CRDTaware

CRDTaware is a software framework designed to help developers build distributed applications that converge without conflicts by using CRDTs, or conflict-free replicated data types. It provides CRDT-aware data structures, merge semantics, and integration patterns that enable offline operation and asynchronous synchronization while preserving eventual consistency.

The framework centers on a CRDT engine that tracks causal metadata and supports automatic conflict resolution through predefined merge functions. It offers a range of CRDT primitives, such as grow-only counters, PN-Counters, observed-remove sets, and CRDT-enabled maps and sequences, with optional tombstone handling and metadata for efficient convergence. By design, CRDTaware aims to simplify reasoning about concurrent updates and to minimize manual conflict resolution in distributed systems.

CRDTaware typically comprises several layers: a core CRDT engine, a data-model layer that exposes CRDTs through familiar abstractions, a replication layer that handles update propagation, and adapters for storage backends and communication protocols. It supports both state-based and operation-based CRDTs, and often uses anti-entropy mechanisms, version vectors, or causal delivery to ensure updates are reconciled deterministically. The architecture emphasizes pluggability, allowing developers to choose synchronization protocols (such as publish-subscribe or direct RPC) and to plug in custom CRDT types or merge policies.

Common use cases include collaborative editing, distributed configuration management, edge and mobile synchronization, and offline-first applications that require robust convergence under intermittent connectivity. Limitations include potential memory overhead for metadata, the need for careful design of merge policies, and the fact that CRDTaware emphasizes eventual rather than strong consistency. See also CRDT and eventual consistency.