Yes, programming it as a state machine is straightforward and there's already mods that do this. I was working on something that would automate MC a while back

Yes, programming it as a state machine is straightforward and there's already mods that do this. I was working on something that would automate MC a while back, too, and I programmed it as a state machine that would loop through various tasks, which consist of subtasks. When you have a goal (like gathering diamonds), that's just a list of tasks -- and then each subtask consists of a list of tasks too, until you break it down to the "point at block", "walk to block", "swing hammer" level, etc. It was fun but I am pathologically bad at finishing projects that I start.