---
title: RESTful
description: Instructions on how to integrate REST sensors into Home Assistant.
ha_category:
- Sensor
ha_release: 0.7.4
ha_iot_class: Local Polling
ha_domain: rest
---
The `rest` sensor platform is consuming a given endpoint which is exposed by a [RESTful API](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer) of a device, an application, or a web service. The sensor has support for GET and POST requests.
To enable this sensor, add the following lines to your `configuration.yaml` file for a GET request:
```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT
```
or for a POST request:
```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT
method: POST
payload: '{ "device" : "heater" }'
```
or a template based request:
{% raw %}
```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource_template: http://IP_ADDRESS/{{ now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}
```
{% endraw %}
{% configuration %}
resource:
description: The resource or endpoint that contains the value.
required: true
type: string
resource_template:
description: The resource or endpoint that contains the value with template support.
required: true
type: template
method:
description: The method of the request. Either `POST` or `GET`.
required: false
type: string
default: GET
name:
description: Name of the REST sensor.
required: false
type: string
default: REST Sensor
device_class:
description: Sets the [class of the device](/integrations/sensor/), changing the device state and icon that is displayed on the frontend.
required: false
type: string
value_template:
description: "Defines a [template](/docs/configuration/templating/#processing-incoming-data) to extract the value."
required: false
type: template
payload:
description: The payload to send with a POST request. Depends on the service, but usually formed as JSON.
required: false
type: string
verify_ssl:
description: Verify the SSL certificate of the endpoint.
required: false
type: boolean
default: True
timeout:
description: Defines max time to wait data from the endpoint.
required: false
type: integer
default: 10
unit_of_measurement:
description: Defines the units of measurement of the sensor, if any.
required: false
type: string
authentication:
description: Type of the HTTP authentication. `basic` or `digest`.
required: false
type: string
username:
description: The username for accessing the REST endpoint.
required: false
type: string
password:
description: The password for accessing the REST endpoint.
required: false
type: string
headers:
description: The headers for the requests.
required: false
type: [string, list]
json_attributes:
description: A list of keys to extract values from a JSON dictionary result and then set as sensor attributes. If the endpoint returns XML with the "text/xml" or "application/xml" content type, it will automatically be converted to JSON according to this [specification](https://www.xml.com/pub/a/2006/05/31/converting-between-xml-and-json.html)
required: false
type: [string, list]
json_attributes_path:
description: A [JSONPath](https://goessner.net/articles/JsonPath/) that references the location of the `json_attributes` in the JSON content.
required: false
type: string
force_update:
description: Sends update events even if the value hasn't changed. Useful if you want to have meaningful value graphs in history.
required: false
type: boolean
default: false
{% endconfiguration %}
Use either `resource` or `resource_template`.
`curl` can help you identify the variable you want to display in your Home Assistant frontend. The example below shows the JSON response of a device that is running with [aREST](https://arest.io/).
```bash
$ curl -X GET http://192.168.1.31/temperature/
{"temperature": 77, "id": "sensor02", "name": "livingroom", "connected": true}
```
The response is expected to be a dictionary or a list with a dictionary as its 0th element.
## Examples
In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.
### External IP address
You can find your external IP address using the service [JSON Test](https://www.jsontest.com/) at their [http://ip.jsontest.com/](http://ip.jsontest.com/) URL.
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://ip.jsontest.com
name: External IP
value_template: '{% raw %}{{ value_json.ip }}{% endraw %}'
```
### Single value from a local Glances instance
The [glances](/integrations/glances) sensor is doing the exact same thing for all exposed values.
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://IP_ADRRESS:61208/api/2/mem/used
name: Used mem
value_template: '{% raw %}{{ value_json.used| multiply(0.000000954) | round(0) }}{% endraw %}'
unit_of_measurement: MB
```
### Value from another Home Assistant instance
The Home Assistant [API](/developers/rest_api/) exposes the data from your attached sensors. If you are running multiple Home Assistant instances which are not [connected](/developers/architecture/#multiple-connected-instances) you can still get information from them.
If the Home Assistant instance in the resource variable is protected by an API password, you can append `?api_password=YOUR_PASSWORD` to the resource URL to authenticate or use `headers:`.
