Error Handling

When a state encounters an error, Step Functions defaults to failing the entire execution. You can override this with Retry (retry the failed state) and Catch (transition to a fallback state). Retry and Catch are available on: Task, Parallel, and Map states.

Error Names

Errors are identified by case-sensitive strings. Step Functions defines these built-in error codes:

Custom error names are allowed but must NOT start with States..

Retry

The Retry field is an array of Retrier objects. The interpreter scans retriers in order and uses the first one whose ErrorEquals matches.

Retrier Fields

Rules:

• States.ALL must appear alone in its ErrorEquals array.
• States.ALL must be in the last retrier.
• MaxAttempts: 0 means “never retry this error.”
• Retrier attempt counts reset when the interpreter transitions to another state.
• Retriers are evaluated in order. Each retrier tracks its own attempt count independently.

Catch

The Catch field is an array of Catcher objects. After retries are exhausted (or if no retrier matches), the interpreter scans catchers in order.

Catcher Fields (JSONata)

Error Output Structure

When a state fails and matches a Catcher, $states.errorOutput is a JSON object with:

• Error (string) — the error name
• Cause (string) — human-readable error description

In a Catch block, Assign and Output can reference:

• $states.input — the original state input
• $states.errorOutput — the error details
• $states.context — execution context

If a Catcher matches, the state’s top-level Assign is NOT evaluated — only the Catcher’s Assign runs. If no Output is provided in the Catcher, the state output is the raw Error Output object.

When both Retry and Catch are present, retries are attempted first. Only if retries are exhausted does the Catch apply.

Handling States.QueryEvaluationError

JSONata expressions can fail at runtime. Common causes:

1. Type error — {% $x + $y %} where $x or $y is not a number
2. Type incompatibility — "TimeoutSeconds": "{% $name %}" where $name is a string
3. Value out of range — negative number for TimeoutSeconds
4. Undefined result — {% $data.nonExistentField %} — JSON cannot represent undefined

Prevent these errors with defensive expressions: use $exists() before accessing fields evaluated at runtime, $type() before arithmetic, and guard filtered results that may return a single object instead of an array. Always guard with $exists() — if a variable was never assigned (e.g., the Catch didn’t fire for that path), referencing it directly throws States.QueryEvaluationError. See transforming-data.md for defensive JSONata examples.

Error Handling in Parallel States

If any branch fails, the entire Parallel state fails. Use States.BranchFailed in Retry/Catch at the Parallel state level.

Error Handling in Map States

Individual iteration failures can be tolerated with ToleratedFailurePercentage or ToleratedFailureCount. If the threshold is exceeded, the Map state throws States.ExceedToleratedFailureThreshold.

Retry and Catch with User-Friendly Error

Retries transient errors with backoff, then catches all errors into a variable and transitions to a Fail state with a descriptive Cause. Guard variable references with $exists() in case the Catch path wasn’t taken.