May 16, 2026 — 15 min — Systems Notes
State Machines in 2026: Durable Execution for Agents and Workflows
Why the May 2026 state-machine story is not finite automata becoming fashionable again, but durable execution becoming the reliability boundary for agents, workflow engines, and document-heavy product systems.
Outcome: Reader can distinguish statechart formalism from durable execution, pick the right runtime for agents and long-running workflows, and model document-heavy product lifecycles with explicit states, transitions, checkpoints, and ownership.