diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 90d313fe..06d7e0c0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 |Branch|Status|
 |---|---|
-|master|[![Build Status](https://azfunc.visualstudio.com/Azure%20Functions%20Python/_apis/build/status/Azure%20Functions%20Durable%20Python?branchName=master)](https://azfunc.visualstudio.com/Azure%20Functions%20Python/_build/latest?definitionId=44&branchName=master)|
+|main|[![Build Status](https://azfunc.visualstudio.com/Azure%20Functions%20Python/_apis/build/status/Azure%20Functions%20Durable%20Python?branchName=main)](https://azfunc.visualstudio.com/Azure%20Functions%20Python/_build/latest?definitionId=44&branchName=main)|
 |dev|[![Build Status](https://azfunc.visualstudio.com/Azure%20Functions%20Python/_apis/build/status/Azure%20Functions%20Durable%20Python?branchName=dev)](https://azfunc.visualstudio.com/Azure%20Functions%20Python/_build/latest?definitionId=44&branchName=dev)|
 
 # Durable Functions for Python
diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index 4324127d..f14b4593 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 trigger: 
   branches:
     include:
-    - master
+    - main
     - dev
   tags:
     include:
diff --git a/azure/durable_functions/entity.py b/azure/durable_functions/entity.py
index 3c278ff6..c025085d 100644
--- a/azure/durable_functions/entity.py
+++ b/azure/durable_functions/entity.py
@@ -3,9 +3,13 @@
 from datetime import datetime
 from typing import Callable, Any, List, Dict
 
+
 class InternalEntityException(Exception):
+    """Framework-internal Exception class (for internal use only)."""
+
     pass
 
+
 class Entity:
     """Durable Entity Class.
 
@@ -51,7 +55,9 @@ def handle(self, context: DurableEntityContext, batch: List[Dict[str, Any]]) ->
                 # populate context
                 operation = operation_data["name"]
                 if operation is None:
-                    raise InternalEntityException("Durable Functions Internal Error: Entity operation was missing a name field")
+                    message = "Durable Functions Internal Error:"\
+                        "Entity operation was missing a name field"
+                    raise InternalEntityException(message)
                 context._operation = operation
                 context._input = operation_data["input"]
                 self.fn(context)
diff --git a/azure/durable_functions/models/DurableEntityContext.py b/azure/durable_functions/models/DurableEntityContext.py
index cc1d9814..37cc980c 100644
--- a/azure/durable_functions/models/DurableEntityContext.py
+++ b/azure/durable_functions/models/DurableEntityContext.py
@@ -179,7 +179,8 @@ def destruct_on_exit(self) -> None:
         self._exists = False
         self._state = None
 
-def from_json_util(self, json_str: str) -> Any:
+
+def from_json_util(json_str: str) -> Any:
     """Load an arbitrary datatype from its JSON representation.
 
     The Out-of-proc SDK has a special JSON encoding strategy
diff --git a/azure/durable_functions/tasks/task_utilities.py b/azure/durable_functions/tasks/task_utilities.py
index 4487ea25..cfe8bc2c 100644
--- a/azure/durable_functions/tasks/task_utilities.py
+++ b/azure/durable_functions/tasks/task_utilities.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import json
 from ..models.history import HistoryEventType, HistoryEvent
 from azure.functions._durable_functions import _deserialize_custom_object
-from datetime import datetime
+from dateutil import parser
 from typing import List, Optional, Dict, Any
 from ..models.actions.Action import Action
 from ..models.Task import Task