đź’Ą Spark: Events as Internal APIs

At NDC Oslo, one quote from James Eastham really stuck with me during his talk:

“Think about your events as internal APIs.”

This simple mindset shift has deep implications for how we design, evolve, and document event-driven systems.

Just like internal APIs, events deserve:

  • Clear contracts — schemas, versioning, and well-defined intent
  • Ownership — someone needs to own the lifecycle and semantics
  • Documentation — make it obvious what the event means and when it’s emitted
  • Stability — no breaking changes without coordination

This spark reminded me that reliability in event-driven systems isn’t just about infra or retries — it’s about treating your events as first-class citizens in your architecture.

🔗 Talk: So You Want to Maintain a Reliable Event Driven System — James Eastham

This is part of a series of Sparks — short takeaways and memorable insights from conferences, talks, and daily learnings.