How to execute AWS Step Functions locally using a State Machine defined in a file?

Question

I have followed the steps from the AWS docs in order to set up and run AWS Step Functions locally: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/step-functions/latest/dg/sfn-local-lambda.html.

Everything works well, but on step #5 it says that you have to create a State Machine and doing this using the command line can be a pain when the definition contains a lot of tasks.

Is there any way to start the execution of a State Machine defined in a local .asl file?

This is an example of a State Machine that I have defined locally (from template):

{
    "Comment": "A state machine that does mock stock trading.",
    "StartAt": "Check Stock Value",
    "States": {
        "Check Stock Value": {
            "Type": "Task",
            "Resource": "${StockCheckerFunctionArn}",
            "Retry": [
                {
                    "ErrorEquals": [
                        "States.TaskFailed"
                    ],
                    "IntervalSeconds": 15,
                    "MaxAttempts": 5,
                    "BackoffRate": 1.5
                }
            ],
            "Next": "Buy or Sell?"
        },
        "Buy or Sell?": {
            "Type": "Choice",
            "Choices": [
                {
                    "Variable": "$.stock_price",
                    "NumericLessThanEquals": 50,
                    "Next": "Buy Stock"
                }
            ],
            "Default": "Sell Stock"
        },
        "Sell Stock": {
            "Type": "Task",
            "Resource": "${StockSellerFunctionArn}",
            "Retry": [
                {
                    "ErrorEquals": [
                        "States.TaskFailed"
                    ],
                    "IntervalSeconds": 2,
                    "MaxAttempts": 3,
                    "BackoffRate": 1
                }
            ],
            "Next": "Record Transaction"
        },
        "Buy Stock": {
            "Type": "Task",
            "Resource": "${StockBuyerFunctionArn}",
            "Retry": [
                {
                    "ErrorEquals": [
                        "States.TaskFailed"
                    ],
                    "IntervalSeconds": 2,
                    "MaxAttempts": 3,
                    "BackoffRate": 1
                }
            ],
            "Next": "Record Transaction"
        },
        "Record Transaction": {
            "Type": "Task",
            "Resource": "${DDBPutItem}",
            "Parameters": {
                "TableName": "${DDBTable}",
                "Item": {
                    "Id": {
                        "S.$": "$.id"
                    },
                    "Type": {
                        "S.$": "$.type"
                    },
                    "Price": {
                        "N.$": "$.price"
                    },
                    "Quantity": {
                        "N.$": "$.qty"
                    },
                    "Timestamp": {
                        "S.$": "$.timestamp"
                    }
                }
            },
            "Retry": [
                {
                    "ErrorEquals": [
                        "States.TaskFailed"
                    ],
                    "IntervalSeconds": 20,
                    "MaxAttempts": 5,
                    "BackoffRate": 10
                }
            ],
            "End": true
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You can use cat to read the file into a string.

aws stepfunctions --endpoint http://localhost:8083 create-state-machine --definition "$(cat local.asl.json)" --name "HelloWorld" --role-arn "arn:aws:iam::012345678901:role/DummyRole"