diff --git a/Behaviors.md b/Behaviors.md
index 0fac3c5..3234ff2 100644
--- a/Behaviors.md
+++ b/Behaviors.md
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ shown on the node and editable in the inspector.
   deliberately not used: its delay and rate are an operating-system setting, not a game's. Both
   rows stay off the node body while the delay is 0, so a plain key node keeps its single line.
 - **Node set** (`src/core/graph/nodes/`, one file per node): events `On start`, `On enable`, `On update`, `On disable`, `On destroy` (see *Lifecycle*), `On key down/up/held`,
-  `On timer`, `On collision enter/stay/exit`, `On click` (the mouse pressed on the owner — anywhere when it has none), `On animation finished`, `On state entered`, `On state exited` (one output per state, see *State machines*), `Start` · flow `Branch`, `Sequence`, `Repeat`, `Run behavior`, `End`, and the three that move or follow a state machine, `State branch`, `Set state`, `State transition` (see *State machines*) · data `Self`, `Owner`, `Parent`, `Object by name`, `Name of`,
+  `On timer`, `On collision enter/stay/exit`, `On click` (the mouse pressed on the owner — anywhere when it has none), `On animation finished`, `On state entered`, `On state exited` (one output per state, see *State machines*), `Start` · flow `Branch`, `Sequence`, `Repeat`, `Run behavior`, `End`, and the four that move or follow a state machine, `State branch`, `Set state`, `Set state by name`, `State transition` (see *State machines*) · data `Self`, `Owner`, `Parent`, `Object by name`, `Name of`,
   `Is asset` (is this object an instance of asset X — how you tell what you collided with),
   `Variables`, `Properties` (every property row of the target's type, the transform rows `scale`, `rotation`, `mirrorX`, `mirrorY` included — how a graph turns a sprite), `Get position` (local and world), `Is enabled`, literals `Number`/`Text`/`Boolean`/`Texture`/`State machine`/`Sound`/`Scene`, `Add/Subtract/Multiply/Divide`,
   `Min/Max/Abs/Sqrt/Clamp`, `Floor/Ceil/Round`, `Modulo`, `Random`, `Time`, `To text`, `To number`, `Join text`,
diff --git a/Development.md b/Development.md
index 00b3845..9c0e9c8 100644
--- a/Development.md
+++ b/Development.md
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ npm run check        # typecheck + lint + format:check + tests, the gate CI runs
                      #   code is lost (tail's is reported), so a red run reads as green
 npm run build        # writes dist/ and regenerates index.html
 ./build.sh           # the same under `set -o pipefail`, for callers that pipe the output
-node tools/seed-e2e.mjs && node tools/e2e.mjs                 # 930 editor checks, screenshots in /tmp/gm-e2e-*.png
+node tools/seed-e2e.mjs && node tools/e2e.mjs                 # 932 editor checks, screenshots in /tmp/gm-e2e-*.png
 GM_STEPS=20 node tools/e2e.mjs                                # or 1-12, or 6,20 — a subset while working on one step
 ./e2e.sh start [GM_STEPS]                                     # the same run detached, see below
 ./e2e.sh status                                               # live progress, or the last run's result
@@ -232,4 +232,4 @@ widths to find click points. The **render device is not in this repo** — `/dev
 and a 1 GB `/dev/shm` come from `container.options` in the runner's own `config.yaml`, which
 applies to every job on that runner. Without them chromium falls back to llvmpipe, which gets
 WebGL 1.0 only. Measured in the job container: `ANGLE (Intel, Vulkan 1.3.230, HD Graphics 630)`,
-WebGL 2.0, and the same 930 checks as here.
+WebGL 2.0, and the same 932 checks as here.
diff --git a/Home.md b/Home.md
index a600c7d..5b256a5 100644
--- a/Home.md
+++ b/Home.md
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Live: <https://nockal.com/game-maker/> · Widget playground: <https://nockal.com
 | [Fonts](Fonts) | Uploading a typeface, what a text wears, what the editor falls back to |
 | [Sounds](Sounds) | Uploading a sound, what the asset says, `Play sound` and `Stop sound`, what a pause and a stop do to a voice |
 | [Animations](Animations) | Animation assets, the Animation tab, how they run |
-| [State machines](State-machines) | The state machine asset, its scope, named transitions, the start state, `State branch`, `Set state`, `State transition`, the two state events and the live highlight |
+| [State machines](State-machines) | The state machine asset, its scope, named transitions, the start state, `State branch` and its `else`, `Set state`, `Set state by name`, `State transition`, the two state events and the live highlight |
 | [Shaders](Shaders) | The shader asset, the Shader tab, the node set, the Adjust colors recipe, wearing a shader |
 | [Particles](Particles) | The particles asset, a particle as a formula of its age, the source's rows, the Particles tab |
 | [Containers](Containers) | Editing a template, instances and their edits, screens without scene switching |
diff --git a/State-machines.md b/State-machines.md
index dbbca0e..3bec294 100644
--- a/State-machines.md
+++ b/State-machines.md
@@ -42,17 +42,26 @@ when they do). That is the point of naming them — a single `State transition`
 A transition does **not** restrict `Set state`: that node still puts the machine into any state it
 is wired to. What the arrows are for at runtime is `State transition`.
 
