Infrastructure for the Agentic Era: Introducing Rivet

Overview

Rivet is a comprehensive infrastructure solution designed for the "agentic era," providing the necessary tools to build, debug, and scale software agents and actors. It offers a unified approach that allows developers to give their coding agents a durable home while maintaining flexibility across different deployment environments.

Core Philosophy: Four Products, One Primitive

At its heart, Rivet is built on a single primitive that powers four distinct products:1.Actors: Providing long-lived software with a durable home.2.agentOS: An operating system layer for agents.3.Workflows: Managing complex agent interactions.4.Dynamic Apps: Enabling flexible application structures.

Built-In Observability

Rivet integrates deep observability features directly into the development and production lifecycle, ensuring that debugging and monitoring are seamless from local development to global scale.

Key Observability Features:

• SQLite Viewer: Allows developers to browse and query SQLite databases in real-time across actors and agent sessions.
• Workflow State: Provides visibility into workflow progress, individual steps, and retry mechanisms as they execute.
• Event Monitoring: Tracks every state change, action, and agent event in real-time.
• REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop): Enables direct interaction with code by calling actions, subscribing to events, and debugging actor and agent sessions.

Compatibility and Flexibility

Rivet is designed to work seamlessly with existing technology stacks, requiring no custom runtime or code rewrites.

Supported Environments:

• Frameworks: Compatible with standard frameworks.
• Runtimes: Supports Node.js, Bun, and Deno.
• Tools & Integrations: Extensible to various tools and third-party integrations.

Deployment Options: From Local to Global

Rivet offers a flexible deployment model that scales from a simple library to a fully managed platform.

1. Just a Library (Local Development)

For local development, Rivet functions as a lightweight library. Developers can install the package and run actors directly within their process without needing external servers or infrastructure.-Installation:npm install rivetkit-Benefit: No servers or infrastructure required; actors run in the local process.

2. Rivet Cloud (Managed Production)

For production needs, Rivet Cloud provides a fully managed solution for Actors and agentOS deployed on a global edge network. It integrates with existing cloud providers.-Compatibility: Connects seamlessly with Vercel, Railway, AWS, and other major cloud platforms.-Benefit: Scalable infrastructure that connects to your existing cloud environment.

3. Self-Hosted (Enterprise Control)

For organizations requiring full control over their infrastructure, Rivet offers a self-hosted option.-Deployment: Available as a single Rust binary or a Docker container.-Storage Backends: Supports Postgres, file system, or FoundationDB (for enterprise needs).-Features: Includes a full dashboard for management.-Installation Example:docker run -p 6420:6420 rivetdev/engine

Run It Where Your Data Lives

A unique selling point of Rivet is its ability to deploy within specific network perimeters, ensuring data sovereignty and compliance.

Deployment Scenarios:

• Your VPC: Deploy Rivet inside your Virtual Private Cloud.
• Customer VPC: Deploy within your customer's VPC for multi-tenant environments.
• Air-Gapped Environments: Fully air-gapped deployment options for high-security requirements.

Architecture Breakdown:

• Actors: Run within your Node.js or Bun process.
• Rivet Control Plane: A single binary responsible for orchestration and routing.
• Storage: Flexible integration with File System, Postgres, or FoundationDB.

Conclusion

Rivet represents a shift in infrastructure design, moving from static backends to dynamic, agent-centric architectures. By offering a library for local development, a cloud platform for scale, and self-hosted options for control, Rivet ensures that developers can build with agents, build for agents, and run their infrastructure exactly where their data lives. Whether you are starting with a simplenpm installor deploying a complex, air-gapped enterprise solution, Rivet provides the durable foundation needed for the agentic era.