Event-Driven Architecture Core Knowledge

Full Reference: See advanced.md for Saga implementations (Node.js, Java), Outbox pattern implementations, Event Sourcing, CQRS, and idempotency patterns.

Deep Knowledge: Use mcp__documentation__fetch_docs with technology: event-driven for comprehensive documentation.

When NOT to Use This Skill

• Monolithic applications - Use simple in-process events
• Simple CRUD operations - Use REST APIs or GraphQL
• Real-time UI updates - Use WebSockets or SSE
• Synchronous workflows - Use traditional transactions

Architecture Patterns Overview

Pattern	Purpose	Complexity
Pub/Sub	Decouple producers from consumers	Low
Event Sourcing	Store state as event sequence	High
CQRS	Separate read/write models	Medium-High
Saga	Distributed transactions	High
Outbox	Reliable event publishing	Medium

Saga Pattern

Manages distributed transactions across services without 2PC.

Choreography Saga

┌─────────┐    event    ┌─────────┐    event    ┌─────────┐
│Order Svc│────────────▶│Payment  │────────────▶│Inventory│
└─────────┘             │   Svc   │             │   Svc   │
     ▲                  └─────────┘             └─────────┘
     │    compensate         │    compensate         │
     └───────────────────────┴───────────────────────┘

Orchestration Saga

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │    Saga     │
                    │Orchestrator │
                    └─────────────┘
                    /      |      \
                   ▼       ▼       ▼
            ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐
            │Order  │ │Payment│ │Invent.│
            └───────┘ └───────┘ └───────┘

Transactional Outbox Pattern

Ensures reliable event publishing with database transactions.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            Database Transaction            │
│  ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────────┐  │
│  │   Business   │    │   Outbox Table   │  │
│  │    Table     │    │   (messages)     │  │
│  └──────────────┘    └──────────────────┘  │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                             │
                    Polling Relay / CDC
                             │
                    ┌─────────────────┐
                    │  Message Broker │
                    └─────────────────┘

Outbox Table Schema

CREATE TABLE outbox (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    aggregate_type VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    aggregate_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    event_type VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    payload JSONB NOT NULL,
    status VARCHAR(50) DEFAULT 'PENDING',
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

CQRS Architecture

        Commands                          Queries
            │                                 │
            ▼                                 ▼
    ┌───────────────┐                ┌───────────────┐
    │ Command Model │                │  Query Model  │
    │   (Write)     │                │   (Read)      │
    └───────────────┘                └───────────────┘
            │                                 ▲
            ▼                                 │
    ┌───────────────┐     Events     ┌───────────────┐
    │  Write Store  │───────────────▶│  Read Store   │
    └───────────────┘                └───────────────┘

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Why It's Bad	Solution
Event Soup	Too many fine-grained events	Design coarse-grained domain events
Missing Idempotency	Duplicate processing	Add idempotency keys
No Compensation Logic	Failed saga can't rollback	Implement compensating transactions
No Dead Letter Queue	Failed events lost	Configure DLQ for error handling
Weak Event Ordering	Race conditions	Use partitioning or ordered queues

Quick Troubleshooting

Issue	Diagnostic	Solution
Lost events	Check message broker	Implement Outbox pattern
Duplicate processing	Logs show multiple executions	Add idempotency checks
Saga stuck	Compensation not triggered	Add timeout handling
Growing DLQ	Many failed messages	Analyze failures, fix consumers
Slow event processing	High message lag	Scale consumers, optimize handlers

Best Practices

Message Design

• Include correlation ID for tracing
• Version your events for evolution
• Keep payloads small, reference large data

Error Handling

• Implement retry with exponential backoff
• Use Dead Letter Queues for failed messages
• Set up alerting on DLQ growth

Monitoring

• Track message lag
• Monitor consumer group health
• Alert on processing errors
• Trace message flow across services

Reference Documentation

Available topics: patterns, saga, outbox, cqrs