SAGA Pattern Compensations

In distributed systems, committing transactions across multiple database nodes with Two-Phase Commit (2PC) blocks resources and limits scale. The SAGA pattern solves this by executing a series of local transactions.

If a transaction fails, SAGA triggers a sequence of compensating transactions to roll back updates in reverse order.

📊 SAGA Failure and Compensation

Normal Flow:
[ Create Order ] ──► [ Authorize Payment ] ──► [ Reserve Inventory ] (Failed!)
                                                    │
                                                    ▼
Compensating Flow (Rollback):                       │
[ Cancel Order ] ◄── [ Refund Payment ] ◄───────────┘

• Orchestration: A central orchestrator service coordinates the steps and commands.
• Choreography: Each service publishes events, and other services react, triggering the next step without a central manager.