# `aws:executeStateMachine` – Run an Amazon Step Functions state machine
<a name="automation-action-executeStateMachine"></a>

Runs an Amazon Step Functions state machine.

**Note**  
The `aws:executeStateMachine` action supports automatic throttling retry. For more information, see [Configuring automatic retry for throttled operations](automation-throttling-retry.md).

**Input**

This action supports most parameters for the Step Functions [StartExecution](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/step-functions/latest/apireference/API_StartExecution.html) API operation.

**Required Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions**
+ `states:DescribeExecution`
+ `states:StartExecution`
+ `states:StopExecution`

------
#### [ YAML ]

```
name: executeTheStateMachine
action: aws:executeStateMachine
inputs:
  stateMachineArn: StateMachine_ARN
  input: '{"parameters":"values"}'
  name: name
```

------
#### [ JSON ]

```
{
    "name": "executeTheStateMachine",
    "action": "aws:executeStateMachine",
    "inputs": {
        "stateMachineArn": "StateMachine_ARN",
        "input": "{\"{{parameters}}\":\"{{values}}\"}",
        "name": "{{name}}"
    }
}
```

------

stateMachineArn  
The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the Step Functions state machine.  
Type: String  
Required: Yes

name  
The name of the execution.  
Type: String  
Required: No

input  
A string that contains the JSON input data for the execution.  
Type: String  
Required: No

**Outputs**  
The following outputs are predefined for this action.

executionArn  
The ARN of the execution.  
Type: String

input  
The string that contains the JSON input data of the execution. Length constraints apply to the payload size, and are expressed as bytes in UTF-8 encoding..  
Type: String

name  
The name of the execution.  
Type: String

output  
The JSON output data of the execution. Length constraints apply to the payload size, and are expressed as bytes in UTF-8 encoding.  
Type: String

startDate  
The date the execution is started.  
Type: String

stateMachineArn  
The ARN of the executed stated machine.  
Type: String

status  
The current status of the execution.  
Type: String

stopDate  
If the execution has already ended, the date the execution stopped.  
Type: String