diff --git a/node/actors/bft/src/leader/state_machine.rs b/node/actors/bft/src/leader/state_machine.rs
index 5ade1930..449cb63d 100644
--- a/node/actors/bft/src/leader/state_machine.rs
+++ b/node/actors/bft/src/leader/state_machine.rs
@@ -46,7 +46,11 @@ pub(crate) struct StateMachine {
 }
 
 impl StateMachine {
-    /// Creates a new StateMachine struct.
+    /// Creates a new [`StateMachine`] instance.
+    ///
+    /// Returns a tuple containing:
+    /// * The newly created [`StateMachine`] instance.
+    /// * A sender handle that should be used to send values to be processed by the instance, asynchronously.
     #[instrument(level = "trace")]
     pub fn new(
         ctx: &ctx::Ctx,
diff --git a/node/actors/bft/src/replica/state_machine.rs b/node/actors/bft/src/replica/state_machine.rs
index 03c2192a..d4dcccaf 100644
--- a/node/actors/bft/src/replica/state_machine.rs
+++ b/node/actors/bft/src/replica/state_machine.rs
@@ -37,8 +37,12 @@ pub(crate) struct StateMachine {
 }
 
 impl StateMachine {
-    /// Creates a new StateMachine struct. We try to recover a past state from the storage module,
-    /// otherwise we initialize the state machine with whatever head block we have.
+    /// Creates a new [`StateMachine`] instance, attempting to recover a past state from the storage module,
+    /// otherwise initializes the state machine with the current head block.
+    ///
+    /// Returns a tuple containing:
+    /// * The newly created [`StateMachine`] instance.
+    /// * A sender handle that should be used to send values to be processed by the instance, asynchronously.
     pub(crate) async fn start(
         ctx: &ctx::Ctx,
         config: Arc<Config>,