Documentation AEM AEM as a Cloud Service Tutorials

AEM Edge Functions

Last update: June 25, 2026

Applies to:
Experience Manager as a Cloud Service

Topics:
Developing

CREATED FOR:

Intermediate
Admin
Developer

IMPORTANT

AEM Edge Functions is currently in beta. Features and documentation may change. For feedback, contact aemcs-edgecompute-feedback@adobe.com.

AEM Edge Functions let you run JavaScript on Adobe CDN at the edge, close to your visitors and without a round trip to origin. They work on AEM as a Cloud Service and Edge Delivery Services sites with Adobe Managed CDN.

What are AEM Edge Functions

AEM Edge Functions are JavaScript modules deployed to and executed on Adobe CDN (powered by Fastly Compute). When a request matches a CDN routing rule in cdn.yaml, the AEM Edge Function intercepts it, reads headers, calls backends, transforms responses, and returns the result from the edge.

Common patterns include server-rendered personalization, secure API proxying, and response aggregation.

When to use AEM Edge Functions

Use the following guide when choosing between AEM Edge Functions and other AEM extensibility options.

Scenario

Recommended approach

Run custom logic, call external APIs, personalize responses at the edge

AEM Edge Functions

Complex business logic with full AEM context (for AEM as a Cloud Service Java stack) at the origin

OSGi service or Sling servlet

Prefer AEM Edge Functions for dynamic content or data that needs speed, security and scalability without a round trip to origin.

Why use AEM Edge Functions

AEM Edge Functions address four common challenges when building dynamic, CDN-delivered experiences.

Benefit

Description

Performance

Lower time-to-first-byte with edge-side execution and no origin round trip for common patterns

SEO

Server-rendered HTML on first crawl, friendly to search engines and AI crawlers

Security

API credentials and secrets stay server-side and are never exposed in client JavaScript

Personalization

Customize content by geo, device, or audience before the page loads

How it works

An AEM Edge Function sits between the CDN cache and your backends. It processes matching requests before they reach origin.

AEM Edge Functions request flow {align="center"}

Two independent cache layers exist: the CDN cache (what the browser sees) and the fetch cache (what the AEM Edge Function sees when calling backends). Invalidate each layer separately when underlying data changes.

For more information, see Caching in AEM Edge Functions.

How to get started

Choose if you are using AEM as a Cloud Service or Edge Delivery Services site and follow the setup tutorial. You deploy a JavaScript AEM Edge Function with /hello-world and /weather routes, configure CDN routing, push the code to Adobe CDN, and verify responses from the edge.