Show HN: ActorCore – Stateful serverless framework that runs anywhere https://ift.tt/xWyphoX

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Show HN: ActorCore – Stateful serverless framework that runs anywhere TL;DR: ActorCore is a stateful serverless framework that can be deployed to Rivet, Cloudflare, Bun, Node.js and more. It's the easiest way to build stateful, AI agent, collaborative, or local-first applications. Hey HN! A few months ago we launched Rivet Actors ( https://ift.tt/Ybxigwp ) as an open-source alternative to Cloudflare Durable Objects. Shortly after launching, we realized our goal is not to win over existing Durable Objects developers, but rather to grow the stateful serverless ecosystem. For context – "stateful serverless" is effectively the actor model with persistent state attached. Think Lambda functions with local storage & runs indefinitely. It's a a technology that’s gaining traction to ship faster, achieve higher performance, and outscale Postgres. The most widely used implementation is Cloudflare Durable Objects. In the process of talking to developers, we kept hearing three common concerns: - Vendor lock-in: Developers are hesitant to adopt a new programming model if there's no clear off-ramp. While it's straightforward to migrate a Postgres database, stateful serverless platforms like Rivet Actors or Durable Objects can feel locked-in due to lack of viable alternatives. - Ecosystem: Choosing a well-known database like Postgres comes with a mature ecosystem. Adopting a new model means rebuilding tooling and patterns from scratch. - Conceptual gap: Many developers have spent their entire careers designing systems with intentionally separated state and compute. A model that merges the two can feel backwards at first. After hearing these concerns again and again, we came to the conclusion that the best solution was to build a framework that works with as many platforms as possible to reduce lock-in (concern #1) and grow a shared ecosystem of tools (concern #2). It turns out, we already had a battle-tested framework built on top of Rivet Actors that we’ve been using for years. (It has a long, funky history beyond Rivet in gaming I won't get into here.) Thus, we split out the framework in to a new repo, added support for four platforms (easier said than done), and called it ActorCore. It gives developers multiple platforms to choose from when adopting stateful serverless and creates a foundation for a broader, cross-platform ecosystem. However, this still leaves concern #3: the conceptual gap. While this isn't something we can solve with a framework, I personally spend ~40% of my time working on docs, content, and examples to help resolve this. ActorCore is also panning out to be community-driven as hoped, which enables more people to try and share their experience with stateful serverless. Give ActorCore a try, read the roadmap, and let us know where we can improve documentation. If you're hesitant about trying stateful serverless, I'd love to learn more in the comments. Consider giving us a star on GitHub: https://ift.tt/SaLEBl8 https://ift.tt/yUbJWOs April 14, 2025 at 08:27PM