Create packages

source/_topics/packages

@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+---
+layout: page
+title: "Packages"
+description: "Describes all there is to know about configuration packages in Home Assistant."
+date: 2017-01-10 20:00 +0200
+sidebar: false
+comments: false
+sharing: true
+footer: true
+---
+
+## {% linkable_title About }
+
+Packages in Home Assistant provides a way to bundle different component's configuration together. We were already introduced to the two configuration styles (specifying platforms entries together or individually) on the [adding devices](/getting-started/devices) page. Both of these configuration methods require you to create the component key in the main `configuration.yaml` file. With packages we have a way to include different components, or parts of configuration using any of the `!include` directives introduced in [splitting the configuration](/topics/splitting_configuration).
+
+Packages are configured under the core `homeassistant/packages` in the configuration and take the format of a packages name (no spaces, all lower case) followed by a dictionary with the package config. For example, package `pack_1` would be created as:
+
+```yaml
+homeassistant:
+  ...
+  packages: 
+    pack_1:
+      ...package config here...
+```
+
+The package configuration can include: `switch`, `light`, `automation`, `groups` or the majority of the Home Assistant components. 
+
+It can be specified inline, or in a seperate yaml file using `!include`
+
+Inline example, main `configuration.yaml`:
+
+```yaml
+homeassistant:
+  ...
+  packages: 
+    pack_1:
+      switch:
+        - platform: rest
+          ...
+      light:
+        - platform: rpi
+          ...
+```
+
+Include example, main `configuration.yaml`:
+```yaml
+homeassistant:
+  ...
+  packages: 
+    pack_1: !include my_package.yaml
+```
+The file `my_package.yaml` contains the "top-level" configuration:
+```
+switch:
+  - platform: rest
+    ...
+light:
+  - platform: rpi
+    ...
+```
+
+There are some rules for packages that will be merged:
+
+1. Component names may only use the basic form (e.g. `switch` and `switch 1` or `switch aa` is not accepted)
+2. Platform based components (`light`, `switch`, etc) can always be merged
+3. Components where entities are identified by a key that will represent the entity_id (`{key: config}`) need to have unique 'keys' between packages and the main configuration file (`input_boolean`, `group`)
+4. Any component that is not a platform [2], or dictionaries with Entity ID keys [3] cannot be merged and can only occur once between all packages and the main config
+
+An example travel time package can be found [here](/cookbooks/travel_time)
+
+<p class='note tip'>
+Components inside packages can only specify platform entries using configuration style 1, where all the platforms are grouped under the component name.
+</p>
+
+
+### {% linkable_title Create a packages folder }
+
+One way to organise packages would be to create a folder named "packages" in your Home Assistant configuration directory. In the packages directory you can store any number of packages in a yaml file. This entry in your `configuration.yaml` will load all packages:
+
+```yaml
+homeassistant:
+  packages: !include_dir_named packages
+```
+
+This uses the concept splitting the configuration and will include all files in a directory with the keys representing the filenames.
+See the documentation about [splitting the configuration](/topics/splitting_configuration) for more information about `!include_dir_named` and other include statements that might be helpful.