-**A behavior reads it through three nodes**, each with a `machine` input that is a picker while
+**A behavior reads it through four nodes**, each with a `machine` input that is a picker while
 unconnected (or takes a `State machine` node, the literal every kind has):
 
 - **`State branch`** grows **one exec output per state**, named after the state, and continues
-  along the one the machine is in. Without a start state, and before `Set state` has run, the
-  machine is in **no state** and the flow ends there. A state the machine no longer has (deleted,
-  or of another machine) ends it too — the run ignores a ghost port, whatever the canvas draws.
+  along the one the machine is in. Below them sits **`else`**, and it carries everything the states
+  do not: no start state and no `Set state` yet, a state the machine no longer has (deleted, or of
+  another machine), or a machine that arrived as a value and therefore has no state outputs at all.
+  A flow that enters this node always leaves it somewhere — a branch nobody can see taken is the
+  hardest kind to debug. `else` is derived like the states rather than fixed, so it sits *under*
+  them, the way the way out of a `Branch` sits under what it is an exception to.
 - **`Set state`** is the mirror image: **one exec input per state**, one exec output. The input the
   flow *arrives through* names the new state — so `OnStart → Set state (Open)` and `On key down →
   Set state (Closed)` are two edges into one node. The interpreter hands every node the exec input
   a pulse entered through (`run(…, entry)`); this is the first node to read it.
+- **`Set state by name`** does the same job with a **text** instead of a port, for the machine that
+  arrives as a value and has no ports to offer. It resolves the text as a **state id first, then as
+  a name**; a name **two** states share resolves to nothing, the same rule `State transition`
+  follows for two arrows of one name, and for the same reason. Missing the target is not silence:
+  the node has a second exec output **`not found`** that carries the flow on, so a typo, a deleted
+  state or an empty machine can be logged or answered with a default instead of stopping there.
 - **`State transition`** takes the transition of a chosen **name** out of the current state, then
   continues. The name is picked in the inspector from the transitions of the machine on its
   `machine` input — the options depend on another field, which no field kind can express, so that
@@ -69,7 +78,11 @@ warning colour, and *Disconnect* on its right-click menu removes it. Put the sta
 edge works again. Which machine the
 ports belong to is read off the graph, not off a running value — the inline pick, or a
 `State machine` literal wired in; a variable or an `Item at` feeding the input yields no state
-ports, exactly as `Run behavior` knows its behavior only as a setting. Picking another machine
+ports, exactly as `Run behavior` knows its behavior only as a setting. That machine is still not
+stuck: `Set state by name` names the state as text, `State branch` leaves along `else`, and
+`Current state` answers as always. The price is spelled out, not hidden — a name is typed, so a
+typo is possible where a port made it impossible, which is what `not found` is there for.
+Picking another machine
 orphans the edges of the old states, the way any setting that decides a node's ports does.
 
 Two more read it as **data** rather than as a flow, both pure readers (no exec ports, answered