Designing Multi Region Applications

---
name: designing-multi-region-applications
description: Guides developers in selecting and implementing multi-region patterns for CockroachDB applications, covering active-passive vs active-active architectures, REGIONAL BY ROW, GLOBAL tables, manual geo-partitioning with lease preferences, and live demo setup with validation queries. Use when designing multi-region database topologies, choosing between REGIONAL BY ROW and manual partitioning, building multi-region demos, or optimizing cross-region latency.
compatibility: "CockroachDB >= 22.1 with multi-region licensed features. Requires a multi-region cluster or cockroach demo with locality flags."
metadata:
  author: cockroachdb
  version: "1.0"
---

# Designing Multi-Region Applications

Guides developers through selecting the right multi-region pattern for their CockroachDB application and implementing it with proper validation. Covers the decision model for choosing between regular regional tables, `REGIONAL BY ROW`, `GLOBAL` tables, and manual geo-partitioning, plus a hands-on demo framework for comparing approaches.

**Complement to other skills:** For transaction design patterns, see [designing-application-transactions](../designing-application-transactions/SKILL.md). For SQL syntax and schema design, see [cockroachdb-sql](../../cockroachdb-query-and-schema-design/cockroachdb-sql/SKILL.md).

## When to Use This Skill

- Deciding how to model multi-region read/write behavior in CockroachDB
- Choosing between active-active and active-passive architectures
- Evaluating `REGIONAL BY ROW` vs manual geo-partitioning
- Understanding `GLOBAL` table behavior and trade-offs
- Designing for local reads and writes in multiple regions
- Building or presenting a multi-region demo or workshop
- Validating leaseholder placement and zone configurations
- Optimizing cross-region transaction latency