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Some notes on Lambda Web Functions

AWS launched Lambda Web Functions a few hours ago. You give it a Node.js app that listens on a port and Lambda runs it as-is behind an HTTPS URL, with many concurrent requests per execution environment and billing for the CPU time you actually use rather than wall-clock. There's no handler and no JSON event. I deployed one, poked around inside it, and here are my notes. tl;dr: It feels like taking the best of AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Run and Cloudflare Workers and stuffing them together in a cohesive service.

Filtering S3 events by CloudFormation stack

AWS just announced that S3 event notifications now include the system-generated tags attached to the bucket responsible for the notification. This sounds like a small change, but it will enable some useful patterns. It's also at least the third example of an AWS service offering value-add through tag enrichment.

The release notes were a bit light on details, so I verified for myself what tags are (and more importantly: are not) included in events. I also want to take this as an opportunity to promote EventBridge for S3 object notifications, as it's not used nearly enough.

OIDC tokens can now restrict which AWS roles they assume

AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity seems to have a new, barely-documented, policy condition key. It's called sts:RoleAuthorizedByIdp and if you're anything like me (my condolences), that name will pique your interest. It's not super useful today (unless you're running an OIDC IdP), but its utility will grow as adoption improves over time. So here's what I've learned so far.

Apps can now impersonate human access to AWS via IAM Identity Center

Earlier today, AWS IAM Identity Center launched the ability for server-side applications to assume roles on behalf of their users. This is a big deal, I've wanted this exact kind of functionality for years. The docs are pretty sparse on how it works and what the events look like in CloudTrail, so here are my field notes, recommendations on whether you should use it today and feature requests for whichever AWS service team is working on this.

CloudTrail in CloudWatch isn't very good

Amazon has deprecated CloudTrail Lake as of 1st June 2026 for new customers. I assume this is due to lack of uptake. I never got around to properly using it, and I'm a CloudTrail fan! So I can only imagine not many others used it. In its place, Amazon recommends that we "explore CloudWatch". I explored CloudWatch and came away quite disappointed.

Micro-transactions and the first AI-native fax service

I've been interested in micro-transactions for about as long as I can remember. I've wanted to sell something for a tiny amount of money ever since I learned about PayPal's micro-transaction support via NearlyFreeSpeech, the hosting provider. I've finally done it, by combining some of the oldest and newest tech I can think of: faxes and AI.