First gRPC Service

Hello world.

Overview

The first gRPC service moves service-to-service communication from REST and JSON to schema-first RPC over HTTP/2. Protobuf defines the contract; code generation produces type-safe clients and servers across languages; HTTP/2 carries the bytes efficiently. The patterns established on the first gRPC service become the template for every subsequent inter-service call.

• Schema-first design. Protobuf .proto files define services and messages. The contract lives in source control.
• Code generation. Client and server stubs auto-generated. Boilerplate disappears; type safety arrives.
• HTTP/2 transport. Multiplexing, streaming, header compression. The transport choice that makes RPC fast.
• Streaming patterns plus polyglot support. Unary, server-streaming, client-streaming, bidirectional; same protos generate clients in Go, Python, TypeScript, Java, Rust.

The approach

Three habits keep gRPC tractable as it spreads across services: protos in a shared repository, generation in CI rather than checked-in, and explicit API versioning so evolution stays safe.

• Protos in shared repo. Centralised .proto files. Single source of truth for the contract.
• Generate in CI. Generated code built fresh from protos. Drift between definition and implementation disappears.
• Buf for linting and breaking-change detection. buf lint and buf breaking on every PR. Evolution discipline comes free.
• Versioning plus documented services. v1, v2 packages for major changes; comments in protos become published documentation.

Why this compounds

Each gRPC service inherits the patterns of the first one. The team’s RPC fluency deepens; new services ship with type-safe clients on day one; cross-language work stops being friction.

• Contract clarity. Schema-first prevents the integration bugs that plague REST/JSON pairs.
• Lower latency. HTTP/2 multiplexing cuts inter-service call overhead.
• Polyglot support. Generated clients work across languages without re-implementing the contract.
• Year-one investment, year-two habit. First service is heavy lift. By the third, the patterns are settled.