What is State Machines?

State Machines gives your code an isolated environment of replica apps. A replica implements a vendor’s APIs, such as Salesforce. Your integration creates records, reads them, and tests failures against disposable data. You create an environment, connect to an app, make native API calls, and delete the environment when the task ends. To repeat the task, create a fresh environment or start one from a snapshot of prepared data. A replica never calls the vendor. Creating a Salesforce app does not connect to your company’s Salesforce organization or import its records. Resources and how they relate explains environments, apps, actors, and snapshots.

​

Two APIs have different jobs

The State Machines management API creates environments, returns credentials, and manages snapshots. Your State Machines API key authenticates those calls within a workspace. The app’s native API handles your integration’s work. For Salesforce, that includes record operations, SOQL queries, and supported Bulk and SOAP operations. Credentials identify both the environment and an actor inside the app. Your State Machines API key is never an app credential.

​

Match the starting point to the task

To use the same resources through the UI, follow Run an environment in the dashboard.

​

Know what a passing test proves

A passing test proves the assertions it ran against the selected replica version, settings, actor, and data. It does not prove that every feature of the vendor product behaves the same, or that the replica reproduces a customer’s configuration. Record the replica version, actor, and data with each result. Before testing customer-specific behavior, check Salesforce known differences for the features it needs.