Managing transitions

A transition is an allowed status change. It says: when a given action runs, an entity in the From state moves to the To state. Transitions are what make a state machine a machine — without them, a state is a dead end.

The Transitions tab of a machine’s detail view lists them all.

The transitions list

Each transition shows three columns:

• Action name — the action that performs the move, e.g. process, complete, cancel.
• From state — the source state.
• To state — the target state.

A search field filters the list by action name or state name.

Add a transition

1. Open the machine and go to the Transitions tab.
2. Click Add transition.
3. Fill in:
   • Action name — the action that triggers the move.
   • From state — pick the source state.
   • To state — pick the target state.
4. Click Save.

You can also create transitions visually by dragging between states on the Diagram tab.

Edit or delete a transition

Open a transition from its context menu to Edit it, or use Delete and confirm. Deleting a transition removes only that allowed move — the states themselves are untouched.

What is allowed

• Several transitions between the same two states are fine, as long as each uses a different Action name. For example, both a pay and a remind action could lead from Open to the same next state.
• Self-loops — a transition whose source and target are the same state — are supported. They are useful for actions that re-run without changing status, such as re-sending a confirmation.
• Exact duplicates are blocked. If a transition with the same action, source and target already exists, an inline error appears and it cannot be saved.

Next steps

• The visual editor — draw transitions by dragging.
• Validation — catch duplicate or dead-end transitions.