Turn the hard parts of distributed systems into simple, swappable APIs — service calls, state, pub/sub, and more.

Welcome to Dapr: Building Blocks for Distributed Applications.

Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime) gives any application a set of building blocks for distributed systems — service invocation, state, pub/sub, bindings, secrets, actors, and workflows — through simple HTTP or gRPC APIs served by a sidecar. This free book teaches it from the ground up: the sidecar architecture and how Dapr runs self-hosted and on Kubernetes, the building-block and component model that lets you swap infrastructure without changing code, then each major building block in depth, plus actors and durable workflows, observability with tracing and metrics, security with automatic mTLS and access control, and operating Dapr in production. Ten focused chapters with real API examples and clear diagrams that show how to build portable, polyglot, decoupled microservices without re-inventing the plumbing.

This title is part of the ShriIra library and is free to read in full, right here — our small contribution to making world-class knowledge easy to reach.

A note on reading it: open the Contents menu at the top of the reader to jump between chapters, use the Aa menu to set a comfortable text size, theme (light, sepia, or night), and single- or two-page layout. Your place is saved automatically, so you can always pick up where you left off.

We hope it serves you well.

— Shriira Press

Contents

1. Chapter 1 — What Dapr Is
2. Chapter 2 — Architecture and the Sidecar Model
3. Chapter 3 — Building Blocks and Components
4. Chapter 4 — Service Invocation
5. Chapter 5 — State Management
6. Chapter 6 — Publish/Subscribe and Messaging
7. Chapter 7 — Bindings and Secrets
8. Chapter 8 — Actors and Workflows
9. Chapter 9 — Observability and Security
10. Chapter 10 — Operating Dapr and Putting It Together