rivet

What is Rivet?

Rivet is an open-source platform for building stateful backends using Actors, long-lived processes that keep state in memory alongside compute. No more database round-trips for every request.

import { actor } from "rivetkit";

export const chatRoom = actor({
  // In-memory, persisted state
  state: { messages: [] },

  // Type-safe RPC
  actions: {
    sendMessage: (c, user, text) => {
      // High performance writes
      c.state.messages.push({ user, text });

      // Realtime built-in
      c.broadcast("newMessage", { user, text });
    },
  },
});

Each actor is like a tiny server with its own memory. Create millions of them (one per user, per document, per game session) and they scale automatically.

How It Works

RivetKit

The TypeScript library for building actors. Works with any backend framework.

npm install rivetkit

Run standalone for development, deploy to Cloudflare Workers, or connect to Rivet Engine for scale.

Rivet Engine

High-performance Rust orchestration layer for production scale. Handles actor lifecycle, state persistence, and multi-region distribution.

• Self-host with Docker or binaries
• Or use Rivet Cloud (managed)

You don't need Rivet Engine to get started. RivetKit runs standalone for development and simpler deployments. Add Rivet Engine when you need to scale.

Features

• Stateful Compute: State lives with compute for sub-millisecond reads/writes, no database queries
• Realtime Built-In: WebSocket events without extra infrastructure
• Hibernation: Actors sleep when idle and wake instantly with no cold starts
• Infinitely Scalable: Auto-scale from zero to millions of actors
• Fault Tolerant: Automatic failover with state integrity
• Type-Safe: End-to-end TypeScript types from actor to client
• Run Anywhere: Your infrastructure, your cloud, your rules

Getting Started

One-Click Templates

• Chat Room - Realtime messaging
• AI Agent - Stateful AI conversations
• Cursors - Collaborative cursors
• Scheduling - Async processing

View all templates →

Start From Scratch

• Node.js & Bun
• React
• Next.js
• Cloudflare Workers

View documentation →

Deploy Anywhere

Rivet Cloud

Deploy your backend anywhere, then connect to Rivet Cloud for actor orchestration: Vercel • Railway • Kubernetes • AWS ECS • Google Cloud Run • Hetzner • VM & Bare Metal

Self-Host Rivet Engine

# Docker
docker run -p 6420:6420 rivetkit/engine

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -o rivet-engine "https://releases.rivet.dev/rivet/latest/engine/rivet-engine-aarch64-apple-darwin" && chmod +x rivet-engine && ./rivet-engine start

# macOS (Intel)
curl -o rivet-engine "https://releases.rivet.dev/rivet/latest/engine/rivet-engine-x86_64-apple-darwin" && chmod +x rivet-engine && ./rivet-engine start

# Linux (x86)
curl -o rivet-engine "https://releases.rivet.dev/rivet/latest/engine/rivet-engine-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl" && chmod +x rivet-engine && ./rivet-engine start

Self-hosting documentation →

Integrations

Frameworks: Hono • Elysia • tRPC

Clients: JavaScript • React • Next.js

Request an integration →

Projects in This Repository

| Project | Description | |---------|-------------| | RivetKit TypeScript | Client & server library for building actors | | RivetKit Rust | Rust client (experimental) | | RivetKit Python | Python client (experimental) | | Rivet Engine | Rust orchestration engine | | ↳ Pegboard | Actor orchestrator & networking | | ↳ Gasoline | Durable execution engine | | ↳ Guard | Traffic routing proxy | | ↳ Epoxy | Multi-region KV store (EPaxos) | | Dashboard | Inspector for debugging actors | | Website | Source for rivet.dev | | Documentation | Source for rivet.dev/docs |

Community

• Discord - Chat with the community
• X/Twitter - Follow for updates
• Bluesky - Follow for updates
• GitHub Discussions - Ask questions
• GitHub Issues - Report bugs
• Talk to an engineer - Discuss your use case

License

Apache 2.0