Envelope Structure#

Envelope: Structured JSON object transmitted through message queues (RabbitMQ, SQS), containing routing information and application data.

Payload: Application-specific data within envelope, processed by actors.

{
  "id": "unique-message-id",
  "parent_id": "original-message-id",
  "route": {
    "prev": ["prep"],
    "curr": "infer",
    "next": ["post"]
  },
  "headers": {
    "trace_id": "abc-123",
    "priority": "high"
  },
  "status": {
    "phase": "pending",
    "actor": "infer",
    "attempt": 1,
    "max_attempts": 1,
    "created_at": "2025-11-18T12:00:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-18T12:00:00Z",
    "deadline_at": "2025-11-18T12:05:00Z"
  },
  "payload": {
    "text": "Hello world"
  }
}

Fields:

• id (required): Unique envelope identifier
• parent_id (optional): Parent envelope ID for fanout children (see Fan-Out section)
• route (required): Actor routing state
• prev: Actors that have already processed the envelope (read-only, maintained by runtime)
• curr: The actor currently processing the envelope (read-only, set by runtime)
• next: Actors yet to process the envelope (modifiable via ABI)
• status (optional): Envelope lifecycle status, stamped by gateway on creation
• phase: Current lifecycle phase (pending, processing, retrying, succeeded, failed, paused, canceled)
• actor: Actor that last updated the status
• deadline_at: Absolute deadline in RFC3339 UTC (omitted if no timeout configured)
• payload (required): User data processed by actors
• headers (optional): Routing metadata (trace IDs, priorities)

Sidecar-Managed Headers#

These headers are automatically managed by the sidecar and should not be overwritten by user handlers:

Queue Naming Convention#

All actor queues follow pattern: asya-{namespace}-{actor_name}

Examples: Namespace: example-ecommerce - Actor text-analyzer → Queue asya-example-ecommerce-text-analyzer - Actor image-processor → Queue asya-example-ecommerce-image-processor - System actors: asya-{namespace}-x-sink, asya-{namespace}-x-sump

Benefits:

• Fine-grained IAM policies: arn:aws:sqs:*:*:asya-*
• Clear namespace separation
• Automated queue management by operator

Envelope Acknowledgment#

Ack: Envelope processed successfully, remove from queue - Runtime returns valid response - Sidecar routes to next actor or end queue

Nack: Envelope processing failed in sidecar, requeue - Sidecar crashes before processing - Queue automatically sends to DLQ after max retries

End Queues#

x-sink: First layer of termination. Receives ALL terminal envelopes — both succeeded and failed. Routed by sidecar when route is exhausted (success), when SLA expires, or when resiliency policy is exhausted (failure). Reports final status to gateway, dispatches to hooks.

x-sump: Second layer of termination (final terminal). Receives envelopes from x-sink after hook processing. Emits metrics and logs errors. Never reached directly from regular actor sidecars.

Important: Do not include x-sink or x-sump in route configurations - managed by sidecar.

Response Patterns#

Single Response#

Runtime returns mutated payload:

{"processed": true, "timestamp": "2025-11-18T12:00:00Z"}

Action: Sidecar creates envelope → Runtime shifts route (prev grows, curr advances) → Routes to next actor

Fan-Out (Generator/Yield)#

Handlers use yield to produce multiple outputs. Each yield sends a frame immediately to the sidecar over the Unix socket, and the sidecar creates a separate message for routing.

async def process(payload):
    for item in payload["items"]:
        yield {"processed": item}

Action: Sidecar reads each yielded frame and routes it as a separate envelope to the next actor.

Fanout ID semantics:

• First yielded envelope retains original ID (for SSE streaming compatibility)
• Subsequent yielded envelopes receive UUID4 IDs (globally unique, no collision across concurrent fan-outs)
• All fanout children (index > 0) have parent_id set to original envelope ID

Example: Envelope abc-123 yields 3 items:

• Index 0: id="abc-123", parent_id=null (original ID preserved)
• Index 1: id="550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000", parent_id="abc-123" (fanout child, UUID4)
• Index 2: id="7c9e6679-7425-40de-944b-e07fc1f90ae7", parent_id="abc-123" (fanout child, UUID4)

Note: Returning a list from a handler does NOT trigger fan-out. A returned list is treated as a single payload value.

