What is Upstream and Downstream services in a microservices based architecture?

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Definition 1: The direction of action

Upstream: receiving requests from / sending responses to

  • A service upstream is calling me.

Downstream: making requests to / receiving responses from

  • I am calling a service downstream.

Definition 2: The direction of dependency

Upstream: making requests to / receiving responses from

  • I am calling a service upstream.

Downstream: receiving requests from / sending responses to

  • A service downstream is calling me.

So,

There are resources on the internet which support both of these definitions. Maybe we will resolve this question one day, but for now the answer is: it’s either.

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