Solid Objects: Easiest reactive ERB there has ever been

rubyonrails-talk
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I’ve been building Solid Objects, a gem that brings Cloudflare’s Durable Objects programming model (addressable objects, durable state, serialized turns) to ordinary Rails applications. Just like Solid Queue, it runs on the MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite database the app already has. No Redis, no Cloudflare account, no separate actor service.

class Counter < SolidObjects::Actor
  attribute :value, default: 0

  def increment(amount: 1)
    self.value += amount
  end
end

counter = Counter.ref("global")
counter.increment(amount: 5)          # committed result, no worker fleet required
counter.async(:increment, amount: 5)  # durable enqueue, a worker runs it later

Counter / global is a logical identity, addressable from anywhere without first creating or locating a Ruby object. Solid Objects activates it when work arrives, commits its ordered turns one at a time, and deactivates it when idle. Synchronous calls need no worker fleet: the caller helps execute the actor through the same mailbox, lease, and fencing path a worker would use.

This is an early release and I’d love feedback. The feedback I’m most curious about right now: is the workerless synchronous path the right default for Rails apps? or would requiring a worker be less surprising?

Here are some docs if your curious: https://solidobjects.dev/

Thank you!