akka-net-best-practices

1# Akka.NET Best Practices
2 
3## When to Use This Skill
4 
5Use this skill when:
6- Designing actor communication patterns
7- Deciding between EventStream and DistributedPubSub
8- Implementing error handling in actors
9- Understanding supervision strategies
10- Choosing between Props patterns and DependencyResolver
11- Designing work distribution across nodes
12- Creating testable actor systems that can run with or without cluster infrastructure
13- Abstracting over Cluster Sharding for local testing scenarios
14 
15## Reference Files
16 
17- [work-distribution-patterns.md](work-distribution-patterns.md): Database queues, Akka.Streams throttling, outbox pattern
18- [cluster-local-abstractions.md](cluster-local-abstractions.md): GenericChildPerEntityParent, IPubSubMediator, execution mode wiring
19- [async-cancellation-patterns.md](async-cancellation-patterns.md): Actor-scoped CancellationToken, linked CTS, timeout handling
20 
21---
22 
23## 1. EventStream vs DistributedPubSub
24 
25### Critical: EventStream is LOCAL ONLY
26 
27`Context.System.EventStream` is **local to a single ActorSystem process**. It does NOT work across cluster nodes.
28 
29```csharp
30// BAD: This only works on a single server
31// When you add a second server, subscribers on server 2 won't receive events from server 1
32Context.System.EventStream.Subscribe(Self, typeof(PostCreated));
33Context.System.EventStream.Publish(new PostCreated(postId, authorId));
34```
35 
36**When EventStream is appropriate:**
37- Logging and diagnostics within a single process
38…