Kraken

Flow-based System Orchestration Framework

Kraken is a general framework for the orchestration of software systems.

It suggests the flow-based programming approach for organizing the interaction between the parts of the system (specific services). It means that every interaction with the system is presented as an “input event” - the data structure that contains all the necessary information about the interaction. The event then goes through a predefined chain of “components” (“pipelines”), the components call underlying services and modify the event. The final state of the event represents the result of the interaction.

Kraken provides a simple declarative JSON DSL for the pipeline definitions as well as for the definitions of the “clients” to underlying services.

When thinking about layered architecture (infrastructure, domain, application, and interface layer), Kraken is like Kubernetes for the application layer of the system. While K8s provides a declarative approach for defining the infrastructure layer (the one below the domain layer), Kraken does the same for the application layer of the system (orchestration layer).

In terms of the building blocks for the pipelines, Kraken has the same set of components as the ALF framework.

Kraken depends on ALF and under the hood the JSON-DSL definitions are being compiled into the ALF pipelines modules. Read the ALF Readme to understand how it works on the Elixir level.

In terms of “clients”, Kraken uses the Octopus library, which uses the simple “prepare-call-transform” approach for communication with external services. See the Octopus Readme for more details.

Something to read and watch

Kraken Flow-based Service Orchestration Framework - Talk at Elixir Berlin Meetup, June 8, 2023.

Kraken Flow-based Service Orchestration Framework - Lightning Talk at CodeBEAM Europe, October 19, 2023.

Kraken Flow-based Service Orchestration Framework - Medium article.

Declarative Interface Translation with Octopus - Medium article.

Quick start

Add "kraken" to your Elixir project.

Run mix kraken.init. It creates the "kraken folder" in your project with a couple of services, the "hello" pipeline, the "kv_store" client, simple helper, lambda and routes. It gives you a good scaffold for creating your own functionality. The task also create a couple of tests in the "test/kraken" folder.

The "hello" pipeline produces ether "Hello, #{name}!" or "I've already said hello to you, #{name}." messages.

If you put

config :kraken,
       project_start: true

to the config/dev.exs file, the JSON definitions will be compiled when project starts. So you can run the pipeline in the "iex" console.

iex(1)> Kraken.call(%{"type" => "hello", "name" => "Anton"})
%{
  "greeted" => %{"value" => nil},
  "message" => "Hello, Anton!",
  "name" => "Anton",
  "type" => "hello"
}

Or using kraken client (mix tasks, see below):

First, start the app:

mix run --no-halt
or
iex -S mix

➜ mix kraken call '{"type": "hello", "name": "Anton"}'
{
  "greeted": {
    "value": null
  },
  "message": "Hello, Anton!",
  "name": "Anton",
  "type": "hello"
}

mix kraken.call '{"type": "hello", "name": "Anton"}' (with dot) will also work.

Check the generated examples and tests to get the basics!

More complex example of interaction with APIs

The GitHub service accessible via JSON API is used for the artificial example.

The pipeline has to return a chain of followers for the given search query.

Input: search “query” and “limit”.
First, return the information about the first found user.
Then get followers of the user.
Select the follower whose username is closest to the current username (Levenshtein distance).
Return the information about the “closest” follower.
Set the current username to the “closest” follower, and repeat from the “get followers" step.
Return not more than “limit” results.

For example, for query="antonmi", and limit=5, the chain of the usernames might be:

antonmi -> antouanbg -> guangyuzhang -> gamemann -> damaru

The full code can be found here

Services definition

The service definition for the GitHub API is:

{
  "name": "github",
  "client": {
    "module": "OctopusClientHttpFinch",
    "start": {
      "base_url": "https://api.github.com",
      "headers": {
        "Accept": "application/vnd.github+json"
      }
    }
  },
  "interface": {
    "find_users": {
      "prepare": {
        "method": "GET",
        "path": "/search/users",
        "params": {
          "q": "args['query']",
          "per_page": "args['per_page']"
        }
      },
      "call": {"parse_json_body": true},
      "transform": {
        "usernames": "get_in(args, ['body', 'items', Access.all(), 'login'])"
      }
    },
    "get_user": {
      "prepare": {
        "method": "GET",
        "path": "'/users/' <> args['username']"
      },
      "call": {"parse_json_body": true},
      "transform": {
        "username": "get_in(args, ['body', 'login'])",
        "name": "get_in(args, ['body', 'name'])",
        "company": "get_in(args, ['body', 'company'])",
        "location": "get_in(args, ['body', 'location'])",
        "followers": "get_in(args, ['body', 'followers'])"
      }
    },
    "get_followers": {
      "prepare": {
        "method": "GET",
        "path": "'users/' <> args['username'] <> '/followers'",
        "params": {
          "page": "args['page']",
          "per_page": "args['per_page']"
        }
      },
      "call": {"parse_json_body": true},
      "transform": {
        "followers": "get_in(args, ['body', Access.all(), 'login'])"
      }
    }
  }
}

The "client" section defines the transport-level module for HTTP communication - "OctopusClientHttpFinch". It's a very simple library built on top of the Elixir Finch HTTP client.

