Series

Building with Actors

The actor model from first principles: where it came from, how it works, how Discord, LinkedIn and Halo run it in production, and how to build and test actor systems yourself.

Oct 26, 2026
Oct 26, 202615 min read8 views
The Actor Model: Why It Was Invented and How It Works
Fifty years ago, a few researchers proposed building programs out of things that share nothing and only send messages. Telephone switches, chat apps and game backends still run on that idea.
15 min read8 views
Oct 28, 2026
Oct 28, 202616 min read5 views
Actors in Production: How Discord, LinkedIn and Halo Use the Actor Model
Three companies, three runtimes, one idea: give every user, server or game its own actor, and let messages do the rest.
16 min read5 views

Posts in this series

The Actor Model: Why It Was Invented and How It Works

Actors in Production: How Discord, LinkedIn and Halo Use the Actor Model