Runtime Types at Crunchbase
summary
Crunchbase replaces per-entity Avro/OpenAPI specs with a single metadata-driven entity definitions service, moving type checks to request time and storing metadata as HOCON. Stack includes Scala, Kafka, Avro for messages, and an Akka-HTTP metadata service that is event-sourced and returns entitlement-based permission errors. Results: a small data team (≈3.5 people) onboard eight partners and add four paid data sources without migrations or code changes; downsides: field-type mutations are effectively irreversible and A/B testing needs client-side switches.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:30Question
- 1:40Dead Letter Q
- 2:49Event Sourcing
- 4:02Derived Field
- 4:32Migrations
- 6:30Entity Definition
- 7:11Metadata
- 7:51Graph Land
- 9:42Entitlements
- 10:43Platform Exceptions
- 11:33Metadata Validations
- 12:37Drawbacks
- 14:05Agile and Safe
- 15:17Whats Next
- 16:05Wrap Up
