Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for managing a data store. During operation, the system stores a set of pending updates to a data store in a registry. Next, the system executes an asynchronous process that applies a first subset of updates from the registry as writes to records in the data store without blocking processing of read queries of the data store. Upon completing a write by the asynchronous process at a second portion of the data store, the system updates the registry with an indication of the completed write at the second portion of the data store. During processing of a read query of the data store, the system applies a second subset of updates from the registry to a result of the read query. Finally, the system returns the result in a response to the read query.