arch-saga

One-line summary

Execute a multi-step business workflow as a sequence of local transactions, each in its own service / aggregate. If a step fails, run compensating actions to undo the prior successful steps. There's no rollback — only forward-going compensation.

When to use this skill

• A business process spans multiple services or multiple aggregates, and they cannot share a single transaction.
• Some steps are external (third-party API, payment processor) and cannot be transactional.
• Long-running workflows where holding a distributed lock is unrealistic.
• The business has a clear concept of "if step X fails, run step X' to undo".

When NOT to use this skill

• Everything happens inside a single service / single aggregate — use a local database transaction.
• The steps are idempotent and order-independent — you may not need saga's coordination at all.
• "Atomic" rollback semantics are genuinely required (rare in distributed systems) — saga doesn't give you those; it gives you eventual consistency with compensation.

Core content