filtered replication and accessing data dynamically

[Timothy McKernan <ti...@gmail.com>]

I have the following environment:
 - lots of couchdb servers (~100),
 - several databases are using filtered replication,
 - the majority of data goes from one "hub" server to the rest,
 - some data is incoming from the spokes into the hub.

I have the following problem:
 - the filters need to inspect metadata about the spokes to determine
whether or not to send data,
 - the metadata (company name, type of office (hq, regional offices), etc)
is stored in a dedicated database,
 - I want the filters to lookup the metadata dynamically.

Is there a way for my filter functions to query another couchdb database?
Or is there a way to cache this data for the filter function to read from?
Or is there another way of going about this?

-Tim