Ascolt

Async runtime-agnostic actor framework

Features

• Clean type-safe syntax
• Async support
• Both unbounded and bounded channels supported
• Handler errors can trigger actor stop, forced stop, or restart (behavior is customizable)
• No heavy macros
• No unsafe code

Examples

let first_actor = FirstActor {};
let (first_actor_tx, first_actor_rx) = ascolt::bounded_channel(100);
let second_actor = SecondActor { first_actor_tx };
let (second_actor_tx, second_actor_rx) = ascolt::bounded_channel(100);

// if using tokio runtime
tokio::spawn(ascolt::run(actor, first_actor_rx));
tokio::spawn(ascolt::run(second_actor, second_actor_rx));

first_actor_tx.tell(SomeRequest { number: 3 })
    .await?; // fire-and-forget

let result = second_actor_tx
    .ask(SecondActorCalcRequest(10))
    .await?; // request-response

println!("Result: {}", result.0);

More examples located at examples directory.

What can be added

• Panic isolation
• Backpressure management
• Supervisor for controlling multiple actors
• Dependency graph (e.g., automatically shut down actors when the actors they depend on stop)
• Actor communication over the network

Alternatives

• Kameo
• Coerce
• Ractor
• Actix