What is the SAGA pattern and when would you use it?

Question

Randhir Jassal · Accepted Answer

The SAGA pattern breaks a single business transaction that spans multiple services into a sequence of local transactions, each owned by one service. If any local transaction fails, the saga executes compensating transactions in reverse order to undo prior steps. When to use it - You have a workflow that touches 3+ microservices, each with its own database - A traditional database transaction (2PC) is impractical or rejected for scaling reasons - You can accept eventual consistency for a short window (seconds to minutes) - Each step is reversible via a compensating operation Concrete example — order checkout If "charge payment" fails after "reserve inventory" succeeded, the saga calls "release inventory" → the system returns to a consistent state. What it gives you - Reliable cross-service workflows without distributed locking - Audit trail by design (saga state log = audit log) - Independent service scaling — no shared lock manager What it costs you - Compensating logic doubles your code — every "do X" needs an "undo X" - Eventual consistency window — readers may see intermediate states - Idempotency is non-negotiable — every step must be safely retryable - Some operations are not compensable — once an email is sent, you can't unsend it When NOT to use it - Workflow lives inside a single service / DB — use a normal DB transaction - Read-only operations — there's nothing to compensate - Hard requirement: no observer ever sees intermediate state — use 2PC or rearchitect Real-world fit E-commerce checkout, travel booking (flight + hotel + car), insurance claims, multi-account fund transfers, order fulfilment workflows.

What is the SAGA pattern and when would you use it?

When to use it

Concrete example — order checkout

What it gives you

What it costs you

When NOT to use it

Real-world fit

What is the SAGA pattern and when would you use it?

When to use it

Concrete example — order checkout

What it gives you

What it costs you

When NOT to use it

Real-world fit

Outbox vs Inbox pattern — what is the difference?

What is the Outbox pattern and what problem does it solve?

Outbox: Transactional Outbox vs Change Data Capture (CDC) — when each?

Outbox vs Inbox pattern — what is the difference?

What is the Outbox pattern and what problem does it solve?

Outbox: Transactional Outbox vs Change Data Capture (CDC) — when each?

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