internal/broker/streams.go

@@ -37,8 +37,13 @@ type Stream struct {
 	Name      string
 	Subjects  []string
 	Retention Retention
-	// MaxAge in seconds, zero for unbounded.
+	// MaxAge in seconds, zero for unbounded. Per stream — JetStream has no per-subject age,
+	// which is why differing retention between modules would mean a stream each.
 	MaxAge int
+	// MaxMsgsPerSubject caps each subject independently, so one noisy emitter cannot push
+	// another's events out of a shared stream. Verified: with a cap of 3, ten messages on one
+	// subject and one on another leave four in the stream, not three.
+	MaxMsgsPerSubject int
 	// Why is carried into the assertion so an operator reading the server's own state finds the
 	// reason there, rather than only in a repository they may not have.
 	Why string
@@ -82,7 +87,10 @@ func MeshStreams() []Stream {
 			Subjects:          []string{"mesh.mod.*.event.>"},
 			Retention:         RetentionLimits,
 			MaxAge:            7 * 24 * 60 * 60,
-			Why:       "a subscriber that was down catches up; tool traffic under the same prefix is excluded by the event token",
+			MaxMsgsPerSubject: 10000,
+			Why: "a subscriber that was down catches up; tool traffic under the same prefix is " +
+				"excluded by the event token; per-subject caps keep a noisy emitter from " +
+				"evicting a quiet one without splitting the stream",
 		},
 	}
 }
@@ -113,10 +121,17 @@ func AssertMeshStreams(a Asserter) error {
 
 // Overlaps reports subject filters claimed by more than one stream.
 //
-// Two streams matching one subject is not a warning in NATS; it is accepted, and the message is
-// stored twice under two retentions. For the mesh that would mean a declaration kept as both
-// state and a work queue, acknowledged in one and lingering in the other — a divergence nothing
-// reports and nobody would think to look for. So it is refused here, where the set is written.
+// **Corrected against the server**: an earlier version of this comment said NATS accepts
+// overlapping streams and stores the message twice. It does not — it refuses the second stream
+// with "subjects overlap with an existing stream" (verified against nats-server 2.10). The check
+// still earns its place, for a different reason: the server's refusal arrives when the controller
+// is applying, naming one stream, at a moment when the mesh is half-configured. This one arrives
+// where the set is written, names both, and cannot reach a running mesh.
+//
+// It also decides a design question. Because overlap is refused rather than merged, a shared
+// EVENTS stream and a per-module stream cannot coexist — the module's would be refused — so
+// "one stream for most, its own for a module that wants different retention" is not an option
+// the server allows. It is all of one or all of the other.
 func Overlaps() []string {
 	seen := map[string]string{}
 	var clashes []string