The interface section defines three functions: "find_users", "get_user", "get_followers". Each function takes a JSON object as input.

The "prepare" step prepares data for the call.

The "call" step can have some additional options that will be passed to the low-level client (e.g. {"parse_json_body": true})

And the "transform" step finally gets the necessary data from the API response.

One may see a bit of Elixir code here. Only simple "access" functions are available. Also, it is possible to define custom helpers for more complex data extraction. See the Octopus page and code.

There will be also one lambda-like service for the calculation of the Levenshtein distance. Octopus (and Kraken) allows one to define a service from an Elixir module. Here is the JSON definition:

{
  "name": "levenshtein",
  "client": {
    "module": "octopus.lambda",
    "start": {
      "code": [
        "defmodule Distance do",
        "def closest(%{\"name\" => name, \"names\" => names}) do",
        "closest = Enum.min_by(names, &Levenshtein.distance(&1, name))",
        "%{\"closest\" => closest}",
        "end",
        "end"
      ]
    }
  },
  "interface": {
    "closest": {
      "input": {
        "name": {"type": "string"},
        "names": {"type": "array"}
      },
      "call": {
        "module": "Distance",
        "function": "closest"
      },
      "output": {
        "closest": {"type": "string"}
      }
    }
  }
}

One can see the "code" in the definition. There are no "prepare" and "transform" steps, since the "closest" function already accepts the JSON-like Elixir map, and returns a similar data structure.

Also, there are "input" and "output" in the interface definition. These are optional steps for data validations. Octopus uses the ex_json_schema library for optional validations of input and output.

That's it. After submitting these definitions to the Kraken-based agent, and starting the services,

POST /services/define github-definition
POST /services/define levenshtein-definition
POST /services/start/github
POST /services/start/levenshtein

one call services like:

POST /services/call/github/find_users {"query": "antonmi"}
POST /services/call/levenshtein/closest {"name": "anton", "names": ["bread", "baton", "salat"]}

Pipeline definition

The ALF flow diagram for the solution might be:

The pipeline definition is:

{
  "name": "stream-similar-followers",
  "components": [
    {
      "type": "stage",
      "name": "init",
      "transform": {"counter": 0, "limit": "args['limit'] || 10"}
    },
    {
      "type": "stage",
      "name": "search",
      "service": {"name": "github", "function": "find_users"},
      "prepare": {"query":  "args['query']", "per_page": 1},
      "transform": {"username":  "get_in(args, ['usernames', Access.at(0)])"}
    },
    {
      "type": "goto-point",
      "name": "repeat"
    },
    {
      "type": "stage",
      "name": "get-user",
      "service": {"name": "github", "function": "get_user"},
      "prepare": {"username":  "args['username']"},
      "transform": {"user_data":  "args"}
    },
    {
      "type": "stage",
      "name": "inc-counter",
      "transform": {"counter":  "args['counter'] + 1"}
    },
    {
      "type": "composer",
      "name": "clone-event",
      "memo": null,
      "service": {
        "name": "clone-service",
        "function": "clone"
      },
      "prepare": {
        "event": "args",
        "memo": "memo"
      },
      "compose": {
        "events": "args['events']",
        "memo": "args['memo']"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "switch",
      "condition": "if args['report'], do: \"output\", else: \"next-steps\"",
      "branches": {
        "output": [
          {
            "type": "stage",
            "name": "print",
            "service": {"name": "io-inspect", "function": "print"},
            "prepare": {"value":  "args"}
          }
        ],
        "next-steps": [
          {
            "type": "stage",
            "name": "get-followers",
            "service": {"name": "github", "function": "get_followers"},
            "prepare": {"username":  "args['username']"},
            "transform": {"followers":  "args['followers']"}
          },
          {
            "type": "switch",
            "prepare": {
              "count": "length(args['followers'])",
              "counter": "args['counter']",
              "limit": "args['limit']"
            },
            "condition": "if args['counter'] > 0 && args['counter'] < args['limit'], do: \"continue\", else: \"done\"",
            "branches": {
              "continue": [
                {
                  "type": "stage",
                  "name": "find-closest",
                  "service": {"name": "levenshtein", "function": "closest"},
                  "prepare": {"name":  "args['username']", "names":  "args['followers']"},
                  "transform": {"closest":  "args['closest']"}
                },
                {
                  "type": "stage",
                  "name": "reassign-vars",
                  "transform": {"username": "args['closest']", "followers": "hidden"}
                },
                {
                  "type": "goto",
                  "to": "repeat",
                  "condition": "true"
                }
              ],
              "done": [{"type": "dead-end"}]
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

