ACID

aid: acid
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/acid/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: ACID
type: Index
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- ACID
- Database
- Transactions
- Atomicity
- Consistency
- Isolation
- Durability
- Distributed Systems
description: ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) is a set of properties that guarantee database transactions
  are processed reliably even in the face of errors, power failures, or system crashes. These four properties ensure that
  data remains accurate and consistent, making ACID compliance a fundamental requirement for relational databases, distributed
  systems, and financial APIs.
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-04-19'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- name: PostgreSQL Transaction API
  description: PostgreSQL provides full ACID compliance through its transaction management system including BEGIN, COMMIT,
    ROLLBACK, SAVEPOINT, and isolation level controls (READ COMMITTED, REPEATABLE READ, SERIALIZABLE). PostgreSQL uses Multi-Version
    Concurrency Control (MVCC) to provide high concurrency while maintaining strong data consistency guarantees.
  humanURL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/transaction-iso.html
  baseURL: https://www.postgresql.org/
  tags:
  - PostgreSQL
  - RDBMS
  - MVCC
  - ACID
  - SQL
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/transaction-iso.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-begin.html
    title: PostgreSQL BEGIN Transaction
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/postgres/postgres
- name: CockroachDB Distributed SQL API
  description: CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database providing serializable ACID transactions across multiple nodes and
    regions. It uses the Raft consensus algorithm and supports the PostgreSQL wire protocol. CockroachDB offers REST and SQL
    APIs for managing distributed transactions while maintaining global consistency without a central coordinator.
  humanURL: https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/
  baseURL: https://cockroachlabs.cloud/
  tags:
  - CockroachDB
  - Distributed SQL
  - ACID
  - Serializable
  - Cloud Native
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/transactions.html
    title: CockroachDB Transactions
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach
- name: Google Spanner API
  description: Google Spanner is a globally distributed, externally consistent database providing ACID transactions at global
    scale using TrueTime clock synchronization (GPS receivers and atomic clocks). The Cloud Spanner API offers both read-write
    transactions and read-only transactions with configurable staleness bounds. It is available via REST and gRPC.
  humanURL: https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/transactions
  baseURL: https://spanner.googleapis.com/
  tags:
  - Google Spanner
  - Distributed Database
  - Global Scale
  - ACID
  - TrueTime
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/transactions
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/reference/rest
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/APIs-guru/openapi-directory/main/APIs/googleapis.com/spanner/v1/openapi.yaml
- name: Amazon Aurora Transactions API
  description: Amazon Aurora provides ACID-compliant transactions for both MySQL-compatible and PostgreSQL-compatible editions.
    Aurora's distributed storage layer provides durability across 3 availability zones with 6-way replication. The Aurora
    Data API enables HTTP-based serverless SQL transactions with automatic commit and rollback capabilities.
  humanURL: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/Aurora.Overview.html
  baseURL: https://rds.amazonaws.com/
  tags:
  - AWS Aurora
  - MySQL
  - PostgreSQL
  - ACID
  - Serverless
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/Aurora.Overview.html
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/rdsdataservice/latest/APIReference/
    title: Aurora Data API Reference
- name: Atomikos Transaction API
  description: Atomikos provides ACID transaction management middleware for distributed microservices, supporting XA transactions
    across REST services using the Try-Confirm/Cancel (TCC) pattern. It enables ACID guarantees spanning multiple databases
    and message brokers without requiring a central coordinator in many scenarios.
  humanURL: https://www.atomikos.com/
  baseURL: https://www.atomikos.com/
  tags:
  - Atomikos
  - Distributed Transactions
  - TCC Pattern
  - Microservices
  - XA
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.atomikos.com/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.atomikos.com/Blog/ACIDTransactionsAcrossMicroservices
    title: ACID Transactions Across Microservices
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID
  title: ACID Wikipedia Reference
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach
  title: CockroachDB Open Source Repository
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Atomicity
    description: 'Transactions are all-or-nothing: either all operations in a transaction succeed and are committed, or none
      are applied and the database is rolled back to its prior state.'
  - name: Consistency
    description: A transaction brings the database from one valid, consistent state to another, enforcing all defined constraints,
      triggers, and cascades. No transaction can leave data in an invalid state.
  - name: Isolation
    description: Concurrent transactions execute as if they were serialized, preventing interference. Isolation levels (READ
      COMMITTED, REPEATABLE READ, SERIALIZABLE) control the degree of visibility between concurrent transactions.
  - name: Durability
    description: Once a transaction is committed, it remains committed even in the event of system crashes, power failures,
      or other errors, typically achieved through write-ahead logging (WAL) and replication.
  - name: Distributed ACID
    description: Modern distributed databases extend ACID guarantees across multiple nodes, regions, and data centers using
      consensus algorithms (Raft, Paxos) and synchronized clocks (TrueTime).
  - name: REST API Transaction Patterns
    description: Design patterns for ACID-like guarantees in REST APIs include Two-Phase Commit (2PC), Try-Confirm/Cancel
      (TCC), and Saga patterns for managing distributed transactions across microservices.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Financial Transactions
    description: Banking and payment systems require ACID compliance to ensure monetary transfers are atomic — debits and
      credits always balance — and durable across system failures.
  - name: Inventory Management
    description: E-commerce and supply chain systems use ACID transactions to prevent overselling by ensuring inventory decrements
      and order creation are atomic.
  - name: Distributed Microservices Coordination
    description: Microservices architectures use Saga and TCC patterns to achieve eventual consistency with compensating transactions
      when full ACID across services is not feasible.
  - name: Multi-Region Database Replication
    description: Global applications use databases like Google Spanner and CockroachDB to maintain ACID consistency across
      geographic regions without sacrificing availability.
  - name: Idempotent API Design
    description: REST APIs use database transactions to implement idempotency keys, ensuring duplicate requests produce the
      same result without double processing.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: PostgreSQL
    description: The most widely deployed open-source RDBMS with full ACID compliance via MVCC and configurable transaction
      isolation levels.
  - name: MySQL / MariaDB
    description: Popular open-source databases providing ACID compliance through the InnoDB storage engine with row-level
      locking and MVCC.
  - name: MongoDB Multi-Document Transactions
    description: MongoDB added multi-document ACID transactions in version 4.0, extending its document model with ACID guarantees
      across documents and collections.
  - name: Apache Kafka Transactions
    description: Kafka's transactional API (since 0.11) enables exactly-once semantics with atomic writes to multiple partitions,
      providing ACID-like guarantees for stream processing pipelines.
  - name: Saga Pattern / Orchestration
    description: The Saga pattern decomposes long-running transactions into a series of local transactions with compensating
      actions for distributed consistency without 2PC overhead.
- type: JSONLD
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/acid/refs/heads/main/json-ld/acid-context.jsonld
  title: ACID JSON-LD Context
- type: Vocabulary
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/acid/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/acid-vocabulary.yaml
  title: ACID Vocabulary
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com