1. A computer program product comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising: storing, in a metadata repository, at least one binary relationship defining an enhancement to a standard meta-object instance, the at least one binary relationship being specified at design time and defining a dependency required to create an enhanced meta-object instance that includes the standard meta-object instance and the enhancement, the standard meta-object instance being provided by a core software platform, the enhanced meta-object comprising at least one additional feature relating to an external software component integrated into the core software platform; receiving, at run time, a request for a custom instance of a data structure based on the enhanced meta-object instance, the custom instance comprising a meta-object instance extension specified at design time by a service consumer of the core software platform; generating, at run time, a transitive shell representing the custom instance of the data structure, the generating comprising traversing the at least one binary relationship to create a template meta-object, and applying the meta-object instance extension to the template meta-object to create a current version of the custom instance of the data structure; and returning the transitive shell to the service consumer in response to the request.