One can see several components here:

"stage" - for calling of underlying services.
"composer" - for creating a copy for output.
"switch" and "goto" for directing the "event".

Stages have the "prepare", "service", and "transform" sections. For example the "get-user" component:

{
  "type": "stage",
  "name": "get-user",
  "prepare": {"username":  "args['username']"},
  "service": {"name": "github", "function": "get_user"},
  "transform": {"user_data":  "args"}
}

It first gets 'username' from the event, then call the "get_user" function on the "github" service, and finally updates the event puts the event by setting 'user_data'.

There are also stages that just "transform" the event - "inc-counter" and "reassign-vars".

After posting the definition to the Kraken agent, magic happens, and the ALF pipeline appears in the agent code.

POST /pipelines/define pipeline-definition
POST /pipelines/start/stream-similar-followers

Then one can post events to the pipeline and get the results back:

POST /pipelines/call/stream-similar-followers  {"query": "antonmi", "limit": 5}
or
POST /pipelines/stream/stream-similar-followers  {"query": "antonmi", "limit": 5}
to stream the output events

More realistic cases

Let's say you have an online shop system.

There might be "user-service", "products-service", "billing-service", and "notification-service" services.

There might be a dozen of "flows", or "business-flow", or "user-flows", or "use-cases", that are "pipelines" in Kraken (ALF) terminology:

User registration
User login
User lists products
User orders products
etc. and etc.

Each service is deployed to the system and exposes its API.

Now, the job of the "application engineer" is to design and build these flows in the system.

For each "use-case", one should:

define the "services" - uniform mapping to the underlying services API.
define the "event" that represents the interaction (and its result).
define the "pipeline" - a chain of components that will transform the event accordingly to the business logic.

For example, for the "User orders products", the "event" representing the interaction would be:

{
  "type": "user-orders-a-product",
  "user_id": "user-123",
  "product_id": "product-456", 
}

The corresponding pipeline (simplified):

{
  "name": "user-orders-a-product",
  "components": 
    [
      {
          "name": "find-user",
          "service": {"name": "user-service", "function": "find"}
      },
      {
          "name": "find-product",
          "service": {"name": "product-service", "function": "find"}
      },
      {
          "name": "bill-user",
          "service": {"name": "billing-service", "function": "bill"}
      },
      {
          "name": "notify-user",
          "service": {"name": "notification-service", "function": "send-email"}
      }
    ]
}

So, the event goes through four components, each component calls underlying services. After all the transformations, the output would be like:

{
  "type": "user-orders-a-product",
  "success": "yes",
  "order_id": "789", 
}

After the definitions are ready, one can simply push them to the Kraken-based agent that is deployed to the system.

It's just a new instance (pod) in the system that will coordinate all the underlying services.

Philosophy. Or why is it cool?

Flow-based programming

The approach applies the great engineering idea of an assembly line. An initial workpiece is placed on the conveyor and goes through several processing stages until it becomes a ready-to-use product.

This flow-based programming is a case of the general "event-driven" approach, where business logic is triggered by data. The main distinction are:

The topology of the "flow" is defined explicitly.
A single event represents the result of the interaction with the particular use-case in the software system.

This provides extraordinary observability and, therefore, understandability of the defined logic:

One can easily read "pipelines" (both in code and diagrams).
One can "sit" on an event and easily track its changes when passing through components in a pipeline.
One can "sit" on a component and observe transformations of different events passing through.

Elixir GenStages, scaling, and monitoring

Under the hood, the ALF runs all components' code inside Elixir GenServers. It means that all the components work in parallel. When one pushes the stream of events to the pipeline, one component works with an n-th event, and the previous one work on (n-1)-th.

