oxidecomputer / oxidecomputer/omicron

Asynchronous APIs

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api
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
572
Forks
97
Avg merge
2d 12h
Merged PRs (30d)
96

Description

Note: async is overloaded. Usage here refers to an "asynchronous endpoint", as described in RFD 4, not the async Rust keyword.

As discussed in https://github.com/oxidecomputer/omicron/pull/385#issuecomment-969200604 , Omicron is growing a reasonably sized API surface. As @davepacheco mentioned, "most things that use sagas... probably ought to be async".

At the time of writing this bug, none of our endpoints are async. We would benefit from:

  • Identifying long-running operations, and defining a set which are good candidates to be async (at minimum, "create instance" seems like a good candidate).
  • Prototype a couple endpoints as async, returning an ID, and providing a wait-for-completion API.
  • Iterate on ergonomics, providing utilities (or possibly changes to Dropshot) making these operations as easy to write as possible.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with RFD 4 and the discussion linked from pull request 385 to understand asynchronous endpoint semantics. Identify long-running operations, beginning with create instance, then review how a couple of endpoints could return an ID and expose wait-for-completion APIs. Done means a defined candidate set, prototypes, and an agreed ergonomic direction, including whether Dropshot needs changes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
api, backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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