States and transitions

State machines help us model how a process goes from state to state when an event occurs. At their most basic, state machines are made up of these states, events, and the transitions between them.

Want to learn more about the concepts of state machines? Check out our introduction to state machines and statecharts.

States

In Stately’s editor, the rounded rectangle boxes are states. There are a few different types of states:

• Normal states don’t have any special properties.
• Initial states are the first states the machine enters when it starts.
• Final states are the last states the machine enters before it stops.
• Parent states can contain more states, known as child states.
• Parallel states are parent states that have multiple child states that are all active at the same time.
• History states are parent states that remember which child state was active when the parent state was exited and re-enter that child state when the parent state is re-entered.

You can invoke other state machines or actors on a state, or trigger an action when a state is entered or exited. Read more about actions and actors in Stately’s editor.

In Stately’s editor, you can also add descriptions, colors, and tags to states.

Create a state

• Double-click anywhere on the canvas to create a new state there.
• Select an existing state and use child state to add a new state inside.

Delete a state

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click on a selected state, and choose Delete to delete the selected state.
• Use the Backspace key to delete the selected state.

Parent and child states

States can contain more states, also known as child states. These child states are only active when the parent state is active. Read more about parent and child states.

To add a child state:

• Select an existing state and use child state to add a new state inside.
• If a state already contains child states, you can double-click inside the parent state to create another child state.
• Copy a state or group of states and transitions, and paste them onto their new parent state.
• Reparent a child state by selecting the child and choosing a new parent state from inside the state Details panel.

Initial states

When a state machine starts, it enters the initial state first. In Stately’s editor, the filled circle with an arrow icon represents the initial state.

Machines can only have one top-level initial state. Each parent state has its own initial state. If you have unreachable states, it might be because there is no initial state. Read more about initial states.

To set a state as the initial state:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a state and choose Mark as initial state.
• Select the parent state, open the state Details panel, and choose the desired initial state from the Initial state menu.

Final states

When a machine reaches the final state, it can no longer receive any events, and anything running inside it is canceled and cleaned up.

To turn a state into a final state:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a state, and from State type, choose Final state.
• Select the state, open the state Details panel, and choose the Final state option.

If you want your machine to transition from a parent state when its final child state is reached, use a state done event.

Parallel states

In statecharts, a parallel state is a state that has multiple child states (also known as regions) that are all active at the same time. Read more about parallel states. A dashed line borders each region.

To turn a parent state into a parallel state:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a parent state, and from State type, choose Parallel state.
• Select the parent state, open the state Details panel, and choose the Parallel state option.

History states

A history state remembers the last child state that was active before its parent state was exited. When a transition from outside the parent state targets a history state, the remembered child state is entered. Read more about history states.

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a state, and from State type, choose History state.
• Select the parent state, open the state Details panel, and choose the History state option.

Unreachable states

A warning icon indicates an unreachable state. The state is unreachable because it isn’t connected to the initial state by a transition.

Transitions and events

A machine moves from state to state through transitions. Transitions are caused by events; when an event happens, the machine transitions to the next state.

In Stately’s editor, the arrows are transitions, and the rounded rectangles on the arrow’s lines are events. Each transition has a source state, which comes before the transition, and a target state, which comes after the transition. The transition’s arrow starts from the source state and points to the target state.

There are a few different types of transitions:

• Normal transitions are triggered by an event.
• Guarded transitions are triggered by an event, but only if a specified condition is met.
• Delayed transitions (also known as after transitions) are triggered by an event, but only after a specified time interval.
• Eventless transitions (also known as always transitions) are triggered by a timer or other condition, and don’t have an event.

Create a transition and event

• Click a handle on any state to create a transition, event, and target state.
• Drag from a source state’s handle to the target state’s handle to connect them with a transition and event.

Delete a transition

Deleting a state will also delete any transitions with that state as a source.

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click on a selected transition, and choose Delete to delete the selected transition.
• Use the Backspace key to delete the selected transition.

Changing transition source and target

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click the transition and choose Switch source and target.
• Drag the transition handle from one state to a different state.
• Select a transition, open the transition Details panel from the right tool menu, and choose a new source or target state from the dropdown menus.

Delayed (after) transitions

Delayed transitions are transitions that only happen after a set amount of time. If another event occurs before the end of the timer, the transition doesn’t complete. Read more about delayed transitions.

In Stately’s editor, delayed transitions are labeled “after.” Delayed transitions have a default time interval of 500ms (0.5 seconds).

To make a transition into a delayed transition:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a transition, and from Event type, choose After.
• Select an event, open the transition Details panel from the right tool menu, and choose After from the Trigger dropdown menus.

Your delay time interval will be displayed in a human-readable format on hover. For example, 15000ms will be displayed as 15 seconds.

To set the delay interval:

• Use the text input on the delayed transition to specify the interval in milliseconds (ms).
• Select the transition delayed transition, open the transition Details panel from the right tool menu, and specify the interval in milliseconds (ms) in the Delay text input.

To make a delayed transition into a regular transition, use the triple dot menu or right-click a transition, and from Event type, choose Event.

Eventless (always) transitions

Eventless transitions are transitions that are always taken when the transition is enabled. In Stately’s editor, delayed transitions are labeled “always.” Read more about eventless transitions.

To make a transition into an eventless transition:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a transition, and from Event type, choose Always.
• Select an event, open the transition Details panel from the right tool menu, and choose Always from the Trigger dropdown menus.

To make an eventless transition into a regular transition, use the triple dot menu or right-click a transition, and from Event type, choose Event.

State done event

Use a state done event to transition from a parent state when its final child state is reached. Read more about state done events.

To turn an event into a state done event:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click an event, and from Event type, choose State Done event.

To make a state done event into a regular transition, use the triple dot menu or right-click a transition, and from Event type, choose Event.

Self-transitions

A self-transition is when a state transitions back to itself, and is useful for changing context and/or executing actions without changing the finite state. You can also use self-transitions to restart a state. Read more about self-transitions.

To create a self-transition:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click an existing event, and choose Make self transition. The transition will be connected back to the source state.
• Select an existing event, open the transition Details panel from the right tool menu, and choose the same state from the source and target dropdown menus.

Add guards

A guarded transition is a transition that is only enabled if its condition is evaluated to be true. Read more about guarded transitions.

In Stately’s editor, guards are numbered in the order they are checked and labeled with “if” or “else if” along with their condition. Multiple guards on the same events are connected with a dotted line.

To add a guard:

• Select a transition and use the Add guard to add a new guard to the transition. Use the text input to add the guard’s condition.
• Use the triple dot menu or right-click a transition and use Add guard to add a guard to the transition. Use the text input to add the guard’s condition.
• Select an existing transition, open the transition Details panel from the right tool menu, and enter the guard’s condition into the Guard text input.

To reorder guards:

• Use the triple dot menu or right-click the guarded transition, and from the Reorder guards menu, choose Move up or Move down.

To delete a guard, remove its condition from the text input.