Software Engineering
12 Sep 2026
12 min read
Saga Transactions: Coordinate Multi-Service Changes with Compensation
Saga Transactions: Coordinate Multi-Service Changes with Compensation A business operation can cross several services even when no single database transaction spans them all. An order flow might reserve inventory, authorize payment, create a shipment, and confirm the order. Each service owns its data and commits independently. That independence creates a difficult failure case. Inventory can be reserved successfully, then payment authorization can fail. A database rollback in the order service cannot undo a committed reservation in the inventory service.