# orbit/orbit

Orbit - Virtual actor framework for building distributed systems

Repository: https://github.com/orbit/orbit
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/orbit-orbit
Language: Kotlin
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: actors, actor-model, virtual-actors, java, orbit, distributed-systems, distributed-actors, jvm, kotlin, reactive, grains
Last push: 2021-06-15T14:48:30+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4178, "days_push": 1905, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1725, forks 173 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:28.069672+00:00)

## What it is
Orbit is a virtual actor framework for the JVM (Java/Kotlin) for building distributed systems, originally developed by Electronic Arts. It provides location-transparent, always-on virtual actors ('grains') that simplify stateful distributed application development.

## Use cases
- build a stateful distributed backend with virtual actors
- model game services with always-on actor grains
- implement location-transparent distributed state without manual placement
- replace manual actor lifecycle management in JVM microservices
- build reactive distributed systems on the JVM

## When to choose
- you need virtual actor semantics on the JVM with automatic activation and placement
- you want a simpler alternative to raw actor toolkits for stateful distributed services
- you are maintaining an existing Orbit-based system

## When to avoid
- you need a framework with active development and recent releases (last release was 2021)
- you need actors outside the JVM ecosystem
- you want a mainstream, widely supported actor framework like Akka

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: maintenance
- function: concurrency, microservices, rpc, middleware
- domain: microservices, backend, developer-tools
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: actor-model, virtual-actors, distributed-actors, reactive, grains

## Member repositories
- orbit/orbit (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:28.069672+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:33:52.247979+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/orbit/orbit (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:28.069672+00:00, sha 117344f0a573)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.