Application Integration
AWS Step Functions
AWS Step Functions coordinates stateful workflows with explicit branches, retries, waits, parallel work, and service integrations. It makes multi-stage GenAI execution and human approval paths observable and recoverable.
Key points
- Standard Workflows support durable exactly-once workflow execution semantics
- Express Workflows suit high-rate short-duration processing
- Task retry and catch policies should distinguish throttles from permanent validation failures
When to use it
- Orchestrate extract, classify, retrieve, generate, and validate stages
- Pause an agent-requested financial action for approval
Exam tips
- Choose Step Functions for workflow state; EventBridge alone cannot model compensation or waits
- Cap retries and concurrency so a model throttle does not become an amplified retry storm