# How to check if actor exists in akka cluster?

**URL:** <https://discuss.akka.io/t/how-to-check-if-actor-exists-in-akka-cluster/4805>\
**Category:** Akka Cluster\
**Tags:** akka-cluster\
**Created:** [August 12, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://discuss.akka.io/t/how-to-check-if-actor-exists-in-akka-cluster/4805 "2019-08-12T10:27:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anilkumble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@anilkumble](https://discuss.akka.io/u/anilkumble)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://discuss.akka.io/t/how-to-check-if-actor-exists-in-akka-cluster/4805/1 "2019-08-12T10:27:33Z")

</div>

I need to check if whether particular actor exists or not which can be done via **ActorSystem.actorSelection** method by specifying actor path.

However this method works correctly when such actor exists on your our node. If actor-system is formed by multiple nodes and actor exists on another node, this method tells that actor doesn’t exist. If I give string that specifies remote actor-system then this method works.

But this doesn’t seem very good idea to specify remote actor-system string in actorSelection method.

```auto
Address address = new Address("akka.tcp", "ReactorCluster", "172.24.105.188", 4002);
ActorSelection selection = getContext().actorSelection(address +"/user/worker" );
selection.tell("hi", self());

```

Let me know your thoughts on this