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Actor Patterns

Common patterns right after your first Actor: named actors, resolve, and when to use ask vs tell.

Named actors and resolve

Give an actor a name so other code can find it with resolve (same process or across the cluster):

import pulsing as pul

@pul.remote
class Worker:
    def process(self, data: str) -> str:
        return f"processed: {data}"

async def main():
    await pul.init()
    # Spawn with a name — discoverable via resolve
    await Worker.spawn(name="worker")
    # Later (or on another node): get a proxy by name
    worker = await Worker.resolve("worker")
    result = await worker.process("hello")
    await pul.shutdown()

Anonymous actors (no name=) are only reachable via the ActorRef returned by spawn().

Ask vs tell

Pattern Method Use when
Request–response await ref.ask(msg) or await proxy.method() You need a return value.
Fire-and-forget await ref.tell(msg) You don't need a reply; best-effort delivery.

For typed proxies, method calls are like ask (they return the result). Use tell when you have an ActorRef and want to send without waiting.

Next steps