--- title: raft consensus, explained simply (then built in go) description: A walkthrough of the Raft consensus algorithm using a playground analogy, followed by a complete Go implementation called Hotaru — a replicated key-value... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-explained-simply-then-built-in-go--mjhwwgmlh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: raft consensus, explained simply (then built in go) | daily.dev og:description: A walkthrough of the Raft consensus algorithm using a playground analogy, followed by a complete Go implementation called Hotaru — a replicated key-value... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-explained-simply-then-built-in-go--mjhwwgmlh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mJHwwgMlH.png og:image:alt: raft consensus, explained simply (then built in go) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # raft consensus, explained simply (then built in go) **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 15 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A walkthrough of the Raft consensus algorithm using a playground analogy, followed by a complete Go implementation called Hotaru — a replicated key-value database. Covers all core Raft phases: election timeouts, leader election, heartbeats, log replication, log matching, commit safety, persistence, and state machine replication. Each concept is explained with an analogy (kids, captains, notebooks) then mapped to real Go code with struct names, RPC handlers, and paper section references. The post ends with a working demo of crash recovery and future work items like log compaction and linearizable reads. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Raft Consensus in 2,000 words](https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-in-2-000-words-nzjtwzq2e) · The PayEng Playbook · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Enough With All The Raft](https://daily.dev/posts/enough-with-all-the-raft-j8svqvxb4) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Navigating the Distributed Systems: My Takeaways from MIT 6.824](https://daily.dev/posts/navigating-the-distributed-systems-my-takeaways-from-mit-6-824-vl2kd2mpf) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#distributed-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/distributed-systems) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-explained-simply-then-built-in-go--mjhwwgmlh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"raft consensus, explained simply (then built in go)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-explained-simply-then-built-in-go--mjhwwgmlh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-explained-simply-then-built-in-go--mjhwwgmlh"},"datePublished":"2026-07-21T19:35:38.613Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T19:36:20.902Z","description":"A walkthrough of the Raft consensus algorithm using a playground analogy, followed by a complete Go implementation called Hotaru — a replicated key-value...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/raft-consensus-explained-simply-then-built-in-go--mjhwwgmlh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"golang,distributed-systems","timeRequired":"PT15M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"raft consensus, explained simply (then built in go)"}]} ```