Your Micro-Frontend Shell Should Be a Platform Runtime, Not a Layout Wrapper
Your Micro-Frontend Shell Should Be a Platform Runtime, Not a Layout Wrapper Build the host shell as an enterprise runtime, extract it into its own remote, and keep startup fast. Most teams that adopt Module Federation start by treating the host shell as a layout wrapper: a header, a sidebar, and a <div> where the active micro-frontend (MFE) mounts. That works until the second team ships. Then every remote reinvents auth, every remote wires up its own HTTP client, navigation drifts, and telemetry is a different shape in every product area. The shell is the wrong place to be minimal. In an enterprise SPA hosting Module Federation MFEs, the shell should be a platform runtime — it owns the cross-cutting enterprise runtime so each remote can focus on its own domain. This post walks through three decisions, in order: What the runtime should own (and what it shouldn't). Where that runtime should live — and why, at scale, you extract it out of the shell entirely....