Browse Clojure Foundations for Java Developers

Implementing Services in Clojure

Structure a service with a pure core, thin adapters, and explicit lifecycle/config.

Implementing a microservice is mostly about boundaries and lifecycle: how requests enter, how side effects happen, how configuration is loaded, and how the service starts and stops predictably.

This section focuses on an implementation model that stays friendly in code review: keep your domain logic as pure functions over data, and keep HTTP/DB/messaging as thin adapters around that core.

Java mental model: think “hexagonal architecture,” but with simpler pieces because handlers and middleware are functions and the domain model is plain data.

In this section

Revised on Friday, April 24, 2026