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Shared Protobuf event schemas for toGather microservices

Project description

togather-shared-events

This repository contains event schemas for the toGather event-driven backend system. We use Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) as the messaging format for events. It provides type-safe code generation for TypeScript and Python, enabling services in different languages to share a consistent event schema.

npm package npm downloads license

Table of Contents

  1. Directory Structure
  2. SDK Development
  3. Using Generated Code
  4. Best Practices
  5. Troubleshooting

Directory Structure

Protobuf files should follow a domain/version-based structure:

proto/
└── <domain>/
    └── <version>/
        └── <event>.proto
  1. Domain: The feature or module (e.g., user)
  2. Version: The event schema version (e.g., v1)

Example:

proto/user/v1/UserCreated.proto

This structure ensures forward-compatibility and makes schema evolution manageable.

SDK Development

Adding New Proto Files

  1. Place your .proto file in the appropriate proto/<domain>/<version> folder.
  2. Define the package in the .proto file to match the folder structure.

Example for user.create.v1:

syntax = "proto3";

package user.create.v1;

message UserCreated {
  string id = 1;
  string name = 2;
  string email = 3;
  int64 created_at = 4;
}

Linting

Lint your proto files to ensure consistency and adherence to standards:

pnpm buf:lint

This checks for things like missing packages, incorrect directory structure, and other style issues.

Code Generation

Generate TypeScript and Python code from your proto files:

pnpm buf:generate

The generated code is placed in the gen/ directory:

gen/ts/...
gen/python/...

Tip: Keep buf.gen.yaml updated if you add new languages or plugins.

Publishing Package

To publish the package, run the following command:

pnpm run release

This command performs the following steps:

  • Deletes the old build artifacts.
  • Lints the proto files.
  • Generates new code for TypeScript and Python.
  • Patches the npm version.
  • Publishes the package to the registry.

Note: Ensure all changes are committed and tested before running this command.

Using Generated Code

TypeScript

Dependencies:

pnpm add @bufbuild/protobuf@^2.9.0

Example usage:

import {UserCreated,UserCreatedSchema} from '@togatherlabs/event-sdk/user/v1'
import { create, toBinary, fromBinary, toJson } from '@bufbuild/protobuf';

// Create a new message
const newUser: UserCreated = create(UserCreatedSchema, {
  id: "1",
  name: "Abhiram",
  email: "abhiram.ars@gmail.com",
  createdAt: BigInt(Date.now()),
});

// Serialize to binary
const buffer = toBinary(UserCreatedSchema, newUser);

// Deserialize from binary
const decoded = fromBinary(UserCreatedSchema, buffer);

// Convert to JSON
const json = toJson(UserCreatedSchema, decoded);

Tip: Use toBinary/fromBinary for Kafka or network transmission. Use toJson/fromJson for logging or debugging.


Python

Install dependencies (for usage):

pip install protobuf togather-event-sdk 

Dependencies (for maintainers / publishing):

pip install build twine

Example usage:

from togather_event_sdk.user.v1 import UserCreated

# Create a new message
msg = UserCreated(
    id="1",
    name="Abhiram",
    email="abhiram@gmail.com",
    created_at=int(1728512345123),
)

# Serialize to bytes
binary_data = msg.SerializeToString()

# Deserialize from bytes
decoded = UserCreated()
decoded.ParseFromString(binary_data)

print(decoded)

Build & Publish Python SDK (for maintainers):

pnpm python:build

This runs:

  • buf generate
  • Adds init.py files
  • Builds the Python wheel + source tarball

Tip: Python type hints can be added with mypy-protobuf or community plugins for full static type checking.

Best Practices

  1. Package and folder alignment

    • package in .proto must match folder structure (proto/<domain>/<version>).
  2. Versioning

    • Always increment the version folder (v1, v2, etc.) when changing message formats to avoid breaking consumers.
  3. Type safety

    • Use the generated schemas rather than manually constructing messages.
    • In TypeScript, always use create(); in Python, use the generated UserCreated class.
  4. Schema evolution

    • Avoid renaming or deleting existing fields; mark them deprecated instead.
    • Use int64 for timestamps, string for IDs/emails, etc.

How to Type a Event

A Event will have many fields like

message DomainEventExample {
 /// event name (e.g. "user.account.created")
  string event_name = 1;  
  /// Schema version (e.g."v1"), reciving systems can use this to deserialize the payload accordingly with version
  string event_version = 2; 
  /// The entity or aggregate this event belongs to (for partitioning) 
  string aggregate_id = 3; 
 /// Binary-encoded event data (the inner protobuf message),will be typed check events for specific event
  bytes payload = 4;     
  /// Epoch timestamp in milliseconds when the event was created,indicate when this action was recorded by the system
  int64 timestamp = 5; 
}

How should you type a event

syntax = "proto3";

package admin.v1;

import "google/protobuf/descriptor.proto";

extend google.protobuf.FieldOptions {
  string fixed_value = 50001;
}

message Payload {
  string id = 10;          // Account ID
  string email = 11;       // Account email
  string name = 12;        // Account name
  int64 created_at = 13;   // Account creation timestamp
}

message AdminAccountCreated {
  // Common metadata fields (in every event)
   // "admin.account.created"
   string event_name = 1 [(fixed_value) = "admin.account.created"];
  
  string event_version = 2;    // "v1"
  string aggregate_id = 3;     // Account ID for partitioning
  int64 timestamp = 4;         // When event was created
  string trace_id = 5;   // For distributed tracing

  Payload payload = 9;         // Event-specific data
}

check the docs to see why this decistion was taken: docs

Troubleshooting

  • ModuleNotFoundError in Python

    • Ensure gen/ folder is in your PYTHONPATH.
    • Add __init__.py files in each subfolder if needed.
  • TypeScript errors with missing $typeName or UserCreated

    • Make sure you are importing the schema (UserCreatedSchema) and using create() instead of instantiating the type directly.
  • Buf generation issues

    • Run pnpm buf:lint first to catch package/directory mismatches.

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