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Márcio Coelho
Márcio Coelho

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Supercharge Your Lambda Functions with Powertools for AWS Lambda

#aws #lambda #powertools #programming

Writing clean, observable, and maintainable Lambda functions can be challenging — especially at scale.

That’s where AWS Lambda Powertools for TypeScript comes in. It offers a suite of utilities to help with:

  • Structured logging
  • Distributed tracing
  • Custom metrics
  • Parameter and secret fetching
  • Reusable data providers (like DynamoDB)

In today’s post, we’ll walk through how to use some of the most useful features in a real-world Lambda function.

🧰 Installation

First, install Powertools packages:

npm install @aws-lambda-powertools/logger @aws-lambda-powertools/tracer @aws-lambda-powertools/metrics @aws-lambda-powertools/parameters
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Optional (for DynamoDB provider):

npm install @aws-sdk/client-dynamodb
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📝 Structured Logging with Logger 

import { Logger } from '@aws-lambda-powertools/logger'; const logger = new Logger({ serviceName: 'UserService' }); export const handler = async (event) => { logger.info('Handling event', { event }); return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify({ message: 'Hello World!' }), }; };
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✅ Output is JSON-formatted and ready for CloudWatch, Datadog, or other log aggregators.

📦 Tracing with Tracer 

import { Tracer } from '@aws-lambda-powertools/tracer'; const tracer = new Tracer({ serviceName: 'UserService' }); export const handler = async (event, context) => { const segment = tracer.getSegment(); const subsegment = segment.addNewSubsegment('my-subtask'); try { // your logic here } finally { subsegment.close(); } return { statusCode: 200 }; };
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💡 Tracer integrates with AWS X-Ray automatically if enabled.

📈 Metrics with Metrics 

import { Metrics, MetricUnits } from '@aws-lambda-powertools/metrics'; const metrics = new Metrics({ namespace: 'MyApp' }); export const handler = async () => { metrics.addMetric('SuccessfulInvocations', MetricUnits.Count, 1); metrics.publishStoredMetrics(); return { statusCode: 200 }; };
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🎯 Automatically flushes metrics to CloudWatch.

🔑 Fetching Parameters with getParameter 

import { getParameter } from '@aws-lambda-powertools/parameters/ssm'; export const handler = async () => { const dbName = await getParameter('/my-app/db-name'); return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify({ dbName }), }; };
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✅ You can also cache parameters:

await getParameter('/my-app/db-name', { maxAge: 300 }); // cache for 5 mins
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🗃 DynamoDB Provider 

import { getDynamoDBProvider } from '@aws-lambda-powertools/parameters/dynamo'; const dynamoDBProvider = getDynamoDBProvider({ tableName: 'Settings' }); export const handler = async () => { const setting = await dynamoDBProvider.get('theme'); // get row with PK 'theme' return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify({ theme: setting?.value }), }; };
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💡 Great for config-driven apps with DynamoDB as your parameter store.

Conclusion
With Powertools for TypeScript, your Lambdas are:

  • ✅ Easier to debug (thanks to structured logging)
  • ✅ Easier to monitor (custom metrics)
  • ✅ Easier to trace (end-to-end with X-Ray)
  • ✅ Easier to configure (via SSM or DynamoDB)

It’s a must-have for production-grade serverless development.

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