# Durable Execution

> durable execution means your agent's state checkpoints after each step. if a connection drops, a process restarts, or a tool times out, execution resumes from the last checkpoint instead of starting o...

**URL:** https://inference.sh/docs/runtime/durable-execution
**Last updated:** 2026-09-18

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durable execution means your agent's state checkpoints after each step. if a connection drops, a process restarts, or a tool times out, execution resumes from the last checkpoint instead of starting over.

## why it matters

consider what happens during a typical agent task. a user asks for a research report. the agent searches sources, reads documents, extracts information, and starts writing. fifteen minutes in, a network blip drops the connection.

without durability: everything vanishes. the user starts over. the work is lost.

with durability: execution resumes from where it stopped. the agent continues with full context of what it was doing.

## how it works

traditional agent loops run as long-running processes with state in memory. if the process dies, everything is lost.

durable execution inverts this. the runtime is event-driven, not process-driven:

1. **execute**: the agent performs one action
2. **persist**: the result and updated state are saved
3. **yield**: control returns to the runtime

the next step only begins after the previous step is durably stored.

## what gets checkpointed

- conversation history
- agent memory and working state
- completed tool call results
- current position in multi-step plans
- any state you explicitly store

## automatic, not opt-in

on inference shell, durable execution is how the runtime works. there's nothing to enable. every agent automatically gets:

- checkpointing after each step
- transparent resume on any failure
- state persistence across process boundaries
- full execution history for debugging

## learn more

- [deep dive: durable execution for agents](/blog/agent-runtime/durable-execution)
- [blog: durable execution explained](https://inference.sh/blog/agent-runtime/durable-execution)