# back\_end\_actor

Using the TEA Party TApp as an example, the [party-actor](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/party-actor) compiles to the [actor](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/actor) that runs inside a [hosting\_cml](https://github.com/tearust/t-rust/blob/master/docs/_gitbook-dev-docs/z_glossary/hosting_cml.md).

Since it's an [actor](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/actor), it's loaded and runs inside the [enclave](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/enclave) (also called the [mini-runtime](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/mini-runtime)).

The only thing that the back-end actor does is handle incoming requests.

This back\_end\_actor is different than the [state\_machine\_actor](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/state_machine_actor) which run inside the enclaves of the [state machine replica](https://github.com/tearust/t-rust/blob/master/docs/_gitbook-dev-docs/z_glossary/state_machine_replica.md)s. Those [state machine actors](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/state_machine_actor) handle the [queries](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/queries) and [commands](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/commands) that directly interact with the [state machine](https://github.com/tearust/t-rust/blob/master/docs/_gitbook-dev-docs/z_glossary/state_machine.md). In traditional web 2.0 applications, these are usually called **Stored Procedures** that run inside the database server.