Closing Streams

Event streams can be permanently closed to prevent further appends. Once a stream is closed, any attempt to append events to it will result in a constraint violation of type StreamClosed.

Client coverage

Closing a stream is currently C#-only — grepped all three other client SDKs for anything resembling CompleteStream and found no equivalent anywhere.

Why close a stream?

Closing a stream is useful when a logical unit of work is complete and no further events should be recorded for that stream. Examples include:

• Finalizing an invoice — once issued, no further line items should be added.
• Archiving a case — the case is resolved and the event history is sealed.
• Completing an order — the order lifecycle has ended and further mutations are disallowed.

How to close a stream

Call CompleteStream on the event log with the stream type and stream identifier you want to close:

C#

using Cratis.Chronicle.EventSequences;

public class ClosingStreamsInvoiceCloser(IEventLog eventLog)
{
    public async Task CloseInvoiceStream(EventStreamId invoiceStreamId)
    {
        var result = await eventLog.CompleteStream(new EventStreamType("invoices"), invoiceStreamId);

        result.Switch(
            sequenceNumber => Console.WriteLine($"Stream closed at sequence number {sequenceNumber}"),
            error => Console.WriteLine($"Failed to close stream: {error}"));
    }
}

The method returns Result<EventSequenceNumber, CompleteStreamError>.

Error cases

Error	Meaning
AlreadyCompleted	The stream has already been closed.
DefaultStreamCannotBeCompleted	The default stream (EventStreamType.All / EventStreamId.Default) cannot be closed.

What happens after closing

After a stream is closed, any append targeting that stream is rejected with a StreamClosed constraint violation:

C#

using Cratis.Chronicle.Events;
using Cratis.Chronicle.Events.Constraints;
using Cratis.Chronicle.EventSequences;
using System.Linq;

[EventType]
public record ClosingStreamsInvoiceLineAdded(string Description, decimal Amount);

public class ClosingStreamsInvoiceLineAppender(IEventLog eventLog)
{
    public async Task<bool> TryAppendLine(EventSourceId invoiceId)
    {
        var appendResult = await eventLog.Append(
            invoiceId,
            new ClosingStreamsInvoiceLineAdded("Consulting", 500m),
            new EventStreamType("invoices"),
            new EventStreamId("invoice-42"));

        if (!appendResult.IsSuccess)
        {
            var violation = appendResult.ConstraintViolations
                .FirstOrDefault(v => v.ConstraintType == ConstraintType.StreamClosed);
            return violation is null;
        }

        return true;
    }
}

The rejection is enforced by the ClosedStreamConstraintValidator which is automatically active for every event sequence — no additional configuration is required.