The brightest gamma-ray burst GRB 231009A has renewed interest in the phenomenon of GRBs,which in many ways still remains a mystery. Reports of “forbidden” multi-TeV photons, causing a lot of theoretical work, do not seem to be confirmed, however, the record-breaking event remains very interesting and may clarify some questions. In particular, the event demonstrated an interesting interplay between the precursor, prompt emission, and afterglow. The temporal variability of GRBs and their emission spectra discussed in the report imply that we are observing a very complex and diverse phenomenon, involving many different mechanisms such as multiple
jets, radiation dominated internal shocks, MHD turbulence reconnections, and e + e − pair loading of external medium.