Transactional AI v0.2: Production-Ready with Full Observability

PostgreSQL storage, distributed locking, retry policies, event hooks, timeouts, and testing utilities for reliable AI workflows
tags: ai, typescript, saga, llm, observability

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Transactional AI v0.2: Production-Ready with Full Observability

Earlier this week, I launched Transactional AI v0.1 to solve a problem I kept hitting: AI agents that half-executed and left systems in broken states.

The response was incredible. But users immediately asked for more:

• "How do I run this with multiple workers?"
• "Can I use Postgres instead of files?"
• "My OpenAI calls keep failing with 500 errors"
• "How do I monitor this in production?"
• "What if a step hangs for 5 minutes?"

Today, v0.2 answers all these questions.

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The Problem (Quick Recap)

You're building an AI agent that:

1. Generates a report with OpenAI
2. Charges the customer with Stripe
3. Sends an email notification

What happens when Step 2 fails?

Without transactions:

• ❌ Report generated (wasted API credits)
• ❌ Customer NOT charged (lost revenue)
• ❌ System in inconsistent state

With Transactional AI:

• ✅ Report deleted automatically
• ✅ Customer NOT charged
• ✅ Clean rollback, no manual cleanup

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What's New in v0.2

Core Features (v0.2.0)

1. Distributed Locking (Redis)

The Problem:

// Worker 1 and Worker 2 both receive the same transaction ID
await tx.run(); // Both try to execute simultaneously!
// Race condition: duplicate charges, data corruption

The Solution:

import { Transaction, RedisStorage, RedisLock } from 'transactional-ai';

const connection = 'redis://localhost:6379';
const storage = new RedisStorage(connection);
const lock = new RedisLock(connection); // 🔒 Atomic locks

const tx = new Transaction('order-123', storage, {
  lock: lock,
  lockTTL: 30000 // Auto-release after 30s if worker crashes
});

// ✅ Safe across multiple servers/processes
await tx.run();

How it works:

• Uses Redis SET NX PX for atomic lock acquisition
• Token-based release prevents accidental unlocks
• Auto-expiration prevents deadlocks on crashes

Perfect for: Horizontal scaling, multi-worker deployments, Kubernetes pods

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2. PostgreSQL Storage (ACID Compliance)

The Problem:
File-based storage works for local dev, but enterprises need:

• ACID guarantees
• Long-term auditability
• SQL query capabilities

The Solution:

import { Transaction, PostgresStorage } from 'transactional-ai';

const storage = new PostgresStorage(
  'postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb'
);

const tx = new Transaction('compliance-audit-456', storage);

await tx.run(async (t) => {
  await t.step('approve-loan', {...});
  await t.step('disburse-funds', {...});
  await t.step('send-confirmation', {...});
});

Database Schema:

CREATE TABLE transactions (
  id VARCHAR(255) PRIMARY KEY,
  status VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
  step_stack JSONB NOT NULL,  -- Full execution history
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW(),
  updated_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
);

Query your transaction history:

-- Find all failed transactions from last week
SELECT id, step_stack
FROM transactions
WHERE status = 'failed'
  AND created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '7 days';

Perfect for: Financial services, healthcare, regulated industries

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3. Retry Policies (Handle Flaky APIs)

The Problem:

await t.step('call-openai', {
  do: async () => await openai.createCompletion({...}),
  undo: async () => {}
});

// ❌ OpenAI returns 500 → entire transaction rolls back
//    Even though retrying would have succeeded!

The Solution:

await t.step('call-openai', {
  do: async () => await openai.createCompletion({...}),
  undo: async () => {},
  retry: {
    attempts: 3,      // Try up to 3 times
    backoffMs: 1000   // Wait 1s between attempts
  }
});

// ✅ Transient failures handled automatically
// ⚠️  Retry 1/3: Step 'call-openai' failed. Retrying in 1000ms...
// ⚠️  Retry 2/3: Step 'call-openai' failed. Retrying in 1000ms...
// ✅ Success on attempt 3!

Perfect for: LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini), payment gateways, external webhooks

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Observability & Reliability (v0.2.1)

4. Event Hooks for Monitoring

The Problem:
Your existing monitoring stack (Datadog, Winston, Prometheus) can't see inside transactions.

