Each guide builds one real system from an empty folder to a running cluster. Pick one and follow it in order — every page ends with something you can run.
Inspired by Kafka
Build a Kafka-style replicated log from scratch — append-only segments, a binary wire protocol, Serf membership, Raft metadata consensus, pull-based replication and producer/consumer clients.
13 parts · about 5 hours
Inspired by Conductor
Build a distributed workflow engine from scratch — a pure state machine, PostgreSQL as the source of truth, a transactional outbox, sharded Redis Streams, task leases and self-healing recovery.
11 parts · about 3.5 hours