#Microservices
12 articles on Microservices. Practical notes, patterns, and lessons from building software.
JWT for Service-to-Service Authentication : Server-to-Server Authentication in Microservices
A comprehensive implementation guide to JWT for service-to-service authentication — covering signed JWTs between services, asymmetric keys (RS256/ES256) for distributed verification, token propagation patterns, and Node.js implementation.
Service Mesh Identity (SPIFFE/SPIRE) : Server-to-Server Authentication in Microservices
A comprehensive guide to SPIFFE/SPIRE for workload identity in microservices — covering SPIFFE ID format, SVIDs, SPIRE architecture and components, Istio/Envoy integration, and zero-trust networking patterns.
OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials Grant : Server-to-Server Authentication in Microservices
A comprehensive implementation guide to OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials Grant for machine-to-machine authentication — covering the client credentials flow, token caching and refresh, scope and audience validation, and Node.js implementation with multiple identity providers.
API Keys & HMAC Signatures : Server-to-Server Authentication in Microservices
A comprehensive implementation guide to API key and HMAC signature authentication — covering API key generation and storage, HMAC request signing inspired by AWS Signature V4, Node.js implementation, rate limiting, and key rotation strategies.
Mutual TLS (mTLS) Authentication : Server-to-Server Authentication in Microservices
A comprehensive implementation guide to Mutual TLS (mTLS) for service-to-service authentication — covering certificate chains, CA setup, certificate rotation, Node.js and Go implementations, Kubernetes cert-manager integration, and production patterns.
Server-to-Server Authentication in Microservices
A high-level comparison of five authentication patterns for service-to-service communication — mTLS, API Keys & HMAC, OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials, Service Mesh Identity (SPIFFE/SPIRE), and JWT — covering when to use each, trade-offs, and real-world examples.
GraphQL Federation : Server-to-Server Communication Technologies
A comprehensive guide to GraphQL Federation for server-to-server communication — covering schema composition, subgraph design, entity resolution, the gateway router, performance optimization, and production deployment.
Message Queue Communication : Server-to-Server Communication Technologies
A comprehensive guide to message queues for server-to-server communication — covering RabbitMQ, Amazon SQS, delivery guarantees, dead-letter queues, backpressure, and production patterns.
gRPC Communication : Server-to-Server Communication Technologies
A comprehensive guide to gRPC for server-to-server communication — covering Protocol Buffers, service definitions, streaming patterns, interceptors, error handling, load balancing, and production deployment.
REST API Communication : Server-to-Server Communication Technologies
A comprehensive guide to REST API for server-to-server communication — covering API design principles, HTTP semantics, authentication patterns, error handling, rate limiting, circuit breakers, and production best practices.
Server-to-Server Communication Technologies
A high-level comparison of server-to-server communication patterns — REST, gRPC, Message Queues, Event Streaming, GraphQL Federation, and WebSocket/SSE — covering when to use each, trade-offs, and real-world use cases.
Building Scalable B2B Platforms with Microservices
After shipping three B2B SaaS platforms from scratch, I've learned that microservices aren't a silver bullet — but applied correctly, they let small teams move fast without stepping on each other. Here's the architecture playbook I return to again and again.