapters architecture in order to provide a way to easily extend the microservices' functionality with new technologies. 

Adapters are by default abstracted through `Minos` :doc:`/architecture/ports_and_adapters/decorators`. This way, the developer can concentrate on writing valuable code instead of dealing with technology specific things.

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   
   messaging/_toc
   decorators
   interfaces/_toc
   transactionality