<aside> 💡 This document contains design decisions/reasoning for Barge. This project implements the original RAFT paper as closely as possible.

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Objective

To create a minimal consensus layer implementing RAFT algorithm in golang.
To keep the interface of consensus layer simple and pluggable with multiple transport and storage options.
To structure the code such that barge can be used as an SDK.(pkg)
To create a minimal implementation of Barge with a simple in-mem key-value store. (cmd)
To create a cli that can manage bargedb instance. (bargectl)
To create a Kubernetes operator for barge which can manage the lifecycle of a bargedb instance.
To have strong consistency at the cost of slow writes. The writes will be semi-sync and will not be completed till confirmed by majo

Non-objectives

Each Barge instance can be modelled as a state machine transitioning through Candidate↔Follower↔Leader.
Transport package will define the interface implemented by Consensus and vice versa.
Mock implementation of transport interface will be used to test consensus layer.
Mock implementation of transport interface will also be unit tested. The mock implementation will simulate RPC’s with go channels.