> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://dev.teaproject.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/back_end_actor.md).

# back\_end\_actor

Using the TEA Party TApp as an example, the [party-actor](/z_glossary/party-actor.md) compiles to the [actor](/z_glossary/actor.md) 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](/z_glossary/actor.md), it's loaded and runs inside the [enclave](/z_glossary/enclave.md) (also called the [mini-runtime](/z_glossary/mini-runtime.md)).

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

This back\_end\_actor is different than the [state\_machine\_actor](/z_glossary/state_machine_actor.md) 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](/z_glossary/state_machine_actor.md) handle the [queries](/z_glossary/queries.md) and [commands](/z_glossary/commands.md) 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.