Using the Start Step Functions Execution action

Integrations

You can use the Start Step Functions Execution action with the following integrations:

Requirements

The Start Step Functions Execution action requires sufficient IAM permissions - an adequate IAM policy similar to the one provisioned by the Automation with AWS (Core) CloudFormation template might look as follows:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "StepFunctionsServiceActions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "states:*",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Sid": "StepFunctionsPassRole",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:PassRole",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/service-role/StatesExecutionRole*"
        }
    ]
}

 Refer to Creating IAM Roles for Use with AWS Step Functions for details on how to create more granular/secure policies.

Configuration

To configure an Start Step Functions Execution action:

1. Complete the following settings:

   Parameters

   Specify the action parameters according to the following skeleton in JSON format – refer to stepfunctions . start-execution for details: You typically only specify the stateMachineArn and input parameters, because name must be unique for your AWS account and region and properly defaults to a GUID when absent. You can inject contextual variables into the remote action payload, refer to Entity Variables for details. Start Step Functions Execution skeleton { "stateMachineArn": "", "name": "", "input": "" }

Entity Variables

Examples

• Page:
  Start Step Functions Execution — This parameters template demonstrates the Start Step Functions Execution action:

  JSON escaping requirements

  If a parameter within the JSON formatted parameters template is a JSON structure in itself (e.g. the Lambda function payload), it needs to be escaped before adding it as a value - this has two implications:

  • custom content needs to be escaped, which can be achieved by Composing action payloads with utility functions, specifically the $util.escapeJson() function

  •  variables with conflicting content (e.g. multi line variables like JIRA's $issue.fields.description or Bamboo's $notification.textEmailContent or JSON structures retrieved via JSONPath) need to be escaped twice, via $util.escapeJson($util.escapeJson(...)) - we are exploring options on how to make this easier in a future release

  Start Step Functions Execution parameters example (escaped manually)

  {
    "StateMachineArn": "arn:aws:states:ap-southeast-2:123456789012:stateMachine:sample-AutomationWithAWSQuickstartStepFunctionsStateMachine-UHDE4Y9QTDIN",
    "Input": "{ \"Event\":\"$event.simpleName\", \"Timestamp\": \"$event.timestamp\", \"TraceID\": \"$event.traceId\"}"
  }

  Start Step Functions Execution parameters example (escaped with utility function)

  {
    "StateMachineArn": "arn:aws:states:ap-southeast-2:123456789012:stateMachine:sample-AutomationWithAWSQuickstartStepFunctionsStateMachine-UHDE4Y9QTDIN",
    "Input": "$util.escapeJson('{
      "Event": "$event.simpleName",
      "Timestamp": "$event.timestamp",
      "TraceID": "$event.traceId"
    }')"
  }

How-to Articles

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)