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step_function client start_execution return type doesn't match documentation

Open Owen-OptiGrid opened this issue 7 months ago • 1 comments

Describe the issue

The step_function client start_execution states the returned dictionary contains a key "startDatetime" of type Python datetime (with a naive datetime shown in the example) but when I tried used this function with boto 1.37.3 a floating point number value was returned with that key instead.

I know the value was a floating point number (due to the exception I got when trying to call datetime methods on it) but couldn't see the value itself... I assume it is actually a UTC Unix Epoch time?

Links

https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/stepfunctions/client/start_execution.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/step-functions/latest/apireference/API_StartExecution.html

Owen-OptiGrid avatar Jun 06 '25 09:06 Owen-OptiGrid

Hello @Owen-OptiGrid, thanks for reaching out. I have used the start_execution API and I indeed got a float value too. This is a UTC Unix Epoch time. I have reached out to the Step Function Service team for their doc to be updated. We don't have a timeframe for now although moving Forward, please check our changelog for updates: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/boto/boto3/develop/CHANGELOG.rst . Thank you.

For Internal Tracking: P251035048

adev-code avatar Jun 11 '25 16:06 adev-code

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github-actions[bot] avatar Aug 21 '25 20:08 github-actions[bot]