Learning path

The site has 200-ish pages. Most of them are reference; a much smaller subset is the learning material. This page maps three different paths depending on what you’re trying to do.

Path 1 — Just write code

For people who want to start coding in 30 minutes:

1. Quickstart — a working hello-actor in 5 minutes.
2. Actor — the base class + onReceive.
3. Messages — the discriminated-union convention.
4. Pattern matching — the match().exhaustive() idiom.
5. ActorSystem — how to spawn the actor.
6. Ask pattern — how to read replies.

After this you can write basic actors. Everything else can be read on demand as you encounter the need.

Path 2 — Understand the model first

For people who want the conceptual picture before writing code:

1. Why actors — the rationale.
2. ActorSystem — the container.
3. Actor — the entity.
4. Mailboxes + Dispatchers — what makes one-at-a-time work.
5. Supervision + Death watch — the “let it crash” philosophy.
6. Coordinated shutdown — how systems end gracefully.

After this you have the mental model. The rest of the docs fills in details.

Path 3 — Coming from another framework

For people migrating from elsewhere:

1. Migration overview — the cross-framework conceptual map.
2. The specific migration guide:
   • from-akka-jvm
   • from-pekko
   • from-orleans
   • from-akka-net
   • from-vanilla-ts
3. Quickstart to confirm the basic API matches expectations.
4. The fundamentals deep dives that map to what you already know — most concepts carry over.

After this you can translate your existing patterns. The framework’s conventions take a few weeks to internalize; the underlying model carries over from any actor framework.

What you don’t need to read

The docs cover everything that ships, but most of it is reference. You don’t need to read:

• Per-CRDT pages unless you’re using DistributedData.
• Per-broker pages unless you’re integrating that broker.
• Migration adapter detail unless you’re evolving schemas.
• Cluster tuning unless you’re hitting specific symptoms.

The FAQ + Glossary cover the “someone asked about X” cases. Reach for them when you have a specific question.

A reasonable reading order from “I know nothing”

If you’re brand new to actor frameworks:

1. Why actors — gets you bought in.
2. Quickstart — confirms the basics work.
3. Actor / Messages / Pattern matching — the core triple.
4. ActorSystem — how to set up.
5. Supervision — the differentiating concept.
6. Mailboxes / Dispatchers — the “how does this work” layer.
7. Sharding overview + Cluster overview — when you need distribution.
8. Persistence overview — when state should survive.

After ~3 hours of reading, you’ve covered the foundation. Everything else is built on these.

Where to next

• Quickstart — the 5-minute hello-actor.
• Fundamentals overview — the concept map.
• FAQ — quick answers.
• Glossary — term reference.