A one-shot state transition decoder receives a codeword having N-bits. The decoder reads a first D-bits of the codeword to determine a stitching location d within the codeword. The stitching location identifies a start bit of unencoded data in the codeword. The codeword is decoded into an output buffer for user data of L bits, where N>L. Parameters of the decoder are set before the decoding, including setting a length of the codeword to N−L+d and a number of expected decoded bits to d. The decoding including decoding the d bits based on a set of state transition probabilities and copying decoded bits into the output buffer, the unencoded data being copied to the end of the output buffer.