Also, ALF (and therefore Kraken) allows having several copies of a component, which adds additional (and configurable) horizontal parallelism.

ALF uses the Elixir/Erlang telemetry library, so it's easy to track the event transformation on each step.

See the ALF-monitor project and video there.

Declarative JSON DSL

What can be simpler than JSON?

Kraken uses it for services and pipelines definitions, and events are also just JSON objects.

So, Kraken provides a very simple DLS for modeling the whole application (orchestration) layer for a software system.

Moreover, services definitions can be considered as a specification for the underlying service:

services "names" and "interface functions" (together with input/output specifications) define a "language" for communicating with underlying domain services.
the "specifications" can (even must) be used by the engineers that work with domain-level services.

The pipeline definitions are comprehensible data structures that are consistent with visual representations of the flows defined using ALF diagrams.

The "design-, code-, and runtime-uniformity" buzz-phrase can be used for describing the advantages of the approach:

when one designs a "pipeline", he/she thinks in terms of a chain of components and draws it on paper using the diagram language.
when one codes the pipeline, he/she codes the same structure as was on the paper.
and finally, when the program runs, it passes events throw the same chain of components.

Kraken-agent

One can for sure compile all the definitions in a build time and then upload the "orchestrator" into the system.

However, I see more advantages when the code is uploaded dynamically. So, first one uploads "an empty" Kraken-based orchestrator, then uploads all the definitions and starts the pipelines.

It is similar to the Kubernetes approach to creating an infrastructure layer of the system.

The code then resides separately from the "orchestrator" and can be uploaded using a "client", something like kraken apply . (similar to kubectl apply .).

It will allow one to dynamically add new services and pipelines (or new versions of them).

It also opens huge opportunities for developing (prototyping) pipelines on existing systems (better its development-purpose copies).

And also an IDE-like client can be implemented, providing a low-code platform for the orchestration layer.

Kraken client

There are mix tasks for interaction with the application:

Services

mix kraken.services
mix kraken.services define :definition | :file | :path

mix kraken.services status :name
mix kraken.services definition :name
mix kraken.services state :name  
mix kraken.services start :name
mix kraken.services stop :name 
mix kraken.services delete :name 
mix kraken.services call :name :function :event

Pipelines

mix kraken.pipelines
mix kraken.pipelines define :definition
mix kraken.pipelines status :name 
mix kraken.pipelines definition :name
mix kraken.pipelines start :name
mix kraken.pipelines stop :name 
mix kraken.pipelines delete :name 
mix kraken.pipelines call :name :event(s)
mix kraken.pipelines cast :name :event(s)
mix kraken.pipelines stream :name :events

Routes

mix kraken.routes
mix kraken.routes define :definition

Events

mix kraken call :event(s)
mix kraken cast :event(s)
mix kraken stream :event(s)
# also works with dot
mix kraken.call :event(s)
mix kraken.cast :event(s)
mix kraken.stream :event(s)

More technical details are below

Components

See ALF components overview for more details.

image	type	required attributes
	stage	it can be empty or have only "transform" section
	composer	"service", "compose" with "events" and "memo"
	switch	"condition" - code, and "branches" - list of components
	done	"condition" - code, "true" by default
	goto	"to" - the name of the "goto-point", "condition" - code, "true" by default
	goto-point	"name" - the "goto" refers to the name
	dead-end	nothing
	plug	"pipeline"

API

See router.ex

Services

POST /services/define
GET /services
GET /services/status/:name
GET /services/definition/:name
GET /services/state/:name  
POST /services/start/:name
POST /services/stop/:name 
POST /services/delete/:name 
POST /services/call/:name/:function

Pipelines

POST /pipelines/define 
GET /pipelines 
GET /pipelines/status/:name 
GET /pipelines/definition/:name
POST /pipelines/start/:name
POST /pipelines/stop/:name 
POST /pipelines/delete/:name 
POST /pipelines/call/:name 
POST /pipelines/cast/:name 
POST /pipelines/stream/:name

Routes

POST /routes/define
GET /routes

Events

POST /call
POST /cast
POST /stream

antonmi/kraken

Kraken

Something to read and watch

Quick start

More complex example of interaction with APIs

Services definition

Pipeline definition

More realistic cases

Philosophy. Or why is it cool?

Flow-based programming

Elixir GenStages, scaling, and monitoring

Declarative JSON DSL

Kraken-agent

Kraken client

Services

Pipelines

Routes

Events

More technical details are below

Components

API

Services

Pipelines

Routes

Events