Serverless

Overview

Serverless architecture patterns using AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, and Vercel Edge Functions. Event-driven design with cold start optimization.

Capabilities

• Lambda function deployment
• Cloudflare Workers with Wrangler
• Vercel Edge Functions
• API Gateway integration
• Step Functions orchestration
• Cold start optimization
• Event-driven patterns

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "serverless"

• "Serverless architecture — AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, Vercel Edge"

• API backends without servers

• Event-driven processing

• Scheduled tasks (cron)

• Microservices at low cost

When NOT to Use

• Task is outside your authorization scope
• You need to implement controls (use implementing-* skills)
• Task is about analysis, not action (use analyzing-* skills)
• You don't have access to target systems
• Task requires compliance expertise (consult professionals)
• Task is about defense, not offense (use defensive skills)

Pseudo Code

The serverless workflow follows a standard pipeline pattern.

Core flow:

# serverless primary flow
input = prepare(raw_data)
result = process(input, config={architecture, cloudflare, cold, design, driven})
validate(result)
deliver(result)

Error handling:

on error:
  log(error_details)
  retry_with_backoff(max=3)
  if still_failing: alert_and_escalate()

Lambda Function

def handler(event, context):
    return {"statusCode": 200, "body": json.dumps({"message": "Hello!"})}

Cloudflare Worker

export default {
  async fetch(request) {
    return new Response("Hello from the edge!");
  },
};

Common Patterns

• Keep functions small and focused
• Use provisioned concurrency for latency
• Connection pooling for DB access
• Idempotent handlers for retries

How to Use

1. Define infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi)
2. Review changes through PR process before applying
3. Configure monitoring and alerting for critical paths
4. Set up secrets management (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, etc.)
5. Document runbooks for deployment, rollback, and incident response
6. Test disaster recovery procedures regularly

Red Flags

• Infrastructure changes without review: Unreviewed changes cause outages — use PRs for infra code
• No rollback strategy: Every deployment needs a tested rollback plan before it runs
• Secrets in configuration files: Secrets in YAML/JSON get committed to version control
• Missing monitoring and alerting: Without monitoring, outages go undetected until users report them
• No documentation for runbooks: Without runbooks, on-call engineers waste time re-discovering procedures

Verification

• Skill output matches expected behavior

Process

1. Analyze the task requirements
2. Apply domain expertise
3. Verify output quality

Anti-Rationalization Table