Restate uses an execution log to replay operations after failures and suspensions. Non-deterministic operations (database calls, HTTP requests, UUID generation) must be wrapped to ensure deterministic replay.

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Run

Use ctx.run to safely wrap any non-deterministic operation, like HTTP calls or database responses, and have Restate store its result in the execution log. 
const result = await ctx.run<string>(async () => doDbRequest());
Note that inside ctx.run, you cannot use the Restate context (e.g., ctx.get, ctx.sleep, or nested ctx.run).

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Deterministic randoms

The SDK provides deterministic helpers for random values — seeded by the invocation ID — so they return the same result on retries.

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UUIDs

To generate stable UUIDs for things like idempotency keys: 
const uuid = ctx.rand.uuidv4();
Do not use this in cryptographic contexts.

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Random numbers

To generate a deterministic float between 0 and 1: 
const randomNumber = ctx.rand.random();
This behaves like Math.random() but is deterministically replayable.

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Deterministic time

To get the current millis since midnight, January 1, 1970, that is consistent across retries: 
const now = await ctx.date.now();