Enterprise Integration Patterns in .NET, the deep-dive series — Part 1: the four in-memory channels (and the Exchange they carry)

The earlier posts were the tour: what redb.Route is, an Apache Camel-style ESB for .NET — a fluent C# integration DSL with 22 connector projects (~30 URI schemes once you count the https/wss/es variants), ~30 Enterprise Integration Patterns implemented natively across 41 processors, 8 in-process components, a compiled expression engine, and a pluggable marshal/unmarshal layer. Enough touring.

This starts a deep-dive series — one piece at a time, the actual DSL, the actual semantics, the gotchas that bite you the first time. Not a feature list. A working manual. The series runs on four parallel tracks; you can follow whichever maps to the problem in front of you.

Track A — the in-process foundation (8 components)

The wires and the message model everything else stands on. Small surface, deep behavior.

The four channels + the Exchange — direct, direct-vm, seda, vm, and the object they carry. (this post — the foundation)