Background work

Some application work does not need to block the HTTP response. Easel supports framework APIs that register post-response work within the active Function lifecycle.

Post-response work is not a durable job queue.

Post-response work

A supported framework API can return the response and continue work before the invocation ends.

For example, Next.js provides after():

import { after } from "next/server";

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const event = await request.json();

  after(async () => {
    await recordAnalyticsEvent(event);
  });

  return Response.json({ accepted: true });
}

The client can receive the response before the callback completes, but the Function remains active and continues consuming duration.

Appropriate uses

Post-response work is appropriate for short, best-effort tasks such as:

• Recording non-critical analytics
• Updating a secondary cache
• Sending a lightweight notification
• Completing a bounded cleanup step

Use a durable job system when work

• Must survive Function termination
• Requires automatic retries
• May exceed the Function duration limit
• Must run independently of the originating request
• Requires scheduling, fan-out, or concurrency control
• Must guarantee eventual completion

A durable pattern is:

HTTP request
  ↓
Validate and persist job
  ↓
Return 202 Accepted
  ↓
Worker processes job with retries

Failure behavior

A successful HTTP response does not prove that post-response work completed. Log failures and make non-idempotent operations safe to retry when possible.

Limits

Post-response work shares the Function's duration, memory, CPU, networking, and shutdown boundaries. See Function limits.