Custom Snapshots in Rust

Golem agents can implement custom save_snapshot and load_snapshot functions to support manual (snapshot-based) updates and snapshot-based recovery. This is required when updating agents between incompatible component versions.

Enabling Snapshotting

Snapshotting must be enabled via the snapshotting attribute on #[agent_definition]. Without it, no snapshot exports are generated:

#[agent_definition(mount = "/counters/{name}", snapshotting = "every(1)")]
pub trait CounterAgent {
    fn new(name: String) -> Self;
 
    #[endpoint(post = "/increment")]
    fn increment(&mut self) -> u32;
}

Snapshotting Modes

The snapshotting attribute accepts these values:

Mode	Example	Description
`"disabled"`	(default when omitted)	No snapshotting
`"enabled"`	`snapshotting = "enabled"`	Enable snapshot support with the server's default policy. The server default is `disabled`, so this may have no effect. Use `"every(N)"` or `"periodic(…)"` to guarantee snapshotting is active.
`"every(N)"`	`snapshotting = "every(1)"`	Snapshot every N successful function calls (use `"every(1)"` for every invocation)
`"periodic(duration)"`	`snapshotting = "periodic(30s)"`	Snapshot at most once per time interval (uses `humantime` durations)

#[agent_definition(mount = "/periodic/{name}", snapshotting = "periodic(30s)")]
pub trait PeriodicAgent { ... }
 
#[agent_definition(mount = "/batch/{name}", snapshotting = "every(10)")]
pub trait BatchAgent { ... }

Automatic Snapshotting (Default)

If the agent's struct implements serde::Serialize and serde::de::DeserializeOwned, the SDK automatically provides JSON-based snapshotting — no custom code needed. The #[agent_implementation] macro detects Serialize/DeserializeOwned on the agent type and auto-generates snapshot handlers.

use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
use golem_rust::{agent_definition, agent_implementation, endpoint};
 
#[agent_definition(mount = "/counters/{name}", snapshotting = "every(1)")]
pub trait CounterAgent {
    fn new(name: String) -> Self;
 
    #[endpoint(post = "/increment")]
    fn increment(&mut self) -> u32;
}
 
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]  // This enables automatic snapshotting
struct CounterImpl {
    name: String,
    count: u32,
}
 
#[agent_implementation(mount = "/counters/{name}")]
impl CounterAgent for CounterImpl {
    fn new(name: String) -> Self {
        Self { name, count: 0 }
    }
 
    #[endpoint(post = "/increment")]
    fn increment(&mut self) -> u32 {
        self.count += 1;
        self.count
    }
    // No save_snapshot/load_snapshot needed — serde handles it automatically
}

Custom Snapshotting

For custom binary formats, compatibility with non-Rust components, or migration between different state schemas, implement both save_snapshot and load_snapshot on the agent implementation:

use golem_rust::{agent_definition, agent_implementation, endpoint};
 
#[agent_definition(mount = "/snapshot-counters/{name}", snapshotting = "every(1)")]
pub trait CounterWithSnapshotAgent {
    fn new(name: String) -> Self;
 
    #[endpoint(post = "/increment")]
    fn increment(&mut self) -> u32;
}
 
struct CounterImpl {
    _name: String,
    count: u32,
}
 
#[agent_implementation(mount = "/snapshot-counters/{name}")]
impl CounterWithSnapshotAgent for CounterImpl {
    fn new(name: String) -> Self {
        Self {
            _name: name,
            count: 0,
        }
    }
 
    #[endpoint(post = "/increment")]
    fn increment(&mut self) -> u32 {
        self.count += 1;
        log::info!("The new value is {}", self.count);
        self.count
    }
 
    async fn load_snapshot(&mut self, bytes: Vec<u8>) -> Result<(), String> {
        let arr: [u8; 4] = bytes
            .try_into()
            .map_err(|_| "Expected a 4-byte long snapshot")?;
        self.count = u32::from_be_bytes(arr);
        Ok(())
    }
 
    async fn save_snapshot(&self) -> Result<Vec<u8>, String> {
        Ok(self.count.to_be_bytes().to_vec())
    }
}

Rules

Both save_snapshot and load_snapshot must be implemented together, or neither. The macro enforces this at compile time.
When custom implementations are present, automatic serde-based snapshotting is bypassed.
save_snapshot returns Result<Vec<u8>, String> — the bytes are the snapshot payload.
load_snapshot receives Vec<u8> and returns Result<(), String> — it must restore the agent's state from the bytes.
Both methods are async — they can perform asynchronous operations during serialization/deserialization.
Returning Err from load_snapshot causes the update to fail and the agent reverts to the old version.

Method Signatures

// Save: serialize the agent's current state to bytes
async fn save_snapshot(&self) -> Result<Vec<u8>, String>
 
// Load: restore the agent's state from previously saved bytes
async fn load_snapshot(&mut self, bytes: Vec<u8>) -> Result<(), String>

Best Practices

Prefer automatic (serde) snapshotting unless you need a compact binary format or cross-version migration logic.
Keep snapshots small — large snapshots impact recovery and update time.
Version your snapshot format — include a version byte or tag so load_snapshot can handle snapshots from older versions.
Test round-trips — verify that save_snapshot → load_snapshot produces equivalent state.
Handle migration — when the state schema changes between versions, load_snapshot in the new version should be able to parse snapshots from the old version.

Project Template

A ready-made project with snapshotting can be created using:

golem new --language rust --template snapshotting my-project

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