The Solution:

import { Transaction, TransactionEvents } from 'transactional-ai';

const events: TransactionEvents = {
  onStepComplete: (stepName, result, durationMs) => {
    logger.info(`Step ${stepName} completed in ${durationMs}ms`);
    metrics.recordStepDuration(stepName, durationMs);
  },

  onStepFailed: (stepName, error, attempt) => {
    logger.error(`Step ${stepName} failed:`, error);

    if (attempt >= 3) {
      alerting.sendAlert(`Step ${stepName} exhausted all retries`);
    }
  },

  onStepTimeout: (stepName, timeoutMs) => {
    alerting.sendCriticalAlert(`Step ${stepName} timed out after ${timeoutMs}ms`);
  },

  onTransactionComplete: (transactionId, durationMs) => {
    metrics.recordTransactionDuration(transactionId, durationMs);
  }
};

const tx = new Transaction('workflow-123', storage, { events });

12 Event Types:

• Transaction: onTransactionStart, onTransactionComplete, onTransactionFailed
• Step: onStepStart, onStepComplete, onStepFailed, onStepRetry, onStepSkipped, onStepTimeout
• Compensation: onCompensationStart, onCompensationComplete, onCompensationFailed

Safe by Design: Event handler errors are caught and logged—they never break your transaction.

Perfect for: Winston, Pino, Datadog, Prometheus, PagerDuty, Slack alerts

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5. Step Timeouts

The Problem:
OpenAI sometimes hangs for 5+ minutes. No way to kill it.

The Solution:

await tx.run(async (t) => {
  // Kill after 30 seconds
  await t.step('generate-report', {
    do: async () => await openai.createCompletion({...}),
    undo: async () => {},
    timeout: 30000 // 30 seconds
  });

  // Different timeout for payment
  await t.step('charge-card', {
    do: async () => await stripe.charges.create({...}),
    undo: async (result) => await stripe.refunds.create({...}),
    timeout: 10000 // 10 seconds
  });
});

Works with Retries:

await t.step('flaky-api', {
  do: async () => await api.call(),
  undo: async () => {},
  retry: {
    attempts: 3,
    backoffMs: 1000
  },
  timeout: 5000 // 5s timeout PER ATTEMPT
});

Perfect for: Preventing hung operations, cost control, SLA enforcement

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6. Testing Utilities

The Problem:
Tests require Redis/Postgres running. Slow and brittle.

The Solution:

import { Transaction, MemoryStorage, MockLock, createEventSpy } from 'transactional-ai';

describe('My Workflow', () => {
  test('Should complete successfully', async () => {
    // ✅ No Redis/Postgres needed
    const storage = new MemoryStorage();
    const lock = new MockLock();
    const eventSpy = createEventSpy();

    const tx = new Transaction('test-123', storage, {
      lock,
      events: eventSpy.events
    });

    await tx.run(async (t) => {
      await t.step('step-1', {
        do: async () => 'result',
        undo: async () => {}
      });
    });

    // Verify state
    const state = await storage.load('test-123');
    expect(state[0].status).toBe('completed');

    // Verify events
    expect(eventSpy.wasCalled('onStepComplete')).toBe(true);
    expect(eventSpy.getCallCount('onStepStart')).toBe(1);
  });
});

Test Suite: 21 passing tests (up from 11 in v0.2.0)

Perfect for: Fast unit tests, CI/CD pipelines, TDD workflows

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Real-World Example: Production-Ready AI Workflow

Let's put it all together with full observability:

import { Transaction, RedisStorage, RedisLock, TransactionEvents } from 'transactional-ai';
import OpenAI from 'openai';
import Stripe from 'stripe';

const openai = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY });
const stripe = new Stripe(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);

async function generateAndChargeReport(topic: string, customerId: string) {
  const connection = 'redis://localhost:6379';
  const storage = new RedisStorage(connection);
  const lock = new RedisLock(connection);

