Messaging Patterns

Actors communicate by exchanging messages. Proto.Actor supports several common patterns that build on this simple foundation.

• Send – fire and forget, the sender does not expect a reply.
• Ask Pattern – request–response using Request or RequestAsync.
• Envelope Pattern – batch multiple messages and acknowledge them as a unit.
• Routing – use Routers to distribute work across actors or forward messages.

The diagram below summarizes how messages can be routed and queued.

graph LR

message(MSG)
class message message
router(Router)
class router yellow
message2(MSG)
class message2 message
message3(MSG)
class message3 message
queue([Queue])
class queue queue

subgraph r[Router]
    router
end

message --> router

router ---> message2
router ---> message3
router ---> queue

protoactor docs