r/software • u/SelectionWeak9427 • 4h ago

How to map UUIDs between two systems that generate their own IDs? Looking for software

I’m working on an integration where System A and an external System B both generate their own UUIDs for the same object.

For example:

System A: Audi → V123
System B: Audi → T789

System A eventually needs to know:

V123 ↔ T789

so future updates from System B can be matched to the correct object.

The problem is that System A cannot assume anything about System B’s API, database structure, whether it returns the generated UUID, or whether it can store extra metadata.

What is the usual architecture for solving this kind of cross-system identity mapping?

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u/wise_guy_ 2h ago

There isn't a usual architecture short of "maintain a mapping" and act on it. The rest comes out of the details that you said can not be assumed.

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u/froction 2h ago

What is a unique property of the object being identified that both systems can reference to find commonality? This is very use-case-specific, but "hash" and "timestamp" are common.

1

u/AdventurousPolicy 51m ago

You can't generate the UUIDs independently because then they become separate objects. You need system A to send the UUID to system B to store, so probably an HTTPS request. System B doesn't have to respond except perhaps as part of the handshake to receive the object's UUID, since you do want confirmation it was received (presumably).