I got tired of reading thousands of pages of documentation for distributed storage systems. All I wanted was to store files across a few servers reliably.

So I built MicroVault - a content-addressable blob store that you can actually understand.

*What it does:* - Stores blobs across N volume servers with replication - Uses nginx for serving (zero overhead on reads) - SQLite for metadata - Consistent hashing for distribution - Simple HTTP API

*What it doesn't do:* - Custom network protocols - Distributed consensus - Built-in auth/encryption (use standard tools) - Anything complex

*The architecture:* - Master server: coordinates writes, stores metadata in SQLite - Volume servers: nginx + tiny wrapper (~100 lines) for PUT/DELETE - Storage: regular files on disk, organized by hash prefix - Tools: rebuild, rebalance, verify, compact

*Why nginx?* Because it's been optimized for serving static files for decades. For reads (the majority of operations), it's pure nginx with zero overhead.

*Inspired by:* George Hotz's minikeyvalue - proof that distributed storage doesn't need to be complex.

The entire codebase is small enough to audit in an evening. You could fork it and make it your own in a weekend.

GitHub: https://github.com/afonp/microvault

Built with Go, SQLite, nginx, and a healthy disrespect for complexity.