Implementation:Ray project Ray PyActorMethod

Knowledge Sources	Ray
Domains	Distributed_Computing, Java_API
Last Updated	2026-02-13 16:00 GMT

Overview

Descriptor class representing a method on a Python actor for cross-language invocation provided by the Ray Java API.

Description

PyActorMethod<R> is a generic immutable class that stores the name and return type of a Python actor method for use in cross-language method invocation from Java. It provides static of() factory methods that package the Python method name and optional return type class. Actor information is inferred from the actor handle, so it is not specified in this class.

Usage

Use this class when you need to invoke a method on a Python actor from Java code. It enables type-safe cross-language actor communication by pairing a method name with its expected return type.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: Ray
• File: java/api/src/main/java/io/ray/api/function/PyActorMethod.java

Signature

public class PyActorMethod<R> {
    public final String methodName;
    public final Class<R> returnType;
    public static PyActorMethod<Object> of(String methodName);
    public static <R> PyActorMethod<R> of(String methodName, Class<R> returnType);
}

Import

import io.ray.api.function.PyActorMethod;

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
methodName	String	Yes	The name of the Python actor method to invoke
returnType	Class<R>	No	The expected return type class (defaults to Object.class)

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
pyActorMethod	PyActorMethod<R>	An immutable descriptor for the Python actor method

Usage Examples

// Given a Python actor class:
// @ray.remote
// class A(object):
//     def foo(self):
//         return "Hello world!"

// Get a handle to the Python actor
PyActorHandle actor = ...; // returned from Ray.createActor or passed from Python

// Call the actor method with a typed return
ObjectRef<String> res = actor.call(PyActorMethod.of("foo", String.class));
String result = res.get();

// Call with default Object return type
ObjectRef<Object> res2 = actor.call(PyActorMethod.of("bar"));

Related Pages

• Environment:Ray_project_Ray_Java_Build_Environment