A platform executing on a computer system identifies a capability to be used by an application based on an application descriptor for the application and determines a component that provides the capability based on a component descriptor of the component. The platform identifies an additional capability to be used by the component based on the component descriptor and determines an additional component that provides the additional capability. The platform determines that the application descriptor further specifies that the application will use the additional capability provided by the additional component and determines that a single instance of the additional component will provide the additional capability to both the application and the component. The platform then groups the application, component, and additional component for deployment based on constraints associated with the application, component, and additional component.