This post delves into the enhancements made to ksqlDB's interactive deployment mode in Confluent Cloud, focusing on maintaining the integrity of ksqlDB's internal state. In this mode, ksqlDB servers within a cluster share a common command topic, a Kafka topic that logs all data definition language (DDL) statements, ensuring every server executes the same commands and remains synchronized. The previous protocol faced issues with statement validation errors, often skipping statements which could lead to inconsistent metastore states. The new protocol treats the command topic as a log, utilizing Kafka transactions to ensure statements are never skipped and only committed transactions are processed. This guarantees consistent recreation of the metastore across server restarts and helps prevent conflicting statements by ensuring a single writer to the command topic at any given time. The integration of Kafka's transaction mechanism, using the ksql.service.id as the transactional.id, coordinates between servers and enhances reliability and scalability in cloud deployments. The post highlights the ongoing improvements and invites community contributions, indicating a commitment to evolving ksqlDB's capabilities in cloud environments.