AWS Step Functions

Local emulators. Real API contracts. Part of Mockingbird.

Stateful AWS Step Functions emulator for the official SFN SDK v3 client. It models Standard execution identity, input/output strings, deterministic terminal transitions, callback tokens, stop requests, ordered history, pagination, and shared-clock scripts without contacting AWS.

#Install

npm install -D @crvouga/mockingbird-service-step-functions

ESM only. Node 22+ or Bun 1.2+.

#Usage

Point the SFN client's endpoint option at the emulator. Fixture SigV4 credentials are accepted.

import { DescribeExecutionCommand, SFNClient, StartExecutionCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-sfn"
import { createServer } from "@crvouga/mockingbird-service-step-functions/server"

// Test setup: start the emulator with a scripted state machine and point the SDK's endpoint at it.
const server = await createServer({
  stateMachines: [
    {
      name: "jobs",
      scripted: { status: "SUCCEEDED", output: '{"ok":true}', afterMs: 1000 },
    },
  ],
})
const sfn = new SFNClient({
  endpoint: server.url,
  region: "us-east-1",
  credentials: { accessKeyId: "fixture", secretAccessKey: "fixture" },
})

// Application code: the SFN SDK calls it already makes.
const { executionArn } = await sfn.send(
  new StartExecutionCommand({
    stateMachineArn: "arn:aws:states:us-east-1:000000000000:stateMachine:jobs",
    input: JSON.stringify({ id: 1 }),
  }),
)

// Test control: move the emulator clock past the script's `afterMs` instead of sleeping.
await fetch(`${server.url}/__admin/clock`, { method: "POST", body: JSON.stringify({ advance: 1000 }) })

const execution = await sfn.send(new DescribeExecutionCommand({ executionArn }))
console.log(execution.status, execution.output) // SUCCEEDED {"ok":true}

await server.close()

Supported operations are StartExecution, DescribeExecution, StopExecution, GetExecutionHistory, SendTaskSuccess, SendTaskFailure, and SendTaskHeartbeat. Running executions are idempotent by state-machine ARN, name, and exact input. Closed-name reuse and conflicting running input return ExecutionAlreadyExists. JSON input/output remain strings at the wire.

#Admin and deterministic controls

• GET/POST /__admin/state-machines lists or registers compact local definitions.
• GET /__admin/executions inspects executions with task tokens redacted.
• GET /__admin/executions/:arn/task-token retrieves a local callback token.
• POST /__admin/executions/:arn/transition deterministically moves a running execution to SUCCEEDED, FAILED, TIMED_OUT, or ABORTED.
• Scripted machines transition when the shared clock reaches afterMs; no polling sleep is necessary.
• Fault presets are throttled and unavailable.

The shared runtime also supplies reset, timeline, journal, metrics, faults, and namespace isolation through x-mockingbird-namespace, /__admin/ns/<name>, or SigV4 access-key mappings.

#Deliberately not modelled

The full Amazon States Language interpreter, real service integrations, Express Workflows, IAM evaluation, CloudWatch delivery, production retention limits, dashboards, and billing are not modelled. Definitions can be retained as fixtures, while deterministic scripts and callback tasks cover the current consumer contract.

#API

• StepFunctionsAPI, StepFunctionsAPIOptions, StateMachineSeed: handler and fixtures.
• Execution, ExecutionStatus, HistoryEvent, StateMachine: durable workflow state.
• createRuntime, StepFunctionsRuntime, StepFunctionsRuntimeOptions: full Mockingbird runtime.
• STEP_FUNCTIONS_NAMESPACE, STEP_FUNCTIONS_PRESETS, accessKeyCredential: constants and controls.
• document, operationIds, supportedOperationIds: generated OpenAPI metadata.
• createServer, StepFunctionsServerOptions, DEFAULT_PORT, serveTarget from ./server: Node HTTP adapter and CLI integration.

Official oracle: AWS Step Functions API Reference.