AWS Step Functions State Machine
Does ZopNight manage AWS Step Functions State Machine?
AWS Step Functions bills Standard workflows per state transition and Express workflows per request plus GB-second duration, so a looping state machine meters on every iteration. ZopNight discovers state machines and tracks execution cost per state machine; Step Functions cannot be added to a ZopNight schedule, so halting executions with states:StopExecution stays a manual step.
Rules that fire on AWS Step Functions State Machine
At a glance
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Scheduling notes | discovery and cost tracking only; state machines cannot be scheduled. |
AWS Step Functions orchestrates multi-step workflows across AWS services, billed per state transition (Standard) or per request and duration (Express). Long-running or looping executions can quietly drive both Step Functions charges and downstream compute cost.
Standard counts transitions; Express counts time
A Standard workflow bills per state transition: every step of every execution, retries included, is a metered event. An Express workflow bills per request plus GB-seconds of duration, like Lambda. The same definition can be dramatically cheaper on one type than the other depending on its shape: high-volume, short-lived workflows favor Express, while long-running or human-in-the-loop workflows require Standard and its per-transition meter.
Loops multiply the meter
The cost amplifier in Standard workflows is iteration. A Map state fanning out over 10,000 items, or a polling loop of wait, check, repeat, turns one execution into thousands of billable transitions, and each transition may also invoke Lambda functions or ECS tasks that bill on their own meters. Generous retry policies do the same thing in slow motion, re-billing failed paths for hours.
Why a state machine has no schedule
A state machine definition has no stopped state; it is configuration, permanently ready to execute. The only lever is halting executions with states:StopExecution, which terminates rather than pauses them, so anything mid-flight is cut, not resumed. ZopNight does not offer Step Functions on a schedule; quieting a workflow overnight means pausing whatever triggers it (an EventBridge rule, a queue consumer) instead.
Coverage and cost
State machines are discovered on the 6-hour cycle, with execution cost attributed from Cost Explorer or CUR 2.0. No recommendation fires: the idle rule (RC-183) is retired because a state machine with no executions costs nothing.
Executions in the console
Step Functions console, then State machines, then a machine’s Executions tab. A machine with executions perpetually in Running status is where transition counts and downstream compute accumulate unseen. Sorting that list by start time is worth doing whenever a workflow bill surprises.