Apache Pekko is based on the latest version of Akka in the v2.6.x series. If migrating from an earlier version of Akka, please migrate to Akka 2.6 before migrating to Pekko.

Migration from Akka to Apache Pekko

These migration notes are designed for users migrating from Akka 2.6 to Pekko 1.0 and assume a basic level of Akka experience. Please feel free to submit an issue or a patch if you feel like the notes can be improved.

• for Pekko jar dependencies, the groupId is “org.apache.pekko” instead of “com.typesafe.akka”
• the jar names start with “pekko” instead of “akka” - e.g. pekko-actor_2.13.jar instead of akka-actor_2.13.jar
• Alpakka equivalent is “pekko-connectors” - e.g. pekko-connectors-kafka_2.13.jar instead of alpakka-kafka_2.13.jar
• Pekko packages start with “org.apache.pekko” instead of “akka” - e.g. import org.apache.pekko.actor instead of import akka.actor
• Where class names have “Akka” in the name, the Pekko ones have “Pekko” - e.g. PekkoException instead of AkkaException
• Config names use “pekko” prefix instead of “akka”, e.g. pekko.actor.provider instead of akka.actor.provider
• The Pekko node URLs use different URL schemes.
  • pekko:// instead of akka://
  • pekko.tcp:// instead of akka.tcp://
• We have changed the default ports used by the pekko-remote module.
  • With Classic Remoting, Akka defaults to 2552, while Pekko defaults to 7355.
  • With Artery Remoting, Akka defaults to 25520, while Pekko defaults to 17355.

Dependency Changes

• The Scala 2.13/Scala 3 versions of Pekko no longer include scala-java8-compat as a dependency. This means if you were relying on scala-java8-compat along with Scala 2.12/Scala 3 as a transitive dependency that it’s recommended to migrate to using scala.jdk instead. If this is not possible/desired then you can add scala-java8-compat as dependency yourself.
• In addition to the previous point, for Scala 2.12 scala-java8-compat has been updated to 1.0.2. If you are using an older binary incompatible version of scala-java8-compat then it is recommended to update to 1.0.2.
• For Scala 2.12 and 2.13 ssl-config has been updated to 0.6.1 in order to bring in bug/security fixes. Note that ssl-config 0.6.1 is binary and source compatible with 0.4.1.
• Pekko TestKit users will find that scalatest 3.2 is the default dependency version. Users with old Akka TestKit based tests may need to migrate some of their test code. The scalatest 3.2 release notes have a detailed description of the changes needed.
• Jackson is upgraded to 2.14.3.
• reactivestreams is upgraded to 1.0.4.
• pekko-protobuf-v3 is based on protobuf-java 3.16.3.

Miscellaneous Notes

Data persisted with “akka-persistence” is usable with “pekko-persistence” and vice versa (Persistence). There is one issue that is fixed in v1.0.3-M1 (related to persisted snapshots - for which there is a workaround).

Early releases of Apache Pekko could not be used to allow Akka and Pekko nodes to combine to form a cluster. The v1.0.3-M1 release has experimental support that we would appreciate users to try out in test environments (wiki page).