Hello again, awesome Rustaceans of the Lambda realm! 🦀

We are super excited to bring you another shiny new release of Crafting Lambda Functions in Rust! 🎉

As always, getting to this point took more time and effort than we originally thought. But let’s be honest, when do estimates ever go according to plan? That might just be the eternal curse of software developers. Still, we truly appreciate your patience and support while we worked through it.

We hope this new version brings you plenty of value. So let’s jump right in and take a look at what’s new!

🗞️ What’s new

This release comes with some very juicy updates that we think you are going to love. Let’s break it down.

A whole new chapter on configuration magic 🪄

Say hello to Chapter 7, fully dedicated to the delicate art of configuration. How do you pass parameters to your gracious little Lambda functions? Until now, we touched on using environment variables for things like S3 bucket names and DynamoDB table names. That was just the beginning.

This new chapter takes it further by showing you how to cleanly separate configuration from your code, so you can build and deploy once and then configure per environment.

And what about sensitive values? Those API keys and database connection strings you definitely do not want floating around in the open? We have you covered there too. You will learn how to securely manage secrets using AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store (with SecureString values) and AWS Secrets Manager, both designed to keep your sensitive settings safe and encrypted.

We are really proud of this new chapter and we cannot wait to hear what you think. So please reach out. You know where to find us!

The CDK appendix got a glow up and Terraform joins the party 🥳

Last time we introduced an appendix on how to use the AWS CDK to manage your infrastructure. This time we took your amazing feedback and polished that section quite a bit. A big thank you to Darko Mesaros from AWS for doing an entire live stream walking through the process and giving us great suggestions to make it better.

But wait, there is more. We know that everyone has a favorite infrastructure as code tool. Some folks like CDK, some go with SAM, and others just want to vibe with Terraform. We are not here to judge. We are here to support you.

So we added a brand new appendix that covers how to use Terraform to deploy your Rusty Lambda functions. A massive thanks to Anton Babenko for sharing his wisdom, for creating Serverless.tf, and for kindly reviewing the appendix. You rock.

Proofreading, polishing, and a truckload of fixes 💅

We went through the entire book and did a complete pass to fix typos, sharpen the writing, and improve clarity wherever we could.

If you are new to the book, we hope this makes the experience smoother. And if you have been with us for a while, thank you for pointing out the issues and helping us shape this into something truly solid.

A very special shout out to John Murray, who sent us pages and pages of thoughtful notes and suggestions. You are an absolute legend.

📦 How to get the new release

If you already have a copy of Crafting Lambda Functions in Rust, grabbing the latest release is easy-peasy, lemon squeezy! 🍋

1. Head over to Gumroad, log in, and open up your product library.

2. You’ll see a list of all your purchased products—look for “Crafting Lambda Functions in Rust (e-book)”.

3. Click on it, and voilà! You’ll find all the updated download links right there.

All updated code examples are also available in our code repository, so you can dive into the latest examples straight away.

If you hit any snags along the way, reach out—we’re here to help!

👂 We want to hear your feedback

Your thoughts mean the world to us. Whether it’s a suggestion, a favorite section, or something you found unclear, we’d love to know. Connect with us on Discord or via email and let us know how the book’s been treating you!

And, if you’re feeling extra generous, please consider leaving a review on Gumroad. Every review helps us grow and reach more readers. We just received our first review from an anonymous fan, and it made our day! But they say there’s no such thing as too many reviews, so if you’ve got a spare 3 minutes, a few lines on Gumroad would be amazing. We are even featuring some of them on our website!

🎤 Bonus: Our Rust Global 2025 Keynote

Remember how, in our last update, we mentioned we were going to speak at Rust Global 2025 in London? Well, it happened… and it was a blast!

Fun fact: it was the very first time we (James and Luciano) delivered a talk together on stage. A moment to treasure for sure, and a great excuse for some celebratory food and drinks. But enough about us. Let us give you something useful instead.

The talk, of course, was all about adopting Rust to write Lambda functions. We know that if you are reading this, you probably do not need convincing. But still, the talk includes some things you might find interesting: like a step by step path to get started, and even a few examples showing how to consume data from Kafka using Lambda in Rust.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, here are the slides:

And yes, the video recording is on its way. As soon as it is published, we will let you know. In the meantime, follow us on social media and hop into our Discord to stay in the loop!

🔮 What’s next

We still have a lot more ground to cover in the book, and we cannot wait to keep building it with you. The next chapters are already brewing, and we are more motivated than ever to keep improving and expanding the content.

If you have ideas, questions, or just want to nerd out with us about Rust and serverless, our door is always open. Your feedback helps shape this book into something truly useful and we are incredibly grateful for it.

Until the next update, take care and keep those Lambda functions snappy!

— Luciano & James