# Durable execution

**Source:** https://promtable.com/glossary/durable-execution

> Durable execution is the workflow / agent pattern where long-running multi-step processes survive crashes, restarts, and queue failures — state checkpointed after each step, resume from last checkpoint. Inngest, Temporal, Restate, AWS Step Functions are 2026 implementations.

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Durable execution is the workflow / agent pattern where long-running multi-step processes survive crashes, restarts, and queue failures — state checkpointed after each step, resume from last checkpoint. Inngest, Temporal, Restate, AWS Step Functions are 2026 implementations.

Naive long-running scripts die when the process restarts: a queue worker crash mid-step means starting over. Durable execution engines flip this: every step's input + output is checkpointed; on crash the engine resumes from the last checkpoint, no work lost. Critical for: multi-hour agents, multi-day onboarding flows, payment processing with retries, AI [[background-agent]]s that take 10+ minutes. Implementations: code looks linear (`await emailUser(); await waitForResponse(); await chargeCard()`) but the engine intercepts each step. Trade-offs: cognitive complexity (workers are short-lived but logic looks long-lived), debugging requires understanding the checkpoint log, harder to reason about side effects.

## When to use

- Long-running agents / workflows that must survive restarts.
- Payment / regulatory flows where data loss is unacceptable.

## Common mistakes

- Side effects without idempotency keys — restart re-runs charges / emails.
- Storing state in process memory — defeats the durability promise.

## Related terms

- [workflow-engine](https://promtable.com/glossary/workflow-engine)
- [background-agent](https://promtable.com/glossary/background-agent)
- [event-driven-agent](https://promtable.com/glossary/event-driven-agent)

*Last updated: 2026-06-01*
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Original page: https://promtable.com/glossary/durable-execution
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