The discussion on the origin of Inistate Schema
Inistate began as a company building custom software solutions. Along the way, the team envisioned a canvas-like model—a structured, business-oriented document to guide software development in a way that even non-technical users could understand. Inspired by this idea, they started experimenting with a canvas approach grounded in finite state machine (FSM) theory to define software logic.
While developing custom software, this method was continuously validated. When the company needed to build a dynamic and sustainable internal system, they applied the same approach and created what became Inistate—a tool so effective for internal use that it was eventually released as a public product.
Now, the focus has shifted to building Inistate Schema—a YAML-based template that clearly represents business logic and system workflows in a way that is easy to understand. It serves as a bridge between users and the platform, making it simpler to design, build, and maintain systems. With the integration of AI, the goal is to lower the cost and barrier, reduce complexity, and make software development accessible to everyone.
Once upon a time, an idea was born: to create a software platform that would be not only useful but also manageable and sustainable in the long run.
To make this idea real, the next logical step for Inistate was to explore the Business Model Canvas. But Inistate found that the existing Business Model Canvas seemed heavy, costly, and difficult to scale, so the decision was made to develop the software independently.
Inistate communicated with engineers and developers, discussing possibilities, technologies, and challenges. In these conversations, a key concept emerged that could bring clarity and control to the design: the Finite State Machine (FSM) model.
By applying the FSM idea, Inistate realized it could break the complex system into simple, clear states and transitions — each part manageable and predictable. This gave a framework to model the software’s behavior and development stages.
After that, Inistate redesigned the Business Model Canvas — making it flexible, scalable, and tailored to the platform’s needs.
To ensure this new model truly matched its goal — manageable and sustainable — Inistate customized the Business Model Canvas further, simplifying resources, reducing cost drivers, and focusing on long-term stability.
Finally, to bring this vision to life, Inistate decided to build the software on a cloud platform — giving the freedom to create its own system, without relying too heavily on expensive external services. And so, from a simple idea to an FSM-driven architecture, the schema evolved — clear, structured, and ready for the future.
Inistate (originally known as FETIAS, short for “For Everything There Is A Solution”) is a workflow generation platform inspired by the Finite State Machine (FSM) model. It was initially developed to improve the efficiency and structure of workflow design, offering a more intuitive and visual approach.
Despite the availability of tools like the Business Model Canvas (BMC) and Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), a comparable canvas for system-level thinking was noticeably absent. This gap highlighted the need for a framework that enables structured modeling and visualization of systems in a similarly accessible way.
Concurrently, internal development requirements emphasized the importance of building systems that are both manageable and sustainable over time. These combined insights shaped the direction of the platform.
Its schema is designed to be more accessible to both IT and non-IT professionals than conventional programming languages.
When Inistate first started helping companies build custom apps, they were trying to answer a big question: What’s the simplest way to lay out a business process so anyone can understand it?
They began by looking at familiar tools. One inspiration was the Business Model Canvas (BMC)—a visual map for planning a business.They also looked at how software moves step by step, like chapters unfolding in a story, using something called a finite state machine (FSM).
These two ideas came together in what became the Inistate Canvas: a simple way to map out your business process in three parts—states (what stage it’s in), activities (what action moves it forward), and information (what details are needed at each step).
This canvas was far more approachable than traditional methods like BPMN diagrams. Because of its simplicity, more non-technical folks started experimenting with building workflows themselves.
That sparked the next question: How can we help anyone build their own software, not just sketch it out?
That’s where the Inistate Schema came in—a human-readable YAML format that turns that canvas into real working software. It’s like giving your sketch a skeleton it can stand on.At first, this was something only Inistate engineers used, to make sure custom projects could scale. But soon, they realized this schema was their own version of what Amazon did with AWS: use it internally, and then offer it to everyone.
Now, powered by GPT conversations and the Inistate schema, anyone—technical or not—can build useful software from a chat. Built on familiarity, driven by surprise.