Traditional and high-level Petri nets are limited in representing adaptive or evolving distributed systems. We introduce a comprehensive definition of Reisig’s Algebraic Petri nets (APN) with active tokens, employing Maude, a declarative language with rewriting logic semantics. Reisig’s APN offers unmatched expressivity and analytical power, and with active tokens, they represent distributed components with internal logic naturally. Active tokens facilitate straightforward and efficient meta-modeling. Although rewriting logic was proposed as a unified logical framework for PNs two decades ago, ours is the first complete implementation of APNs (with active tokens) based on Maude. We tackle modeling challenges from Maude’s rewriting strategy relying on pattern-matching and coherence by proposing two alternative definitions. Our approach is illustrated with code snippets and examples, featuring an advanced model of an adaptive MLFQ algorithm.