---
title: Folder watcher
description: Integration for monitoring changes within the filesystem.
ha_category:
  - System monitor
ha_iot_class: Local Polling
ha_config_flow: true
ha_release: 0.67
ha_quality_scale: internal
ha_platforms:
  - event
ha_domain: folder_watcher
ha_integration_type: integration
---

The **Folder watcher** {% term integration %} adds [Watchdog](https://pythonhosted.org/watchdog/) file system monitoring.

It creates event entities for these monitored event types:

- `closed`
- `created`
- `deleted`
- `modified`
- `moved`

Configured folders must be added to [allowlist_external_dirs](/integrations/homeassistant/#allowlist_external_dirs). Note that by default folder monitoring is recursive, meaning that the contents of sub-folders are also monitored.

{% include integrations/config_flow.md %}

## Patterns

Pattern matching using [fnmatch](https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/fnmatch.html) can be used to limit filesystem monitoring to only files which match the configured patterns.
As example to monitor specific file, as example YAML and text-files add `*.yaml` and `*.txt`.

## Automations

The attributes the event entities contain are:
- `event_type`: matching the `event_type` of the filter (one of `created`, `moved`, `modified`, `deleted`, `closed`)
- `path`: The full path to the file (e.g. "/hello/world.txt")
- `file`: The name of the file (e.g. "world.txt")
- `folder`: The folder path (e.g. "/hello")

When the `event_type` is `moved`, the file details are for the source file and destination details are included:
- `dest_path`: The full path to the moved file (e.g. "/hello/world.txt")
- `dest_file`: The name of the moved file (e.g. "world.txt")
- `dest_folder`: The folder moved path (e.g. "/hello")

Automations can be triggered on file system events data using a template. The following automation will send a notification with the name and folder of new files added to that folder:

{% raw %}

```yaml
#Send notification for new image (including the image itself)
automation:
  alias: "New file alert"
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id: event.created
  actions:
    - action: notify.notify
      data:
        title: New image captured!
        message: "Created {{ trigger.to_state.attributes.file }} in {{ trigger.to_state.attributes.folder }}"
        data:
          file: "{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.file }}"
```

{% endraw %}