Architecture

How Rustrak is designed and why.

Overview

┌─────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│   Sentry SDK    │────▶│   Rustrak Server    │────▶│   PostgreSQL    │
│   (your app)    │     │   (Rust/Actix-web)  │     │                 │
└─────────────────┘     └─────────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘
                                  │
                                  ▼
                        ┌─────────────────┐
                        │  Dashboard      │ (optional)
                        │  (Next.js)      │
                        └─────────────────┘

Key design decisions

Separation of server and UI

The server and dashboard are independent:

• Server: Rust binary, ~50MB RAM, handles all API and ingestion
• Dashboard: Next.js app, can run anywhere

This means you can:

• Run only the server for minimal footprint
• Host the dashboard on Vercel (free)
• Run the dashboard on your laptop
• Use the API without any dashboard

Two-phase ingestion

Events go through two phases:

SDK → Server → Temp Storage → [Background] → Database
         │
         └→ Return 200 OK (<50ms)

1. Ingest (sync): Receive, validate, store temporarily, return 200
2. Digest (async): Calculate grouping, create/update issue, store event

This ensures your apps get fast responses while heavy processing happens in the background.

Sentry protocol compatibility

Rustrak implements the Sentry envelope protocol. Benefits:

• Use any official Sentry SDK
• No custom SDK to maintain
• Just change your DSN

Components

Server (Rust)

Responsibilities:

• Receive events from SDKs
• Parse Sentry envelope format
• Group events into issues
• Store data in PostgreSQL
• Provide REST API
• Handle authentication
• Enforce rate limits

Tech: Rust + Actix-web + SQLx + Tokio

Database (PostgreSQL)

Tables:

• projects – Project configuration
• issues – Grouped errors
• events – Individual error events
• groupings – Issue grouping keys
• users – User accounts
• auth_tokens – API tokens

Dashboard (Next.js)

Features:

• Project management
• Issue browsing
• Event details (stack traces, breadcrumbs)
• Token management

Can be deployed anywhere: Docker, Vercel, local.

Authentication

Deployment options

Minimal (~50MB RAM)

Server only. Access dashboard locally or via Vercel.

SDK → Server → PostgreSQL

Dashboard runs on your laptop or Vercel

Full stack (~200MB RAM)

Everything together.

SDK → Server → PostgreSQL
        ↓
    Dashboard

Production

Multiple servers behind a load balancer.

         ┌─────────────┐
SDKs → LB│  Server x N │→ PostgreSQL (replicated)
         └─────────────┘
               ↓
         Dashboard (CDN/Vercel)

Servers are stateless—add more as needed.