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:8123/api/states/sensor.weather_temperature
name: Temperature
value_template: {% raw %}'{{ value_json.state }}'{% endraw %}
unit_of_measurement: "°C"
```
### Accessing an HTTP authentication protected endpoint
The REST sensor supports HTTP authentication and customized headers.
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:5000/sensor
username: ha1
password: test1
authentication: basic
headers:
User-Agent: Home Assistant
Content-Type: application/json
```
The headers will contain all relevant details. This will also give you the ability to access endpoints that are protected by tokens.
```bash
Content-Length: 1024
Host: IP_ADDRESS1:5000
Authorization: Basic aGExOnRlc3Qx
Accept-Encoding: identity
Content-Type: application/json
User-Agent: Home Assistant
```
If you are accessing a resource protected by a `Bearer` token in an `Authorization` header, you can either put the token in the header field of the sensor configuration (not recommended) or store the token in your [`secrets.yaml`](/docs/configuration/secrets/) file. In that case, be sure to include the word `Bearer` in the `secrets` file.
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:5000/sensor
headers:
Authorization: !secret my_sensor_secret_token
```
Example entry for the `secrets.yaml` file:
```yaml
my_sensor_secret_token: Bearer gh_DHQIXKVf6Pr4H8Yqz8uhApk_mnV6Zje6Pr4H8Yqz8A8nCxz6SBghQdS51
```
### Use GitHub to get the latest release of Home Assistant
This sample is very similar to the [`updater`](/integrations/updater/) integration but the information is received from GitHub.
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: https://api.github.com/repos/home-assistant/home-assistant/releases/latest
username: YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME
password: YOUR_GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN
authentication: basic
value_template: '{% raw %}{{ value_json.tag_name }}{% endraw %}'
headers:
Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json
Content-Type: application/json
User-Agent: Home Assistant REST sensor
```
### Fetch multiple JSON values and present them as attributes
[JSON Test](https://www.jsontest.com/) returns the current time, date and milliseconds since epoch from [http://date.jsontest.com/](http://date.jsontest.com/).
{% raw %}
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
name: JSON time
json_attributes:
- date
- milliseconds_since_epoch
resource: http://date.jsontest.com/
value_template: '{{ value_json.time }}'
- platform: template
sensors:
date:
friendly_name: 'Date'
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.json_time.attributes["date"] }}'
milliseconds:
friendly_name: 'milliseconds'
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.json_time.attributes["milliseconds_since_epoch"] }}'
```
{% endraw %}
[JSONPlaceholder](https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/) provides sample JSON data for testing. In the below example, JSONPath locates the attributes in the JSON document. [JSONPath Online Evaluator](https://jsonpath.com/) provides a tool to test your JSONPath. If the endpoint returns XML, it will be converted to JSON using `xmltodict` before searching for attributes. You may find the [XMLtoDict debug tool](https://xmltodict-debugger.glitch.me/) helpful for testing how your XML converts to JSON.
{% raw %}
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
name: JSON users
json_attributes_path: "$.[0].address"
json_attributes:
- street
- suite
- city
- zipcode
resource: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users
value_template: '{{ value_json[0].name }}'
```
{% endraw %}
This sample fetches a weather report from [OpenWeatherMap](https://openweathermap.org/), maps the resulting data into attributes of the RESTful sensor and then creates a set of [template](/integrations/template) sensors that monitor the attributes and present the values in a usable form.
