DynamoDB Developer Playbook

Production-minded guidance for Amazon DynamoDB: core concepts, repeatable patterns, two end-to-end examples (E-commerce & Social/Activity Feed), runnable HTTP queries, sample data (CSV/JSONL), Mermaid diagrams, and production checklists.

Live site: https://wowlabz.github.io/dynamodb-playbook/

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What’s inside

• Concepts — PK/SK modeling, item collections, LSI vs GSI, conditional/idempotent writes, transactions vs conditionals, migrations, security, error taxonomy.
• Examples
  • E-commerce: Orders, Lines, Payments, Shipments, Inventory (GSI1 OrdersByUser; GSI2 OrdersByStatus; conditional inventory).
  • Feed: Posts, Likes, Comments, Tags, Followers, Notifications (GSI1 PostsByAuthor; GSI2 PostsByTag; GSI3 FeedByUser + fan-out).
• Samples — Clean CSVs + JSONL seeds to make the patterns concrete.
• Queries — SigV4-ready .http payloads for Get/Query/Put/Update with conditions and pagination.
• Diagrams — Access-pattern matrices, key-design cheat sheets, and shared cross-cutting visuals.
• Checklists — Design Review, Security/IAM, Observability/Ops, Cost Alarms, DR/Backup, Migration & Evolution.

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Quick start

1. Open the site → https://wowlabz.github.io/dynamodb-playbook/
2. Skim Concepts → understand keys, indexes, conditional writes, streams, and migrations.
3. Pick an example → browse its Samples, Access Patterns, Diagrams, and Queries.
4. Run the queries → copy from docs/assets/samples/*/queries.http into your REST client (SigV4) or adapt to AWS CLI/SDK.
5. Before shipping → walk through Production Checklists.

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Repo structure (high level)

docs/
  index.md                    # Home
  concepts.md                 # Core concepts (with shared diagrams)
  downloads.md                # Raw Assets & Downloads
  ecom/
    index.md                  # Overview
    samples.md                # Inline tables for CSVs (links to raw)
    access-patterns.md        # Patterns table + notes
    diagrams.md               # Renders A1–A7
    queries.md                # How to run queries.http
  feed/
    index.md
    samples.md
    access-patterns.md
    diagrams.md
    queries.md
  assets/
    samples/
      ecom/ (...csv, seed.jsonl, queries.http, helpers.{py,ts})
      feed/ (...csv, seed.jsonl, queries.http, helpers.{py,ts})
    diagrams/
      ecom/ A1_access-pattern-matrix.mmd, A2_key-design-cheatsheet.mmd, ...
      feed/ B1_..., B2_..., ...
      shared/ C1_partition-bookshelf.png, C2_lsi-vs-gsi.mmd, ... C7_security-scope.mmd
    checklists/
      design-review.md, security-iam.md, observability-ops.md, ...
  styles/, overrides/, js/     # MkDocs Material branding & mermaid init
mkdocs.yml                      # Site configuration

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Work locally (MkDocs Material)

# 1) Install
pip install mkdocs mkdocs-material pymdown-extensions

# 2) Serve locally
mkdocs serve
# http://127.0.0.1:8000

# 3) Build static site (optional)
mkdocs build

Diagrams use Mermaid via MkDocs Material; no extra build step needed.
If you prefer PNGs for diagrams, export from the .mmd sources under docs/assets/diagrams/*.

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Using the samples & queries

• CSV/JSONL: load into your scripts/tests or use as mental models for item shapes and key design.
• queries.http: run with a client that supports AWS SigV4 (or translate to AWS CLI/SDK).
• Helpers: helpers.py / helpers.ts include small key/shard helpers you can reuse.

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Contributing

1. Fork and create a feature branch.
2. Keep access patterns and diagrams in sync with sample CSVs.
3. Prefer Mermaid for diagrams; place sources under docs/assets/diagrams/....
4. Run mkdocs serve and preview before opening a PR.

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License

Copyright © Wow Labz.
Docs and examples are provided for educational and internal enablement purposes.