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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.goakt.dev/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

This guide walks through the flow of creating an actor system, spawning an actor, and sending messages. For the full ActorSystem API and configuration, see Actor System.

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Flow

  1. Create an actor system with NewActorSystem and Start
  2. Spawn an actor with Spawn(ctx, name, actor) → receive a *PID
  3. Send messages with NoSender().Tell (fire-and-forget) or NoSender().Ask (request-response)
  4. Shutdown with Stop when the application exits

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Actor interface

Implement the Actor interface to define your actor. See Actor Model for the full interface and method explanations.

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Messaging from outside

From outside the actor system (e.g., main), use NoSender() to send:
  • Tell — Fire-and-forget. No response expected.
  • Ask — Request-response. Blocks until reply or timeout. The actor must call ctx.Response(resp) to complete the request.

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Replying from an actor

When handling a message sent via Ask, call ctx.Response(resp) exactly once. The caller receives that value. For Tell, no reply is expected.

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ReceiveContext

Inside Receive, ctx provides:
MethodPurpose
Message()The message being processed
Sender()PID of the sender (nil for scheduled or system messages)
Self()PID of the current actor
Tell(to, msg)Send fire-and-forget to another actor
Ask(to, msg, timeout)Send request-response
Response(resp)Reply to an Ask
Unhandled()Mark message as unhandled
For more examples, see the goakt-examples repository.