State is one of the big differences between CGI-esque scripting languages and how things are usually done in Erlang. As processes are cheap, one way is to fire

State is one of the big differences between CGI-esque scripting languages and how things are usually done in Erlang. As processes are cheap, one way is to fire up a session process for each user that connects to the system, and keep this around for the lifetime of their session. The process will hold within it any state that is needed between requests, without needing to refer back to the database every time. Whenever a request comes in, you then route the request to that session process (even when it's on another physical machine). This not only provides a clearer mapping between your external and internal APIs, but also allows you to fairly easily ensure that a user can't perform concurrent actions. Edit: Not sure if that's exactly what you mean, so let me know if you have more questions :)