{% raw %}
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
name: OWM_report
json_attributes:
- main
- weather
value_template: '{{ value_json["weather"][0]["description"].title() }}'
resource: https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?zip=80302,us&APPID=VERYSECRETAPIKEY
- platform: template
sensors:
owm_weather:
value_template: '{{ state_attr('sensor.owm_report', 'weather')[0]["description"].title() }}'
entity_picture_template: '{{ "https://openweathermap.org/img/w/"+state_attr('sensor.owm_report', 'weather')[0]["icon"].lower()+".png" }}'
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
owm_temp:
friendly_name: 'Outside temp'
value_template: '{{ state_attr('sensor.owm_report', 'main')["temp"]-273.15 }}'
unit_of_measurement: "°C"
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
owm_pressure:
friendly_name: 'Outside pressure'
value_template: '{{ state_attr('sensor.owm_report', 'main')["pressure"] }}'
unit_of_measurement: "hP"
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
owm_humidity:
friendly_name: 'Outside humidity'
value_template: '{{ state_attr('sensor.owm_report', 'main')["humidity"] }}'
unit_of_measurement: "%"
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
```
{% endraw %}
This configuration shows how to extract multiple values from a dictionary with `json_attributes` and `template`. It helps you to avoid flooding the REST service and only ask once the results and separate them in multiple templates referring to it. (No need for a specific state on the REST sensor and it's default state will be the full JSON value which will be longer than the 255 max length. It's why we'll used a static value)
{% raw %}
```json
{
"bedroom1": {
"temperature": 15.79,
"humidity": 55.78,
"battery": 5.26,
"timestamp": "2019-02-27T22:21:37Z"
},
"bedroom2": {
"temperature": 18.99,
"humidity": 49.81,
"battery": 5.08,
"timestamp": "2019-02-27T22:23:44Z"
},
"bedroom3": {
"temperature": 18.58,
"humidity": 47.95,
"battery": 5.15,
"timestamp": "2019-02-27T22:21:22Z"
}
}
```
{% endraw %}
{% raw %}
```yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
name: room_sensors
resource: http://
json_attributes:
- bedroom1
- bedroom2
- bedroom3
value_template: 'OK'
- platform: template
sensors:
bedroom1_temperature:
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.room_sensors.attributes["bedroom1"]["temperature"] }}'
device_class: temperature
unit_of_measurement: '°C'
bedroom1_humidity:
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.room_sensors.attributes["bedroom1"]["humidity"] }}'
device_class: humidity
unit_of_measurement: '%'
bedroom1_battery:
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.room_sensors.attributes["bedroom1"]["battery"] }}'
device_class: battery
unit_of_measurement: 'V'
bedroom2_temperature:
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.room_sensors.attributes["bedroom2"]["temperature"] }}'
device_class: temperature
unit_of_measurement: '°C'
```
{% endraw %}
The below example allows shows how to extract multiple values from a dictionary with `json_attributes` and `json_attributes_path` from the XML of a Steamist Steambath Wi-Fi interface and use them to create a switch and multiple sensors without having to poll the endpoint numerous times.
In the below example `json_attributes_path` is set to `$.response` which is the location of the `usr0`, `pot0`, ... attributes used for `json_attributes`.
{% raw %}
```yaml
sensor:
# Steam Controller
- platform: rest
name: Steam System Data
resource: http://192.168.1.105/status.xml
json_attributes_path: "$.response"
scan_interval: 15
value_template: 'OK'
json_attributes:
- "usr0"
- "pot0"
- "temp0"
- "time0"
- platform: template
sensors:
steam_temp:
friendly_name: Steam Temp
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.steam_system_data.attributes["temp0"] | regex_findall_index("([0-9]+)XF") }}'
unit_of_measurement: "°F"
steam_time_remaining:
friendly_name: "Steam Time Remaining"
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.steam_system_data.attributes["time0"] }}'
unit_of_measurement: "minutes"
switch:
- platform: template
switches:
steam:
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.steam_system_data.attributes["usr0"] | int >= 1 }}'
turn_on:
- service: rest_command.set_steam_led
data:
led: 6
- service: homeassistant.update_entity
data:
entity_id: sensor.steam_system_data
- delay: 00:00:15
- service: homeassistant.update_entity
data:
entity_id: sensor.steam_system_data
turn_off:
- service: rest_command.set_steam_led
data:
led: 7
- service: homeassistant.update_entity
data:
entity_id: sensor.steam_system_data
- delay: 00:00:15
- service: homeassistant.update_entity
data:
entity_id: sensor.steam_system_data
friendly_name: Steam
rest_command:
set_steam_led:
url: http://192.168.1.105/leds.cgi?led={{ led }}
```
{% endraw %}
For reference, the XML content of endpoint shown above example is below:
```xml
0
12556
48
alexander
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
up
up
up
up
0
0
0x73XF0x73XF
0
```