AWS has launched Durable Functions for Lambda, allowing developers to build complex, multi-step applications using standard Lambda functions. This feature tracks progress, automatically retries on failures, and can suspend execution for up to a year without incurring compute costs during waits. Developers can express stateful logic directly in their code, simplifying the process by abstracting away the underlying state machines. The durable execution SDK includes primitives like "steps" for automatic checkpointing and retries, and "waits" for pausing execution without charges. The announcement has prompted comparisons to AWS Step Functions, which traditionally orchestrated serverless applications using YAML configurations. Durable Functions facilitate a more code-centric approach, enabling transitions between states while maintaining the familiar Lambda event model. Community responses highlight the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the new system compared to Step Functions. Features such as `create_callback()` for external events, `wait_for_condition()` for polling, and parallel operations enhance its capabilities for managing more complex workflows. Lambda Durable Functions also address a key architectural challenge by allowing requests to take longer than 15 minutes, provided the function isn't active for more than that duration per call. This re-entrancy means AWS will rerun the Lambda function as needed, maintaining the necessary state. Developers can now integrate lengthy or chained processes, such as those involving large language models, without the overhead of managing additional compute resources. Currently, the feature is available in the US East (Ohio) region and supports JavaScript/TypeScript and Python, with detailed pricing information provided separately.