Playbooks

Choose a concurrency scheme

Concurrent transactions write to the same data: locking, optimistic, commutative operations, partitioning or deterministic execution? Measure the conflict rate, shorten transactions, then follow five questions to one scheme.

Design a commit

Building or choosing the commit path of a store: name the one atomic write it rests on, derive the commit-rate ceiling, and decide what an abort and a retry will cost.

Choose a distributed commit

One operation writes to several systems: make it all-or-nothing, or let each system commit on its own and handle failures another way? Six questions lead to one of six designs, each with its costs and checks.