Akka Hosting Actor Patterns

This is a solid architectural pattern for building Akka.NET entity actors that work identically in unit tests and production. The key insight is using GenericChildPerEntityParent to mimic cluster sharding semantics locally, so you write your actor once and swap execution modes via configuration. The message extractor pattern keeps routing logic consistent whether you're running locally or in a real cluster. The Akka.Hosting extension methods are clean and the ITimeProvider abstraction solves the DateTime.Now testing problem elegantly. If you're building domain entities with Akka and tired of maintaining separate test and production actor setups, this pattern saves real work.

skills.sh installs: 434
GitHub stars: 1.3K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add aaronontheweb/dotnet-skills --skill akka-hosting-actor-patterns --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Akka.Hosting Actor Patterns

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

Building entity actors that represent domain objects (users, orders, invoices, etc.)
Need actors that work in both unit tests (no clustering) and production (cluster sharding)
Setting up scheduled tasks with akka-reminders
Registering actors with Akka.Hosting extension methods
Creating reusable actor configuration patterns

Core Principles

Execution Mode Abstraction - Same actor code runs locally (tests) or clustered (production)
GenericChildPerEntityParent for Local - Mimics sharding semantics without cluster overhead
Message Extractors for Routing - Reuse Akka.Cluster.Sharding's IMessageExtractor interface
Akka.Hosting Extension Methods - Fluent configuration that composes well
ITimeProvider for Testability - Use ActorSystem.Scheduler instead of DateTime.Now