pairedservice
Pairedservice is a software design pattern where two microservices are paired to deliver a single business capability. The pair consists of a primary service and a companion service that cooperate to process requests and maintain domain boundaries.
In a pairedservice architecture, the two services communicate via a defined contract, typically using lightweight synchronous
Behavior: the primary handles core logic and delegates to the companion for ancillary tasks such as validation,
Common patterns include the coordinating pair, where actions run in a short, ordered sequence; and the compensating
Use cases include financial transactions with audits, order processing that requires stock allocation, and user management
Benefits and challenges: clearer ownership and easier testing of components, but added complexity, latency, and the
Implementation considerations: contract-first design, idempotent endpoints, correlation IDs, and explicit ownership rules; manage data duplication and
Alternatives include the saga pattern for distributed transactions, two-phase commit for strong consistency, and API composition
In practice, pairedservice describes pairing two services to share responsibility for a business capability, offering modularity