Ha automations

HA Automations

Describe in English → write YAML → ha core check → reload → verify. Home Assistant's failure mode is almost never an error message; it's an automation that loads fine and silently never does what you meant. The loop below exists because of that. Assumes the lanes and env from ha-connect, and entity ids confirmed via ha-context-map, never guessed.

The loop

1. Pin down the English first

"Turn off the TV when nobody's around" hides every real decision: which entity is the TV, what does "nobody's around" mean (motion silence? for how long?), what must prevent it (media actively playing?), does it ever turn back on. Write the trigger / conditions / actions as three English bullets and get them agreed before YAML. Ambiguity in, dead automation out.

2. Write the YAML

UI-managed automations live in /config/automations.yaml as a list; each entry needs a unique id: (the UI uses timestamps; any unique string works) and an alias:.

- id: tv_idle_shutdown
  alias: TV idle shutdown
  description: Turn off the TV after 2h with no motion in the living areas
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id:
        - binary_sensor.living_room_motion
        - binary_sensor.kitchen_motion
      to: "off"
      for: "02:00:00"
  conditions:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: media_player.tv
      state: "on"        # don't fire into a TV that's already off
  actions:
    - action: media_player.turn_off
      target:
        entity_id: media_player.tv
  mode: single

Back up before editing, edit via the pull-down/push-up pattern from ha-connect (not inline sed over SSH), and know that the entity id HA mints for the automation slugs from the alias, not the id: automation.tv_idle_shutdown here, but rename the alias and the entity id follows on reload.

Test any nontrivial Jinja against live state via POST /api/template before embedding it (recipe in ha-connect).

3. Check, then reload: never skip, never restart

ssh root@<HA_HOST> 'ha core check'          # must pass before reload
curl -s -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $HA_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}' \
  "http://$HA_HOST:8123/api/services/automation/reload"

ha core check catches YAML/schema errors; the reload picks up automations.yaml without a Core restart (a restart drops every for: timer currently counting and briefly kills the whole house; reserve it for configuration.yaml changes that actually require it).

4. Verify. The step that isn't optional

A clean reload proves the YAML parsed. It does not prove the automation exists as you intended, will trigger, or that its actions work. Three verification tiers, cheapest first:

# (a) The automation entity exists and is on
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $HA_TOKEN" \
  "http://$HA_HOST:8123/api/states/automation.tv_idle_shutdown" \
  | jq '{state, attributes: {last_triggered: .attributes.last_triggered}}'

# (b) Force-run the ACTIONS (skips triggers/conditions) and watch the target
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $HA_TOKEN" "http://$HA_HOST:8123/api/states/media_player.tv" | jq .state
curl -s -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $HA_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"entity_id": "automation.tv_idle_shutdown"}' \
  "http://$HA_HOST:8123/api/services/automation/trigger"
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $HA_TOKEN" "http://$HA_HOST:8123/api/states/media_player.tv" | jq .state

# (c) For the real trigger path: cause the condition (or wait for it), then
# read last_triggered and the trace (UI: Settings → Automations → Traces)

Tier (b) is the workhorse: read the target entity before, trigger, read it after, and show both values. "The call returned 200" is not a result; "on" → "off" is. Note automation.trigger bypasses conditions by default: it validates the actions, not the logic.

The silent-failure traps

These are the ways an automation lies to you. Check them before declaring one done, and first when debugging one that "just stopped working".

• Writes can silently no-op. A service call to a wrong-but-plausible entity id, a climate.set_temperature in the wrong HVAC mode, a turn_off on something already off: all return success. The only proof of a write is re-reading the entity afterwards. Before/after or it didn't happen.
• A dead service call aborts the rest of the automation. If an action calls a service that no longer exists (the classic: a notify.mobile_app_<old_phone> left behind by a replaced phone), the automation errors out at that step and every later action is skipped, with nothing visible unless you read the trace or the error log. When an automation "partially works", look for a dead action above the missing ones.
• Event-entity attribute triggers go dead after the first event. A state trigger with attribute: event_type, to: "pressed" on an event.* entity only fires when the attribute changes. If the entity has a single event type (many doorbells), the attribute never changes again and the automation dies silently after one firing. Trigger on the entity's state with not_from: ["unknown", "unavailable"] instead: the state is the last-event timestamp, which changes every event. (Event entities that clear between detections don't have this problem; know which kind yours is.)
• for: durations reset on any flicker of the watched state, and a Core restart (not a reload) resets them all. An automation that "never fires" on a long for: may be getting reset by a chattering sensor; check the sensor's history.
• Guessed entity ids fail quietly. ha core check does not validate that entity ids exist. light.livingroom in an action is a runtime error in a trace you'll never read, not a config error. Ids come from ha-context-map, verified, or from a live /api/states read.
• Renaming the alias renames the automation.* entity id, breaking anything that referenced the old one (dashboards, other automations).

Debugging one that never fires

In order: (1) the automation entity is on (not unavailable; that's an orphaned registry entry); (2) last_triggered: never, or fired-then-dead? (3) fired-then-dead on an event entity → the attribute-trigger trap above; (4) never → verify each trigger entity id exists and check the trace of a forced condition; (5) fires but actions misbehave → dead-service abort, then per-action before/after reads.

Traces (Settings → Automations → your automation → Traces) store the last runs with per-step results; read them before theorizing.

Doctrine

• One automation per concern; mode: single unless you have a reason.
• Prefer conditions that make firing safe over clever (guard "is it even on?" rather than trusting the trigger).
• Off-actions are safer than on-actions to automate; be conservative about automations that turn things on or unlock/open anything.
• Every change ends with a before/after read of the affected entity, pasted, not asserted.