name: microservices-patterns description: Design microservices architectures with service boundaries, event-driven communication, and resilience patterns. Use when building distributed systems, decomposing monoliths, or implementing microservices. ---
Microservices Patterns
Master microservices architecture patterns including service boundaries, inter-service communication, data management, and resilience patterns for building distributed systems.
When to Use This Skill
- Decomposing monoliths into microservices
- Designing service boundaries and contracts
- Implementing inter-service communication
- Managing distributed data and transactions
- Building resilient distributed systems
- Implementing service discovery and load balancing
- Designing event-driven architectures
Core Concepts
1. Service Decomposition Strategies
By Business Capability
- Organize services around business functions
- Each service owns its domain
- Example: OrderService, PaymentService, InventoryService
By Subdomain (DDD)
- Core domain, supporting subdomains
- Bounded contexts map to services
- Clear ownership and responsibility
Strangler Fig Pattern
- Gradually extract from monolith
- New functionality as microservices
- Proxy routes to old/new systems
2. Communication Patterns
Synchronous (Request/Response)
- REST APIs
- gRPC
- GraphQL
Asynchronous (Events/Messages)
- Event streaming (Kafka)
- Message queues (RabbitMQ, SQS)
- Pub/Sub patterns
3. Data Management
Database Per Service
- Each service owns its data
- No shared databases
- Loose coupling
Saga Pattern
- Distributed transactions
- Compensating actions
- Eventual consistency
4. Resilience Patterns
Circuit Breaker
- Fail fast on repeated errors
- Prevent cascade failures
Retry with Backoff
- Transient fault handling
- Exponential backoff
Bulkhead
- Isolate resources
- Limit impact of failures
Detailed patterns and worked examples
Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.