Building a State Machine to Navigate Complex Travel Requirements and Border Crossing Rules
By
valzevul
A five-star bake. Worth schmearing, sharing, saving.
Summary
The article describes the author's experience building a state machine to automate travel planning decisions, particularly around visa requirements, passport rules, and border crossing complexities. It explains how traditional travel planning involves checking multiple government websites with inconsistent information, and how the author created a system to model travel eligibility as a state machine that can answer questions like whether a particular trip would work given one's current travel history and visa status. The piece explores the technical and philosophical challenges of automating decisions about border crossings when governments don't expose clear APIs or consistent data.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledCountry borders don't return JSON, they return judgment.
It isn't one check, it's a stack of small unfriendly ones, and takes around 20 minutes of clicking through government websites.
I built a state machine for travel when governments won't expose your state.
An error fare to Iceland pops up. It's cheap enough to feel like a typo and most likely will be gone in minutes.
Before I click Buy, I need to know (fast!) if it actually works for me: would I need a visa, are there any odd passport requirements, can I quickly sort out the driving permit, would it affect my Schengen 90/180 window, break UK presence tests or accidentally prevent a tax residency I am chasing.
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