---
title: Golang modules
weight: 1650
description: Organization of the etcd project's golang modules
---

The etcd project (since version 3.5) is organized into multiple
[golang modules](https://golang.org/ref/mod) hosted  in a [single repository](https://golang.org/ref/mod#vcs-dir).

![modules graph](../img/modules.svg)

There are following modules:

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/api/v3** - contains API definitions
  (like protos & proto-generated libraries) that defines communication protocol
  between etcd clients and server.

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/pkg/v3** - collection of utility packages used by etcd
  without being specific to etcd itself. A package belongs here
  only if it could possibly be moved out into its own repository in the future.
  Please avoid adding here code that has a lot of dependencies on its own, as
  they automatically becoming dependencies of the client library
  (that we want to keep lightweight).

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/client/v3** - client library used to contact etcd over
  the network (grpc). Recommended for all new usage of etcd.

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/client/v2** - legacy client library used to contact etcd
  over HTTP protocol. Deprecated. All new usage should depend on /v3 library.

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/raft/v3** - implementation of distributed consensus
  protocol. Should have no etcd specific code.

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/server/v3** - etcd implementation.
  The code in this package is etcd internal and should not be consumed
  by external projects. The package layout and API can change within the minor versions.

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/etcdctl/v3** - a command line tool to access and manage etcd.

  - **go.etcd.io/etcd/tests/v3** - a module that contains all integration tests of etcd.
    Notice: All unit-tests (fast and not requiring cross-module dependencies)
    should be kept in the local modules to the code under the test.

  - **go.etcd.io/bbolt** - implementation of persistent b-tree.
    Hosted in a separate repository: https://github.com/etcd-io/bbolt.


### Operations

1. All etcd modules should be released in the same versions, e.g.
   `go.etcd.io/etcd/client/v3@v3.5.10` must depend on `go.etcd.io/etcd/api/v3@v3.5.10`.

   The consistent updating of versions can by performed using:
   ```shell script
   % DRY_RUN=false TARGET_VERSION="v3.5.10" ./scripts/release_mod.sh update_versions
   ```
2. The released modules should be tagged according to https://golang.org/ref/mod#vcs-version rules,
   i.e. each module should get its own tag.
   The tagging can be performed using:
   ```shell script
   % DRY_RUN=false REMOTE_REPO="origin" ./scripts/release_mod.sh push_mod_tags
   ```

3. All etcd modules should depend on the same versions of underlying dependencies.
   This can be verified using:
   ```shell script
   % PASSES="dep" ./test.sh
   ```

4. The go.mod files must not contain dependencies not being used and must
   conform to `go mod tidy` format.
   This is being verified by:
   ```
   % PASSES="mod_tidy" ./test.sh
   ```

5. To trigger actions across all modules (e.g. auto-format all files), please
   use/expand the following script:
   ```shell script
   % ./scripts/fix.sh
   ```

### Future

As a North Star, we would like to evaluate etcd modules towards following model:

![modules graph](../img/modules-future.svg)

This assumes:
  - Splitting etcdmigrate/etcdadm out of etcdctl binary.
    Thanks to this etcdctl would become clearly a command-line wrapper
    around network client API,
    while etcdmigrate/etcdadm would support direct physical operations on the
    etcd storage files.
  - Splitting etcd-proxy out of ./etcd binary, as it contains more experimental code
    so carries additional risk & dependencies.
  - Deprecation of support for v2 protocol.
