@xstate/inspect

What is @xstate/inspect?

@xstate/inspect is a tool for visualizing, inspecting, and debugging XState state machines and statecharts. It provides a way to see the current state, events, and transitions of your state machines in real-time, which can be extremely helpful for development and debugging purposes.

What are @xstate/inspect's main functionalities?

Real-time Inspection

This feature allows you to inspect the state machine in real-time. By using the `inspect` function, you can open a new window or an iframe that shows the current state, events, and transitions of your state machine.

import { inspect } from '@xstate/inspect';

inspect({
  iframe: false // open in new window
});

// Then, use the inspect service in your XState machine
import { createMachine, interpret } from 'xstate';

const toggleMachine = createMachine({
  id: 'toggle',
  initial: 'inactive',
  states: {
    inactive: { on: { TOGGLE: 'active' } },
    active: { on: { TOGGLE: 'inactive' } }
  }
});

const service = interpret(toggleMachine, { devTools: true }).start();

Event Logging

This feature logs events and state transitions to the console, which can be useful for debugging and understanding the flow of your state machine.

import { inspect } from '@xstate/inspect';

inspect({
  iframe: false // open in new window
});

import { createMachine, interpret } from 'xstate';

const toggleMachine = createMachine({
  id: 'toggle',
  initial: 'inactive',
  states: {
    inactive: { on: { TOGGLE: 'active' } },
    active: { on: { TOGGLE: 'inactive' } }
  }
});

const service = interpret(toggleMachine, { devTools: true }).onTransition((state) => {
  console.log(state.value);
}).start();

State Visualization

This feature provides a visual representation of your state machine, showing the current state, possible transitions, and events. This can be extremely helpful for understanding and debugging complex state machines.

import { inspect } from '@xstate/inspect';

inspect({
  iframe: false // open in new window
});

import { createMachine, interpret } from 'xstate';

const toggleMachine = createMachine({
  id: 'toggle',
  initial: 'inactive',
  states: {
    inactive: { on: { TOGGLE: 'active' } },
    active: { on: { TOGGLE: 'inactive' } }
  }
});

const service = interpret(toggleMachine, { devTools: true }).start();

// The state visualization will be available in the new window or iframe

Other packages similar to @xstate/inspect

redux-devtools

Redux DevTools is a set of tools to help with debugging Redux applications. It provides a way to inspect the state and actions of your Redux store in real-time, similar to how @xstate/inspect works for XState state machines. However, Redux DevTools is specifically designed for Redux and does not support XState state machines.

mobx-devtools

MobX DevTools is a set of tools for inspecting and debugging MobX applications. It provides real-time inspection of the state and actions in your MobX store, similar to @xstate/inspect for XState. However, it is specifically designed for MobX and does not support XState state machines.

reactotron

Reactotron is a desktop app for inspecting and debugging React and React Native applications. It provides real-time inspection of state, actions, and network requests, similar to @xstate/inspect. However, it is more general-purpose and not specifically designed for XState state machines.

README

The README file is missing