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Allen Helton

@readysetcloud.io
266 followers 134 following 88 posts

AWS Serverless Hero | Creator of Ready, Set, Cloud! | 🥑 of scalable systems and vibrant developer communities | Farmer at heart | Builder at Momento

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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 29/09/2026
Adding a vector store will make your agent's memory dramatically better, right? Not necessarily. I recently did some benchmarks on retrieval methods and am genuinely surprised at the results because they contradict every talk I've seen on production RAG 🧵
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 14/05/2026
I built a local AI agent with its own identity and thought I was doing security right. Boy, was I wrong. Identity is one layer. It doesn't close the four attack vectors that come with running an agent on your machine. 🧵
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 11/05/2026
Last year I gave a talk to the largest audience of my career on a niche topic I'm uniquely qualified to speak about. At IaCConf 2025, I spoke about what happened to Infrastructure From Code in front of ~650 people. 🧵 // sponsored by @spacelift.io
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 26/03/2026
We're giving AI agents access to prod. And that often means long-lived keys sitting in an .env. I almost did the same. Switching to session-based identity changed how I feel about them. Architecture + lessons👉https://tinyurl.com/ksatbsr4 Sponsored by Teleport. Opinions my own
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Julian Wood @julianwood.com · 23/02/2026
📢🚀 Learn how AI agents can automate content repurposing, from extracting quotes to creating video clips, all with serverless! | Join #Serverless Office Hours with @readysetcloud.io and @andmore.dev. Tomorrow:Live on YouTube/Twitch/ 11AM PT www.youtube.com/@AWSEventsCh...
youtube.com
AWS Events
The official YouTube channel for AWS Events and Webinars. Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts events, both online and in-person, bringing the cloud computing community together to connect, collaborate, an...
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Gunnar Grosch @gunnargrosch.com · 04/01/2026
Part 27 of DEV Track Spotlight 🤖 Together with @readysetcloud.io, I demonstrated how to build production-ready multi-agent AI systems at AWS re:Invent (DEV415). The key? Treat agents like distributed systems with A2A protocol, MCP for typed interfaces, and RISEN prompts for deterministic behavior.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 12/03/2025
I'm still shocked this worked as well as it did 🤯
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 23/12/2024
Serverless Picks of the Week #143! Our serverless superhero is @dthompsondev.bsky.social, Director of Technology at This Dot and tremendous community advocate. Danny's ability to enable, inspire, and educate people is unrivaled💙. Thank you for everything, Danny! www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/1...
readysetcloud.io
Ready, Set, Cloud!
AppSync events got some much needed attention last week, plus some wonderful insights and thoughts from around the community.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 23/12/2024
Is it, though?
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 20/12/2024
What have I done to make this an article that Google thinks I would want to read?!? How do I undo this??
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 19/12/2024
There's something both satisfying and annoying about using the last bag in a roll of trash bags 🤔
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 18/12/2024
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 17/12/2024
Of all the things that are surprisingly difficult, getting a tiny piece of shell out of a bowl of raw eggs reigns supreme 😠
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 17/12/2024
WebSockets are hard. Fortunately, AppSync events made them easy... kinda. There's a lot to real-time communication, and I'm all for higher and higher levels of abstraction. But as good as AppSync events is, I think we could have used a bit more 🌱 www.readysetcloud.io/blog/allen.h...
readysetcloud.io
AppSync events is great, but did you really want serverless WebSockets? | Ready, Set, Cloud!
With the release of AppSync events, we finally got serverless WebSockets. But I'm not convinced that's what we actually wanted.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 16/12/2024
Serverless Picks of the Week #142! Our serverless🦸‍♂️is Philipp Krenn, DA and community lead at Elastic! Philipp really understands the hard part of serverless data, and does a🔥job explaining it to others. Thank you for everything you do, Philipp 💙! www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/142
readysetcloud.io
Ready, Set, Cloud!
The community is resting after an intense week at AWS re:Invent, more than likely gearing up for some cool new projects in 2025.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 15/12/2024
Found in the family room at the current hospital we're at. I'm not crying, you're crying!
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 13/12/2024
This is how my morning started out 😑
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 12/12/2024
I'm kinda mad at myself that I haven't been using code-based diagramming tools like Mermaid for years. I always lose the original diagram and have to redraw it from scratch to make updates. But not with a code-based approach 🔥
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 11/12/2024
It might look like I was a lot more enthusiastic about taking this picture, but I assure you the feelings were mutual 🤣💙
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 10/12/2024
When building APIs, success messages are equally as important as error messages. This morning I said "𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘢, 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨" and the response I got was simply "𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵." 😑 Was my rating saved? Was any action performed at all? When you're interacting with a human, you need more than a 200 OK.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 09/12/2024
Serverless Picks of the Week #141! Our serverless🦸‍♂️is @marcbrooker.bsky.social, VP/distinguished engineer at AWS! Marc has directly helped shape the serverless world as we know it in multiple ways. Thank you for everything you do, Marc! www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/1...
readysetcloud.io
Ready, Set, Cloud!
So much happened at AWS re:Invent last week, but there was one clear winner that left everyone talking.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 09/12/2024
re:Invent was absolutely incredible but beyond all things, it was unexpected. I shared my thoughts on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/posts/allenh...
linkedin.com
Allen Helton on LinkedIn: This year's re:Invent in one word: 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝. Unexpected in…
