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-Using sled.
+# Database Design
 
-Tree -> key subspace -> delineator -> key name = value
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+The dicebot uses [Sled](https://sled.rs/). Sled is a fast, embedded key-value database that stores keys and values as byte arrays.
+
+Why Sled?
+
+* Mostly because I felt like it.
+
+## Guiding Principles
+
+Sled essentially operates as a bunch of `Map<[u8], [u8]>`s (that is, a map of byte slice keys and byte slice values), which means both keys and values can be pretty much any arbitrary type. To keep things simple, we follow these guidelines:
+
+* Separate `Tree`s for different types of data. A `Tree` in Sled is an isolated keyspace.
+* Strongly typed access to keys, converted into `Vec<u8>` keys by private code.
+* Keys are UTF8 strings, sometimes separated by `0xfe` and `0xff` delimiter bytes. `0xfe` and `0xff` are not valid UTF8, making them useful delimiters.
+
+### Trees, Keys, and Delimiters
+
+Sled supports opening a number of `Tree` instances, each which acts as an isolated set of key-value pairs. We use trees to categorize data much like a relational SQL table.
+
+* In general, a single tree should store one kind of data. 
+* Ideally, the tree does not have more that one format used for keys.
+
+Keys in a tree are how data is queried, and thus should make sense for the data type. A key often requires some levels of sub-categorization. For example, user variables are defined per room. Thus, the key for a user variable is composed of the `username`, `room ID`, and the actual name of the variable. The delimiters `0xff` and `0xfe` are used for this sub-categorization.
+
+* The `0xff` delimiter is used to split logically separate parts of the key. In the case of user variables, this separates the where (username + room ID) from the what (variable name).
+* The `0xfe` delimiter is used to split related parts of the key into more narrow categories. For user variables, the username and room ID are split by `0xfe`.
+
+A key format should be designed with how the data will be queried in mind. It usually does not matter when looking up a single value, but for scanning multiple keys, it's important that the key be designed properly. Using delimiters enables clever use of Sled's API. A key can be partially crafted up to the delimiter, and the `scan_prefix` function allows finding all data that begins with that prefix.
+
+### Values
+
+The value stored in a tree can be anything, including serialized structs. Following guidelines above, one tree should store one kind of data.
+
+* For types with a size known at compile time (simple types or anything whose size in memory is not variable), zero-copy serialization using the `zerocopy` crate is preferred.
+* For complex structs with arbitrary sizes (strings, lists, etc), the `bincode` crate is preferred.
+
+Where possible, higher-level Sled APIs should be used. Batches, `compare_and_swap` and `fetch_and_update` are both very useful. In cases where this is not possible, transactions should be used to preserve atomicity.
+
+# High-Level Architecture Overview
+
+How things are designed.
+
+# Design: User Variables
+
+This documents the database design of user-defined variables.
+
+## Database Schema
+User variables are implemented with two trees:
+
+* `room_user_variables`: Key format `<username> 0xfe <room_id> 0xff <variable_name>`. Value type is `i32`.
+* `room_user_variable_count`: Key format `<username> 0xfe <room_id>`. Value type is `i32`.
+
+The `room_user_variables` tree contains the actual variables and their value, defined by the user. The `room_user_variable_count` tree keeps track of how many variables a user has defined on a per room basis. APIs atomically update both trees transactionally.
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