State Bags in FiveM: what they are and why they matter

A State Bag is a sticky note you slap on a player, a car, or the whole server, and everyone who needs it sees the same note. Before State Bags, a script that wanted to know "is this player on duty?" had to keep asking the server, over and over. Now you write the answer once, right on the player. Any script reads it instantly, and you only get pinged when it changes. This is how modern FiveM servers share data between resources.

You'll build: Three working State Bags - player duty status, vehicle lock state, and a global double-XP flag - read from multiple resources.
Time: ~25 minutes
You need: A local FiveM server with OneSync enabled (it is by default), basic Lua knowledge.
You'll learn: Player vs Entity vs Global State Bags, setting and reading values, replication, change handlers, and why State Bags replaced constant event spam.

BEFORE YOU START

Build it

Create the resource

A resource with client and server scripts.

code

resources/qu_statebags/
fxmanifest.lua
server.lua
client.lua

code

fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'gta5'
server_script 'server.lua'
client_script 'client.lua'

Set a player State Bag (server)

Any script can read this player's duty status.

code

-- When a player connects, set their duty status
AddEventHandler('playerJoining', function()
local src = source
local playerState = Player(src).state

-- Set initial values
playerState:set('onduty', false, true)   -- true = replicate to all clients
playerState:set('job', 'unemployed', true)

print('Player ' .. src .. ' joined - state initialized')
end)

State Bags in FiveM: what they are and why they matter

Build it

Create the resource

Set a player State Bag (server)

Read a player State Bag (client)

Change the state and watch it sync

React to changes with a handler

Use entity State Bags for vehicles

Use Global State for server-wide events

Keep reading the full lesson