This year's re:Invent in one word: 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝. Unexpected in that I didn't even think I was going to go. Life has been sending me on a rollercoaster…
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 04/12/2024
Omg did that just happen
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Ellery @elleryaw.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Come find @readysetcloud.io and I at booth 1870 and say hi! Also grab awesome momento and @believeinsls.bsky.social stickers and swag 🔥
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 02/12/2024
Found some rando's walking through the hall @ajs.bsky.social
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 02/12/2024
Serverless Picks of the Week #140! Our serverless🦸‍♂️ is Dave Hall, AWS training lead at Pfizer and AWS Community Builder. Dave is a wonderful resource for anything cloud related and a friendly face always willing to help. Thank you for everything, Dave! www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/140
readysetcloud.io
Ready, Set, Cloud!
AWS re:Invent has official begun! Let's cover the last of the fun pre:Invent announcements and look at some fantastic content from the community.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 01/12/2024
I'm so proud with how far this community has come in a year. WE HAVE AWARDS!!! 💙💙💙 By the way, we are 13 away from 1000 members on Discord, will you be the one that puts us over the top? believeinserverless.com/community
believeinserverless.com
Join the BelieveInServerless Discord Server!
Check out the BelieveInServerless community on Discord - hang out with 987 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 30/11/2024
This bathroom's GitHub contribution history is impressive
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 30/11/2024
PSA: Don't give your friends edit permission to your slides 🤣
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 30/11/2024
Here's a shot from my Thanksgiving day pardon yesterday. Everybody came out to watch 🐐🐓🦃🪿
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 27/11/2024
As I loaded 300lbs of chicken feed into my Jeep, I was quickly reminded it was leg day this morning 🫠🫠🫠
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 27/11/2024
I'm predicting that 2025 will have a lot of predictive AI pop up and I'm not sure I like the low key influence I'm about to be hammered with 😬
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 27/11/2024
I'm looking for brainstorming partners to come up with a cool idea that tries out as many new re:Invent announcements as possible
media.tenor.com
a man with a beard says so who 's in next to a nbc logo
ALT: a man with a beard says so who 's in next to a nbc logo
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 26/11/2024
I'm really looking forward to this today 😀
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Sam Williams @serverlesssam.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I'm going to be speaking at re:Invent Believe in Serverless has community talks with some amazing speakers. Tycko Franklin, @readysetcloud.io, Dave Hall, @focusotter.bsky.social , Khawaja Shams, Greg Olmstead, @ryancormack.bsky.social , @brianleroux.bsky.social and @andmoredev.bsky.social
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 26/11/2024
Next Tuesday at re:Invent I'll be ranting about real-time communications and give my honest opinion on AppSync Events 😬 If you're a fan of quick-witted, brutally honest, and highly-opinionated chats, don't miss it the the AWS Community Lounge 🔥 Register here - remeet.tech/bis/allen-he...
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 26/11/2024
They say the hallway track is always the best at re:Invent. We made it a little more structured this year 😍🤩
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 25/11/2024
Serverless Picks of the Week #139 is here! Our serverless superhero is Suzana Melo Moraes, AWS Community Builder, UG leader, and full-stack dev. Suzana is a 🔥 speaker, covering a range of important development areas. Thank you for everything you do, Suzana! www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/1...
readysetcloud.io
Ready, Set, Cloud!
A huge amount of features were released last week ahead of re:Invent. And the community turns an eye toward WebSockets!
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 23/11/2024
#farmlife
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 23/11/2024
As an avid user of Step Functions, I'm so happy to see variables and JSONata support finally available! While this doesn't unlock a ton of new possibilities, it does simplify the complexity of state machines. Love this ❤️🔥 aws.amazon.com/blogs/comput...
aws.amazon.com
Simplifying developer experience with variables and JSONata in AWS Step Functions | Amazon Web Services
This post is written by Uma Ramadoss, Principal Specialist SA, Serverless and Dhiraj Mahapatro, Principal Specialist SA, Amazon Bedrock AWS Step Functions is introducing variables and JSONata data tra...
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 23/11/2024
Join us on Discord to hear about what the @believeinsls.bsky.social community has planned for re:Invent! This is a town hall event, so everyone is welcome to chime in with ideas and excitement! believeinserverless.com/community
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 22/11/2024
Can you tell it's almost Thanksgiving?
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 22/11/2024
Found a tricky issue yesterday with adding custom metrics with Lambda Powertools. If you're adding multiple metrics with different dimensions, be sure to call the `publishStoredMetrics` function before changing dimensions! Otherwise the last one wins.
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 22/11/2024
Does anyone else feel the huge shift in attitude towards AWS with the great releases over the past week? I have good feelings about re:Invent 🔥
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 21/11/2024
One of the fun unexpected side effects of my job and involvement with the tech community is the willingness of my wife to take pictures of me without getting a side eye or (audible) judgment. For example, today I said "can you help me look pregnant for a social promo?" 5 mins later...
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 21/11/2024
Ever since we started raising a sustainable meat chicken flock alongside our egg chickens (totally a thing, look it up) every morning sounds like a rooster symphony and it cracks me up 😂
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 21/11/2024
I made an automatic RSS feed with @andmoredev.bsky.social for the Believe in Serverless community a couple months ago that shares tech links from Discord. I'm thinking about updating that project to share links here on a community account to get my feet wet with the Bluesky API. Good idea?
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Allen Helton @readysetcloud.io · 21/11/2024
As I'm working on my AppSync Events // Momento Topics benchmark, I'm learning how much goes into accurate benchmarking. Kudos to those of you who regularly do it, there's a lot more to this than I thought!
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