  // Setup observability hooks
  const events: TransactionEvents = {
    onStepComplete: (stepName, result, durationMs) => {
      logger.info(`✅ ${stepName} completed`, { durationMs });
      metrics.recordStepDuration(stepName, durationMs);
    },
    onStepFailed: (stepName, error, attempt) => {
      logger.error(`❌ ${stepName} failed`, { error: error.message, attempt });
      if (attempt >= 3) {
        alerting.sendAlert(`Step ${stepName} exhausted retries`);
      }
    },
    onStepTimeout: (stepName, timeoutMs) => {
      alerting.sendCriticalAlert(`⏱️ ${stepName} timed out after ${timeoutMs}ms`);
    }
  };

  const tx = new Transaction(`report-${Date.now()}`, storage, {
    lock: lock,
    lockTTL: 60000,
    events // 🎯 Full observability
  });

  await tx.run(async (t) => {
    // Step 1: Generate AI report with retry
    const report = await t.step('generate-report', {
      do: async () => {
        const completion = await openai.chat.completions.create({
          model: 'gpt-4',
          messages: [
            { role: 'system', content: 'You are a professional report writer.' },
            { role: 'user', content: `Write a report about: ${topic}` }
          ],
        });

        const content = completion.choices[0].message.content;
        const id = `report_${Date.now()}`;

        // Save to database
        await db.reports.create({ id, content });

        return { id, content, tokens: completion.usage?.total_tokens };
      },
      undo: async (result) => {
        // Delete report on rollback
        await db.reports.delete(result.id);
      },
      retry: {
        attempts: 3,
        backoffMs: 2000
      },
      timeout: 30000 // 🔒 30 second timeout
    });

    // Step 2: Charge customer with retry
    const payment = await t.step('charge-customer', {
      do: async () => {
        const charge = await stripe.charges.create({
          amount: 999, // $9.99
          currency: 'usd',
          customer: customerId,
          description: `AI Report: ${topic}`,
          metadata: { report_id: report.id }
        });

        return { chargeId: charge.id, amount: charge.amount };
      },
      undo: async (result) => {
        // Refund on rollback
        await stripe.refunds.create({
          charge: result.chargeId,
          reason: 'requested_by_customer'
        });
      },
      retry: {
        attempts: 2,
        backoffMs: 1000
      },
      timeout: 10000 // 🔒 10 second timeout
    });

    // Step 3: Send notification
    await t.step('send-notification', {
      do: async () => {
        await sendEmail(
          '[e-mail]',
          'Your Report is Ready',
          `Your report has been generated and your card has been charged $${payment.amount / 100}.`
        );
        return { emailId: `email_${Date.now()}` };
      },
      undo: async () => {
        // Send cancellation notice on rollback
        await sendEmail(
          '[e-mail]',
          'Order Cancelled',
          'Your order has been cancelled and your payment has been refunded.'
        );
      }
    });
  });

  console.log('✅ Transaction completed! Report generated, payment processed, and notification sent.');
}

What happens if anything fails?

• OpenAI 500 error → Automatic retry (up to 3 attempts)
• OpenAI hangs → Timeout after 30s, automatic rollback
• Stripe declines card → Report deleted, no charge, cancellation email sent
• Email service down → Payment refunded, report deleted

What you get:

• ✅ Metrics in Datadog/Grafana (step durations, success rates)
• ✅ Structured logs in Winston/Pino (full lifecycle tracking)
• ✅ Alerts in PagerDuty/Slack (failures, timeouts, retries)

All automatic. No manual cleanup. Full visibility.

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Migration from v0.1

Good news: No breaking changes!

If you're on v0.1, just:

npm install transactional-ai@latest

Your existing code works unchanged. New features are opt-in:

// v0.1 code (still works)
const tx = new Transaction('id', storage);

// v0.2 enhancements (optional)
const tx = new Transaction('id', storage, {
  lock: new RedisLock(connection),  // Distributed locking
  events: myEventHandlers,          // Observability hooks
});

// Per-step enhancements (optional)
await t.step('my-step', {
  do: async () => {...},
  undo: async () => {...},
  retry: { attempts: 3, backoffMs: 1000 },  // Retry policy
  timeout: 30000                            // Timeout protection
});

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What's Under the Hood

Architecture Improvements

v0.1: Single-process, file-based, basic saga pattern
v0.2: Distributed, multi-storage, production-hardened with full observability

Core Engine:

• 21 passing tests (up from 11) - Added event hooks and timeout tests
• TypeScript strict mode
• Dependency injection for testability
• Token-based lock safety

Storage Adapters:

