Will Akka’s new Component APIs become available?

[aqua-pro]

Hello!

I’m trying to understand the future of Akka's new high-level APIs like Event Sourced Entities, Key Value Entities, and Views.

docs: https://doc.akka.io/java/components/index.html

They look great, but I’m unclear on whether they’re going to be available under an Apache 2.0 license after 3 years because of the BSL, or if these APIs are part of a permanent vendor lock-in path.

In other words, will they eventually be available for open-source or are they tied to their platform cloud offerings?

If they will become open source, are there any plans to make them available on Pekko?

I’d appreciate any clarification or community insights.

Thanks!

[raboof]

I haven't looked too closely but I think the components you link to are indeed 'cloud platform' wrappers that we likely won't adopt in Pekko. In Pekko, you'd use the more low-level counterparts (respectively Event Sourcing, Durable State and Projections) 'directly'

[aqua-pro]

I'm not an expert, but I've looked into it and this new API seems to be bundled as part of something called the Akka SDK, but the term is confusingly used for both:

• A CLI tool for deploying to their cloud platform
• The new Entity API

I have no interest for the CLI, but I guess some people might like it. However, I think what's most impactful is the clean, productive new API for building stateful services, without getting entangled in licensing.

But it’s unclear to me how tightly the new APIs are coupled to the commercial side (e.g., are there validation hooks, license checks, or runtime-enforced dependencies?). The code is under BSL, so it's visible, but I don't really know where to look.

I would love to hear if there’s interest in prototyping a Pekko-native version of this idea - or if others have looked into how cleanly the API can be separated. Of course, all of this can only happen once it's under the Apache License in some time.

[pjfanning]

Apache Pekko is a volunteer project. If someone volunteers to do the work, it will take very careful review to ensure that they are not causing us legal trouble by copying code that is not yet Apache licensed.

The Akka SDK seems pretty new - so it will be more than 2 years before its license even changes.
I'm not an expert on this code but I think some of it comes from the Kalix project and that was Apache licensed. It may be feasible to start by looking at what from Kalix could be adapted to work with Pekko.

In the end of the day, I don't there is much point even spending time on this until we have people who really want it. And ideally, at least some of those people would be willing to help do the actual Pekko work.

[aqua-pro]

Thanks for the response!

I wasn't aware of Kalix before, but it does seem like the Akka SDK evolved from it. Do you know if parts of Kalix - or now the Akka SDK - depend on a closed-source server-side component? I’m concerned that without access to this part, the Akka SDK might just be a cloud wrapper, making it unusable on its own.

I really like the new API style - it makes Akka much more approachable for newcomers like me. But if we’d need to rebuild the backend from scratch just to use it, that defeats the purpose for me 😅

[pjfanning]

One option is to start with Akka. It is free in some cases. If you then later decide that you need to switch to Pekko, you would have a fair idea what blocks you from moving.