A transaction request compliant with a first version of a journal schema of a multi-data-store storage system is received at a journal manager. The journal schema indicates attributes of data objects which may be materialized at various data stores of the system. The journal manager stores an entry in the system's journal if the transaction meets acceptance criteria. Writes indicated in the entry are materialized at the data stores after verifying that the entry is compliant with the journal schema. After verifying that member data stores have approved a proposed change to the journal schema, another entry indicating a different version of the journal schema is added to the journal. Client-side components of the system obtain the current version of the journal schema to prepare the transaction requests.