Tutorials

Get started with Akka

The fastest way to start building with Akka is to install the Akka plugin and run a specification. No Java or Maven setup required — the plugin handles everything.

Step 1: Install the Akka plugin

In Claude Code, install the Akka plugin from the AI Marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add akka/ai-marketplace
/plugin install akka@ai-marketplace
/reload-plugins

If you are unable to add the marketplace, clone the Akka plugin repository and add it as a local marketplace instead:

git clone https://github.com/akka/ai-marketplace.git

Then in Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add /path/to/ai-marketplace
/plugin install akka@ai-marketplace
/reload-plugins

Not using Claude Code? Akka supports 30 different AI assist tools. See Spec-Driven Development for plugin installation instructions for your tool.

No plugin capability for your AI assist?

If your AI assist tool does not support plugins, install the Akka CLI instead and use akka specify init <dir> to provision a new project. See Spec-Driven Development for full instructions.

Step 2: Set up your environment

/akka:setup

This ensures the Akka CLI is installed, Java and Maven are available, and your Akka download token is properly configured.

Step 3: Run your first specification

/akka.specify hello-world - A simple greeting agent that responds in different languages and remembers which languages it has used.

Akka will start building a specification and then guide you on which next steps you need to execute to build an implementation plan, execute implementation steps, build the service, and test it. See Spec-Driven Development for the full SDD workflow.

Spec-driven tutorials

These tutorials walk you through all of the Spec-Driven Development commands — from writing a specification through clarification, planning, implementation, and build. You use your AI assist to drive the entire workflow.

Tutorial	Level
Spec-first greeting Agent — Build an Agent using all SDD commands end-to-end	Beginner

Tutorial

Level

Spec-first greeting Agent — Build an Agent using all SDD commands end-to-end

Beginner

Code-driven tutorials

These tutorials walk you step by step through building Akka systems by writing Java code. They are ideal for understanding how Akka components work under the hood.

Build your first Agent

Tutorial	Level
Hello world Agent — Build an Agent by hand in Java	Beginner

Tutorial

Level

Hello world Agent — Build an Agent by hand in Java

Beginner

Build a multi-agent system

Add Agents and other components step-by-step. The final application consists of dynamic orchestration of multiple Agents. A Workflow manages the user query process, handling the sequential steps of Agent selection, plan creation, execution, and summarization.

Tutorial	Level
Part 1: Activity Agent — An Agent (with session memory) that suggests real-world activities using an LLM.	Beginner
Part 2: User preferences — An Entity (long-term memory) to personalize the suggestions.	Beginner
Part 3: Weather Agent — A weather forecasting Agent that uses an external service as an Agent tool.	Beginner
Part 4: Orchestrate the Agents — A Workflow that coordinates long-running calls across the Agents.	Intermediate
Part 5: List by user — A View that creates a read-only projection (i.e. a query) of all activity suggestions for a user.	Beginner
Part 6: Dynamic orchestration — An Agent that creates a dynamic plan using an LLM, and a Workflow that executes the plan.	Advanced
Part 7: Evaluation on changes — A Consumer that streams user preference changes to trigger an Agent.	Intermediate

Tutorial

Level

Part 1: Activity Agent — An Agent (with session memory) that suggests real-world activities using an LLM.

Beginner

Part 2: User preferences — An Entity (long-term memory) to personalize the suggestions.

Beginner

Part 3: Weather Agent — A weather forecasting Agent that uses an external service as an Agent tool.

Beginner

Part 4: Orchestrate the Agents — A Workflow that coordinates long-running calls across the Agents.

Intermediate

Part 5: List by user — A View that creates a read-only projection (i.e. a query) of all activity suggestions for a user.

Beginner

Part 6: Dynamic orchestration — An Agent that creates a dynamic plan using an LLM, and a Workflow that executes the plan.

Advanced

Part 7: Evaluation on changes — A Consumer that streams user preference changes to trigger an Agent.

Intermediate

Build an AI RAG Agent

Learn how to implement a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline with Akka. This series covers end-to-end design of a multi-agent system that performs LLM-assisted reasoning, indexing, and live querying.

Tutorial	Level
Part 1: The Agent	Beginner
Part 2: Build a Workflow that indexes knowledge using semantic embeddings	Intermediate
Part 3: Executing RAG queries	Intermediate
Part 4: Adding UI Endpoints	Advanced

Tutorial

Level

Part 1: The Agent

Beginner

Part 2: Build a Workflow that indexes knowledge using semantic embeddings

Intermediate

Part 3: Executing RAG queries

Intermediate

Part 4: Adding UI Endpoints

Advanced

Build a shopping cart system

Explore a complete e-commerce service and learn key Akka concepts by implementing a real-world system. These lessons walk you through defining Entities, handling state, processing commands, and responding to user-specific queries.

Tutorial	Level
Part 1: Build a basic shopping cart with persistent state and command handling	Beginner
Part 2: Add user-specific lookup with JWT-based authentication	Intermediate

Tutorial

Level

Part 1: Build a basic shopping cart with persistent state and command handling

Beginner

Part 2: Add user-specific lookup with JWT-based authentication

Intermediate

Explore sample applications

These runnable code samples showcase common patterns and advanced architectures built with Akka. They are designed for exploration and reference rather than step-by-step instruction.