Empty Response#

Runtime returns None (null):

Action: Sidecar routes envelope to x-sink (no increment)

Error Response#

Runtime returns error object:

{
  "error": "processing_error",
  "message": "Invalid input format"
}

Action: Sidecar applies resiliency policy: retries if configured, or routes to x-sink (phase: failed) if exhausted/non-retryable

Payload Enrichment Pattern#

Recommended: Actors append results to payload instead of replacing it.

Example pipeline: ["data-loader", "recipe-generator", "llm-judge"]

// Input to data-loader
{"product_id": "123"}

// Output of data-loader → Input to recipe-generator
{
  "product_id": "123",
  "product_name": "Ice-cream Bourgignon"
}

// Output of recipe-generator → Input to llm-judge
{
  "product_id": "123",
  "product_name": "Ice-cream Bourgignon",
  "recipe": "Cook ice-cream in tomato sauce for 3 hours"
}

// Output of llm-judge → Final result
{
  "product_id": "123",
  "product_name": "Ice-cream Bourgignon",
  "recipe": "Cook ice-cream in tomato sauce for 3 hours",
  "recipe_eval": "INVALID",
  "recipe_eval_details": "Recipe is nonsense"
}

Benefits:

• Better actor decoupling - each actor only needs specific fields
• Full traceability - complete processing history in final payload
• Routing flexibility - later actors can access earlier results
• Monotonic computation - much easier to reason about and integrate with

Task Status Tracking#

When gateway is enabled, tasks have lifecycle statuses tracked throughout processing:

Status Values#

Progress Reporting#

Sidecars report progress to gateway at three points per actor:

1. Received (received):

• Envelope pulled from queue
• Before forwarding to runtime

2. Processing (processing):

• Envelope sent to runtime via Unix socket
• Runtime is executing handler

3. Completed (completed):

• Runtime returned successful response
• Before routing to next actor

Progress calculation:

progress_percent = (len(prev) + 1) / (len(prev) + 1 + len(next)) * 100

Example: Route starting as {prev: [], curr: "prep", next: ["infer", "post"]} - Actor prep completed → 33% - Actor infer completed → 66% - Actor post completed → 100% (final status from x-sink)

Progress Update Flow#

Sidecar                    Gateway                    Client
-------                    -------                    ------
1. Receive from queue
   └─> POST /mesh/{id}/progress
       {status: "received", current_actor_idx: 0}
                           └─> Update DB: running
                           └─> SSE: progress 10%

2. Send to runtime
   └─> POST /mesh/{id}/progress
       {status: "processing", current_actor_idx: 0}
                           └─> SSE: progress 15%

3. Runtime returns
   └─> POST /mesh/{id}/progress
       {status: "completed", current_actor_idx: 0}
                           └─> SSE: progress 33%

4. Route to next actor...

Final Status Reporting#

Success path:

Actor N completes → Sidecar routes to x-sink
  → x-sink persists to S3
  → x-sink reports: POST /mesh/{id}/final
     {status: "succeeded", result: {...}}
  → Gateway updates: status=succeeded, progress=100%
  → SSE: final success event

Error path:

Runtime error → Sidecar retries per resiliency policy
  → If exhausted/non-retryable → Sidecar routes to x-sink (phase: failed)
  → x-sink reports: POST /mesh/{id}/final
     {status: "failed", error: "..."}
  → x-sink dispatches to hooks → x-sump (final terminal)
  → Gateway updates: status=failed
  → SSE: final error event

Design Principles#

• Small payloads: Use object storage (S3, MinIO) for large data, pass references
• Clear names: Use descriptive actor names (preprocess-text not actor1)
• Monitor errors: Alert on x-sump queue depth
• Version schema: Include version in payload for breaking changes