Systems and methods which implement declarative language for specifying states within imperative code are shown. According to embodiments an application program developer declaratively identifies one or more states within the imperative code of the application program. Declarative language identifying a particular state of an application program may both operate to identify the state and to describe the state so that the state may be selected or “jumped to” without a user having to navigate the application program flow to arrive at the state. Particular states may be described using a difference or “delta” between the particular state and another state, such as a base state. Transitions may be implemented between states, such as to provide animation, fading, color change, et cetera.