# StateBackend

> **Class** in `deepagents`

📖 [View in docs](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend)

Backend that stores files in agent state (ephemeral).

Uses LangGraph's state management and checkpointing. Files persist within
a conversation thread but not across threads. State is automatically
checkpointed after each agent step.

Reads and writes go through LangGraph's `CONFIG_KEY_READ` /
`CONFIG_KEY_SEND` so that state updates are queued as proper channel
writes rather than returned as `files_update` dicts.

## Signature

```python
StateBackend(
    self,
    runtime: object = None,
    *,
    file_format: FileFormat = 'v2',
)
```

## Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|------|------|----------|-------------|
| `runtime` | `object` | No | Deprecated - accepted for backward compatibility but ignored.  State is now read/written via `get_config()`. (default: `None`) |
| `file_format` | `FileFormat` | No | Storage format version. `"v1"` stores content as `list[str]` (lines split on `\\n`) without an `encoding` field.  `"v2"` (default) stores content as a plain `str` with an `encoding` field. (default: `'v2'`) |

## Extends

- `BackendProtocol`

## Constructors

```python
__init__(
    self,
    runtime: object = None,
    *,
    file_format: FileFormat = 'v2',
) -> None
```

| Name | Type |
|------|------|
| `runtime` | `object` |
| `file_format` | `FileFormat` |


## Methods

- [`ls()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/ls)
- [`read()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/read)
- [`write()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/write)
- [`edit()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/edit)
- [`grep()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/grep)
- [`glob()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/glob)
- [`upload_files()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/upload_files)
- [`download_files()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/deepagents/backends/state/StateBackend/download_files)

---

[View source on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/deepagents/blob/bb27e62ebe44dd6e8104a504b1718ce87acc7ffa/libs/deepagents/deepagents/backends/state.py#L38)