Launch HN: Rivet orchestrates agents as S3-backed actors, 72KB vs 512MB sandboxes
NathanFlurry · hn · 2026-11-06
Rivet (YC W23) launched an open-source, self-hostable orchestrator for agentic workloads on Hacker News, replacing per-agent heavyweight sandboxes with lightweight actors backed by S3.
Key points:
- Each agent is an actor offering a long-lived process, in-memory context, WebSocket multiplayer support, durable SQLite storage on S3, and idle hibernation
- The team built high-throughput multiplayer game infrastructure (tens of millions of MAU) before pivoting to agents
- Measured numbers: 72 KB baseline memory per actor vs 512 MB for a minimal sandbox; 4.9 ms p99 startup vs 1.7 s
- Positioned as an open alternative to Cloudflare Durable Objects; Amp migrated from Durable Objects over a weekend and now uses Rivet to orchestrate multiplayer agents
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