Amazon CodeCatalyst is no longer open to new customers. Existing customers can continue to use the service as normal. For more information, see [How to migrate from CodeCatalyst](migration.md).

# Invoking a Lambda function using a workflow
<a name="lam-invoke-action"></a>

This section describes how to invoke a AWS Lambda function using a CodeCatalyst workflow. To accomplish this, you must add the **AWS Lambda invoke** action to your workflow. The **AWS Lambda invoke** action invokes the Lambda function that you specify.

In addition to invoking your function, the **AWS Lambda invoke** action also converts each top-level key in the response payload received from the Lambda function into a [workflow output variable](workflows-working-with-variables.md). These variables can then be referenced in subsequent workflow actions. If you don't want all top-level keys to be converted to variables, you can use filters to specify the exact ones. For more information, see [ResponseFilters](lam-invoke-action-ref.md#lam.invoke.response.filters) property description in the ['AWS Lambda invoke' action YAML](lam-invoke-action-ref.md). 

**Topics**
+ [When to use this action](#lam-invoke-action-when-to-use)
+ [Runtime image used by the 'AWS Lambda invoke' action](#lam-invoke-action-runtime)
+ [Example: Invoke a Lambda function](lam-invoke-action-example-workflow.md)
+ [Adding the 'AWS Lambda invoke' action](lam-invoke-action-add.md)
+ ['AWS Lambda invoke' variables](lam-invoke-action-variables.md)
+ ['AWS Lambda invoke' action YAML](lam-invoke-action-ref.md)

## When to use this action
<a name="lam-invoke-action-when-to-use"></a>

Use this action if you want to add functionality to your workflow that is encapsulated in, and performed by, a Lambda function.

For example, you might want your workflow to send a `Build started` notification to a Slack channel before starting a build of your application. In this case, your workflow would include an **AWS Lambda invoke** action to invoke a Lambda to send out the Slack notification, and a [build action](build-add-action.md) to build your application.

As another example, you might want your workflow to conduct a vulnerability scan on your application before it is deployed. In this case, you would use a build action to build your application, an **AWS Lambda invoke** action to invoke a Lambda to scan for vulnerabilities, and a deploy action to deploy the scanned application.

## Runtime image used by the 'AWS Lambda invoke' action
<a name="lam-invoke-action-runtime"></a>

The **AWS Lambda invoke** action runs on a [November 2022 image](build-images.md#build.previous-image). For more information, see [Active images](build-images.md#build-curated-images).