Persistent serverless state machines with XState and Restate

XState is a JavaScript framework that facilitates the creation of state machines, often used in frontend applications for managing state transitions based on user interactions and HTTP responses. However, its reliance on continuous code execution and in-memory state storage poses challenges for backend deployment. Restate addresses these challenges by offering a durable execution engine that can transform straightforward code into fault-tolerant, distributed system code, allowing state machines to persist across time and failures. This integration enables the creation of "virtual state machines" that react to events and store their state durably, thereby supporting long-lived business processes like user onboarding or financial transactions. By combining XState with Restate, complex stateful processes can be simplified into flowcharts and functions while enabling deployment as serverless functions, thus enhancing resilience and scalability without altering the code for different environments.