Saga pattern

A long business transaction split into local steps, each with a compensating action if a later step fails, such as refunding a payment when shipping is impossible. It replaces distributed locks across services.

Where it shows up in real systems

  • Workflow orchestrator

    Each step is persisted, so a crash resumes where it stopped. Sagas use compensating steps, such as refunding a payment, instead of a distributed transaction.

    In production: Temporal, AWS Step Functions, Azure Durable Functions, Camunda

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