Talking Kotlin kotlinx.rpc
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Aug 11, 2025 In this engaging conversation, Alex Sysoev from JetBrains, who leads the Kotlin XRPC project, dives into the innovative features of the Kotlin XRPC library. He and Sebastian discuss the nuances of implementing Remote Procedure Calls in Kotlin, comparing RPC and REST, and the need for fault-tolerant services. Alex highlights the library's integration with Ktor and existing gRPC definitions, as well as its ambition to enhance interoperability within various environments. They also touch on experimental technology and the collaborative spirit of the Kotlin community.
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kRPC Designed For Extensibility
- kRPC focuses on extensibility and full Kotlin multiplatform support rather than being a stable cross-language standard.
- Alex Sysoev notes kRPC could theoretically use diverse transports like Amazon SQS because of its abstraction.
Proto Files Are Source Of Truth
- For gRPC, .proto files remain the source of truth and generate the Kotlin interfaces you compile against.
- You can reuse the same .proto to generate code for Python, Kotlin, and other languages to stay polyglot.
Cleaner Kotlin Generation Than gRPC Java
- Google gRPC Java generates large, hard-to-read classes from small proto files, making navigation painful.
- kotlinx.rpc keeps Kotlin interfaces compact and shared for direct IDE navigation from client to server code.
