--- /dev/null
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2015 Cisco Systems, Inc. and others. All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
+ * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution,
+ * and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+ */
+package org.opendaylight.controller.md.sal.dom.api;
+
+import java.util.EventListener;
+import javax.annotation.Nonnull;
+
+/**
+ * A single shard of the conceptual data tree. This interface defines the basic notifications
+ * a shard can receive. Each shard implementation is expected to also implement some of the
+ * datastore-level APIs. Which interfaces are required depends on the {@link DOMDataTreeShardingService}
+ * implementation.
+ */
+public interface DOMDataTreeShard extends EventListener {
+ /**
+ * Invoked whenever a child is getting attached as a more specific prefix under this shard.
+ *
+ * @param prefix Child's prefix
+ * @param child Child shard
+ */
+ void onChildAttached(@Nonnull DOMDataTreeIdentifier prefix, @Nonnull DOMDataTreeShard child);
+
+ /**
+ * Invoked whenever a child is getting detached as a more specific prefix under this shard.
+ *
+ * @param prefix Child's prefix
+ * @param child Child shard
+ */
+ void onChildDetached(@Nonnull DOMDataTreeIdentifier prefix, @Nonnull DOMDataTreeShard child);
+}