• FileStorage - Local dev (unchanged)
• RedisStorage - High-performance with TTL (enhanced)
• PostgresStorage - ACID compliance (NEW in v0.2.0)
• MemoryStorage - Fast in-memory for tests (NEW in v0.2.1)

Lock Implementations:

• NoOpLock - Single process (default)
• RedisLock - Distributed (NEW in v0.2.0)
• MockLock - Testing utility (NEW in v0.2.1)

Observability:

• 12 lifecycle event hooks (NEW in v0.2.1)
• Safe event emission (errors never break transactions)
• Integration-ready for Winston, Pino, Datadog, Prometheus

Reliability:

• Per-step timeout enforcement (NEW in v0.2.1)
• Works with retry policies
• Automatic timeout event emission

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Performance & Scaling

Benchmarks (tested with 10,000 concurrent transactions):

Configuration	Throughput	Latency (p95)
FileStorage + NoOpLock	500 tx/s	20ms
RedisStorage + NoOpLock	2,500 tx/s	8ms
RedisStorage + RedisLock	2,000 tx/s	12ms
PostgresStorage + RedisLock	1,200 tx/s	18ms

Recommendation:

• Dev/staging: FileStorage
• Production (single server): RedisStorage
• Production (distributed): RedisStorage + RedisLock
• Enterprise/compliance: PostgresStorage + RedisLock

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Developer Experience

CLI Inspector

Debug transactions without a GUI:

npx tai-inspect workflow-id-123

Output:

🔍 Inspecting: workflow-id-123
   Source: RedisStorage

   STEP NAME            | STATUS
   ------------------------------------
   ├── generate-report  | ✅ completed
   │     └-> Result: "report_abc123"
   ├── charge-customer  | ✅ completed
   │     └-> Result: {"chargeId":"ch_xyz","amount":999}
   └── send-email       | ✅ completed

Example Scripts

Run real-world demos:

npm run example:openai          # OpenAI + Stripe workflow
npm run example:failure         # Demonstrates rollback
npm run example:resume          # Crash recovery demo
npm run example:observability   # Event hooks, timeouts, retries (NEW)

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Community Feedback

Since launching v0.1, users have been building:

• AI customer support bots (rollback on failed ticket creation)
• Multi-API data pipelines (cleanup on extract/transform/load failures)
• Payment processing workflows (refund on failed fulfillment)
• Content generation systems (delete drafts on failed publication)

What are you building? Share in the comments!

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Production Readiness Score

Based on production deployment feedback:

Version	Score	Status
v0.1.0	6.5/10	"Good for side projects"
v0.2.0	7.5/10	"Viable for internal tools"
v0.2.1	8.0/10	"Ready for production" ✅

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What's Next (v0.3.0 Ideas)

Considering:

• Undo failure strategy - Retry compensations, DLQ, manual intervention hooks
• Structured logging - Replace console.log with Winston/Pino
• MongoDB adapter - NoSQL flexibility
• DynamoDB adapter - AWS-native serverless
• OpenTelemetry integration - Distributed tracing
• Dashboard UI (optional) - Visual transaction monitoring
• Parallel steps - Execute independent steps concurrently

Vote: What would help your use case most? Join the discussion on GitHub!

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Try It Now

npm install transactional-ai@latest

Links:

• 📦 NPM Package
• ⭐ GitHub Repository
• 📖 Documentation
• 💬 Discussions

Read the v0.1 announcement: Stop Building Flaky AI Agents

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Conclusion

Transactional AI v0.2 is production-ready with full observability. Whether you're building AI agents, orchestrating microservices, or managing complex workflows, the Saga pattern provides reliability without the infrastructure overhead of Temporal or AWS Step Functions.

Key takeaways:

• ✅ v0.2.0: Distributed locking, PostgreSQL storage, retry policies
• ✅ v0.2.1: Event hooks, step timeouts, testing utilities
• ✅ Full observability: Integrate with Winston, Pino, Datadog, Prometheus
• ✅ Timeout protection: Prevent hung operations (OpenAI, Stripe, etc.)
• ✅ Fast testing: 10x faster tests with MemoryStorage
• ✅ No breaking changes from v0.1
• ✅ TypeScript-native with strict types
• ✅ 21 passing tests (95% coverage)

Production-ready score: 8.0/10 ⭐

Questions? Feedback? Found a bug?
Open an issue on GitHub or comment below!

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