state_machines:

This is a config file reference. Click for instructions.

This page is reference material which explains every setting and option for this section of an MPF yaml config file. See the instructions for config files for formatting and other details. See our guide to config file examples for more examples of real configs in action.

Valid in
machine config files	YES
mode config files	YES

The state_machines: section of your config is where you configure generic state machines.

Settings in Machine Config Files

If the state_machines: section is placed in a config file, it will retain its state across games. When the game is started, the value is initialized, and it will retain in its state until the game is turned off. So to reset this, a transition would need to happen upon game end.

Settings in Mode Config Files

If the state_machines: section is placed in a mode file, it will retain its state across balls, but will be reset to its base mode for each game. It is player specific, and will retain the correct value fo each player in a given game.

Required settings

The following sections are required in the state_machines: section of your config:

states:

One or more sub-entries. Each in the format of string : state_machine_states:

List all of your states here, with their applicable settings. Go to state_machine_states: to see a full list of all settings under states:. For example:

##! mode: my_mode
state_machines:
  my_state:
    states:
      start:
        label: Start state
      step1:
        label:
        show_when_active:
          show: on
          show_tokens: None
        events_when_started: step1_start
        events_when_stopped: step1_stop
      step2:
        label: Step 2
    transitions:

The first state must be start: or MPF will throw errors when trying to initialize this value (you can change this using starting_state setting). All other states can be any string as defined by the user.

transitions:

List of one (or more) values, each is a type: state_machine_transitions:. Defaults to empty.

These move from any state to another state, including backward or back to the first step, when a given event is posted.

List all your transitions here (we start with the same steps as above):

##! mode: my_mode
state_machines:
  my_state:
    states:
      start:
        label: Start state
      step1:
        label:
        show_when_active:
          show: on
          show_tokens: None
        events_when_started: step1_start
        events_when_stopped: step1_stop
      step2:
        label: Step2
    transitions:
      - source: start
        target: step1
        events: state_machine_proceed
      - source: step1
        target: step2
        events: state_machine_proceed2
        events_when_transitioning: going_to_step2
      - source: step2
        target: start
        events: state_machine_proceed3
      - source: step1, step2
        target: start
        events: state_machine_reset

Optional settings

The following sections are optional in the state_machines: section of your config. (If you don't include them, the default will be used).

persist_state:

Single value, type: boolean (true/false). Default: false

If set to true MPF will restore the state of a logic_block on mode restart.

starting_state:

Single value, type: string. Default: start

The start state of your state machine.

console_log:

Single value, type: one of the following options: none, basic, full. Default: basic

Log level for the console log for this device.

debug:

Single value, type: boolean (true/false). Default: false

Set this to true to see additional debug output. This might impact the performance of MPF.

file_log:

Single value, type: one of the following options: none, basic, full. Default: basic

Log level for the file log for this device.

label:

Single value, type: string. Default: %

Name of this device in service mode.

tags:

List of one (or more) values, each is a type: string. Defaults to empty.

Not used.

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