Paradigms
Architectural patterns and concepts that underpin modern infrastructure. Each guide offers a concise explanation of a topic — enough to understand the landscape, make informed decisions, and have productive conversations with your engineering team.
Communication
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| service-interactions | REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets — how services talk to each other |
| schema-evolution | Wire contracts outliving builds — proto field numbers vs keyed formats, tolerant vs strict readers, mixed-version fleets |
| message-queues | Durability, progress, coordination — why symbology's queue is a Postgres table, and how SKIP LOCKED, backoff states, and terminal failures answer them |
| transactional-email | Deliverability as an identity problem — SPF/DKIM/DMARC, sending subdomains, and why "delivered" ≠ inbox |
Data
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| caching | Strategies for keeping frequently-accessed data close |
| storage | Object, block, and filesystem storage — when to use each |
| backup-strategies | Protecting data and recovering from failure |
Infrastructure
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| container-runtimes | Containers, images, and orchestration |
| networking | Reachability, identity, integrity — names, certificate chains, and the WireGuard mesh |
| release-engineering | What a version names and what it promises — manifests vs monorepo tags, SemVer for applications, expand/contract, promotion gates |
| shell | The glue layer — composition, automation seams, and the complexity budget |
Web
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| seo | Making content legible to crawlers — URL design, canonicalization, sitemaps, metadata |
| web-analytics | Measuring whether it worked — goals, UTM discipline, journeys, retention, and the review loop |
Security
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| cryptography | Encryption, hashing, and applied cryptography |
| authentication-authorization | Identity verification and access control |