# Ti*k*Z, automata: Change decoration of initial state?

I'm partial to marking the initial state of my automata with a '>' (somewhat larger) pointing at the state. I find the "initial -->" distracting. Is there any way to change the default?

You can just decrease the initial distance and use arrows.meta to add a largish arrow.

\documentclass[tikz,border=3mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{automata,arrows.meta}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
every initial by arrow/.style={-{Straight Barb[length=5pt,width=6pt]}},
initial distance=0.01cm,initial text={}]
\node[state,initial] {$q_0$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


• Fooling around before seeing your answer I came to essentially the same solution. Thanks! Feb 23 '20 at 0:15

This may interest you -- from the pgf manual chapter on decoration.markings at page 646 --

Position and color can be adjusted as per your choice -- this is only a rough draft

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{automata, decorations.shapes, shapes.geometric}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[>=latex, decoration={shape= isosceles triangle, shape
width=0.65cm, shape height=0.45cm,shape sep=0.75cm,shape backgrounds}]
\node[state] (q_0) {$q_0$};
\draw[decorate, fill=red] (-2cm,0)-- node[above]{start} (q_0);
\draw [decorate, fill=red](1,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}