Question 1

How do I use Indigo to generate IDs in a Go microservice?

Accepted Answer

Initialize a generator with indigo.New(), setting a start time and machine ID, then call NextID() in your service logic. The generator is thread-safe, so you can reuse it across goroutines for efficient ID generation.

Question 2

Is Indigo better than UUID for distributed systems?

Accepted Answer

Indigo provides more compact, sortable IDs based on timestamps, making it better for systems needing time-ordered IDs. However, UUIDs are universally unique without configuration, while Indigo requires machine ID setup and has a fixed structure.

Question 3

Can I decode an Indigo ID back to its timestamp or machine ID?

Accepted Answer

Indigo does not include built-in decoding functions; you'd need to implement custom logic to parse the Base58 string and extract Sonyflake components, which adds complexity if you need to inspect ID metadata.

Question 4

How to handle machine ID in Kubernetes with Indigo?

Accepted Answer

Assign a unique machine ID per pod using environment variables or a stateful set, ensuring stability across restarts. This requires additional orchestration compared to stateless ID generators.

Question 5

What happens if the system clock moves backwards with Indigo?

Accepted Answer

Sonyflake may fail to generate unique IDs if the clock regresses, as it relies on monotonic timestamps. You need to ensure NTP synchronization or handle clock skew errors in your application.

Question 6

How to change the encoder to Base64 in Indigo?

Accepted Answer

Implement a custom encoder satisfying the indigo.Encoder interface and pass it during generator initialization. The README notes encoder customization, but you must write the encoding logic yourself.

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