@flyboarder is this like a "lifecycle" thing for components, or a way to categorise data associated with the component?

@thedavidmeister a state machine for elements i guess

ok so you're moving through each of these states in response to something

Yes

looks to me like the lifecycle of async data (e.g. from user input or remote server) rather than a DOM component

e.g. i'm working on a simple "read more" popdown icon atm and it looks like this:

(h/defelem vertical
 [{:keys [expand? current-el? enabled?]}]
 (let [expand? (or expand? (j/cell false))
       current-el? (or current-el? (j/cell false))
       enabled? (or enabled? (j/cell true))]
  ; el gaining current status should also expand but losing current should not
  ; hide automatically
  (h/do-watch current-el?
   (fn [_ n]
    (when (and n @enabled?)
     (reset! expand? true))))

  (h/div
   :garden {:cursor :pointer}

   (h/if-tpl enabled?
    (h/div
     ; current-el? uses click so we do here as well to avoid async issues
     :click (fn [e]
             (swap! expand? not)
             (wheel.dom.events/stop-propagation e))
     (icons.hoplon/icon "#more"))

    (h/div :class "icon-space")))))

the states are focussed on managing whether the current element is in focus, whether the icon should display, whether the content is currently expanded, etc.