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Show HN: SQLite for Rivet Actors – one database per agent, tenant, or document
Hacker News · Feb 28, 2026 · Collected from RSS
Summary
Hey HN! We posted Rivet Actors here previously [1] as an open-source alternative to Cloudflare Durable Objects. Today we've released SQLite storage for actors (Apache 2.0). Every actor gets its own SQLite database. This means you can have millions of independent databases: one for each agent, tenant, user, or document. Useful for: - AI agents: per-agent DB for message history, state, embeddings - Multi-tenant SaaS: real per-tenant isolation, no RLS hacks - Collaborative documents: each document gets its own database with built-in multiplayer - Per-user databases: isolated, scales horizontally, runs at the edge The idea of splitting data per entity isn't new: Cassandra and DynamoDB use partition keys to scale horizontally, but you're stuck with rigid schemas ("single-table design" [3]), limited queries, and painful migrations. SQLite per entity gives you the same scalability without those tradeoffs [2]. How this compares: - Cloudflare Durable Objects & Agents: most similar to Rivet Actors with colocated SQLite and compute, but closed-source and vendor-locked - Turso Cloud: Great platform, but closed-source + diff use case. Clients query over the network, so reads are slow or stale. Rivet's single-writer actor model keeps reads local and fresh. - D1, Turso (the DB), Litestream, rqlite, LiteFS: great tools for running a single SQLite database with replication. Rivet is for running lots of isolated databases. Under the hood, SQLite runs in-process with each actor. A custom VFS persists writes to HA storage (FoundationDB or Postgres). Rivet Actors also provide realtime (WebSockets), React integration (useActor), horizontal scalability, and actors that sleep when idle. GitHub: https://github.com/rivet-dev/rivet Docs: https://www.rivet.dev/docs/actors/sqlite/ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42472519 [2] https://rivet.dev/blog/2025-02-16-sqlite-on-the-server-is-mi... [3] https://www.alexdebrie.com/posts/dynamodb-single-table/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.
Full Article
What is Rivet? Rivet Actors are a serverless primitive for stateful workloads. Each actor has built-in state, storage, workflows, scheduling, and WebSockets — everything needed to build the next generation of software. import { actor } from "rivetkit"; export const chatRoom = actor({ // In-memory state, persisted automatically state: { messages: [] }, // Type-safe RPC actions: { sendMessage: (c, user, text) => { c.state.messages.push({ user, text }); c.broadcast("newMessage", { user, text }); }, }, }); One Actor per agent, per session, per user — each with everything it needs built in. Built-In Features Every Rivet Actor comes with: Feature Description In-memory state Co-located with compute for instant reads and writes SQLite or JSON persistence Storage that survives restarts and deploys Runs indefinitely, sleeps when idle Long-lived when active, hibernates when idle Scales infinitely, scales to zero Supports bursty workloads, cost-efficient WebSockets Real-time bidirectional streaming built in Workflows Multi-step operations with automatic retries Queues Durable message queues for reliable async processing Scheduling Timers and cron jobs within your actor Use Cases Rivet is one primitive that adapts to agents, workflows, collaboration, and more. Use Case Description AI Agent Each agent runs as its own actor with persistent context and memory Sandbox Orchestration Coordinate sandbox sessions, queue work, and schedule cleanup Workflows Multi-step operations with automatic retries and durable state Collaborative Documents Real-time editing where each document is an actor Per-Tenant Database One actor per tenant with low-latency in-memory reads Chat One actor per room with in-memory state and realtime delivery Start Local. Scale to Millions. Three options, same API. Pick what works for you. Self-Host Single Rust binary or Docker container. Works with Postgres, file system, or FoundationDB. docker run -p 6420:6420 rivetkit/engine Self-hosting documentation → Rivet Cloud Fully managed. Global edge network. Connects to your existing cloud — Vercel, Railway, AWS, wherever you already deploy. Sign up → Open Source Apache 2.0. Audit the code, contribute features, run it however you want. View on GitHub → Getting Started 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
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