---
layout: page
title: "RESTful Sensor"
description: "Instructions on how to integrate REST sensors into Home Assistant."
date: 2015-09-14 19:10
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
logo: restful.png
ha_category: Sensor
ha_release: 0.7.4
ha_iot_class: "Local Polling"
---
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" }'
```
{% configuration %}
resource:
description: The resource or endpoint that contains the value.
required: true
type: string
default: string
method:
description: The method of the request.
required: false
type: string
default: GET
name:
description: Name of the REST sensor.
required: false
type: string
default: REST Sensor
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 certification of the endpoint.
required: false
type: boolean
default: True
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: list, string
json_attributes:
description: A list of keys to extract values from a JSON dictionary result and then set as sensor attributes.
reqired: false
type: list, 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.
reqired: false
type: boolean
default: False
{% endconfiguration %}
<p class='note warning'>
Make sure that the URL exactly matches your endpoint or resource.
</p>
`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](http://arest.io/).
```bash
$ curl -X GET http://192.168.1.31/temperature/
{"temperature": 77, "id": "sensor02", "name": "livingroom", "connected": true}
```
## {% linkable_title Examples %}
In this section you find some real life examples of how to use this sensor.
### {% linkable_title External IP address %}
You can find your external IP address using the service [JSON Test](http://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 %}'
```
### {% linkable_title Single value from a local Glances instance %}
The [glances](/components/sensor.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
```
### {% linkable_title 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"
```
### {% linkable_title 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
```
### {% linkable_title Use GitHub to get the latest release of Home Assistant %}
This sample is very similar to the [`updater`](/components/updater/) component 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
```
### {% linkable_title Fetch multiple JSON values and present them as attributes %}
[JSON Test](http://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 %}
This sample fetches a weather report from [OpenWeatherMap](http://openweathermap.org/), maps the resulting data into attributes of the RESTful sensor and then creates a set of [template](/components/sensor.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: http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?zip=80302,us&APPID=VERYSECRETAPIKEY
- platform: template
sensors:
owm_weather:
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.owm_report.attributes.weather[0]["description"].title() }}'
icon_template: '{{ "http://openweathermap.org/img/w/"+states.sensor.owm_report.attributes.weather[0]["icon"]+".png" }}'
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
owm_temp:
friendly_name: 'Outside temp'
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.owm_report.attributes.main["temp"]-273.15 }}'
unit_of_measurement: "°C"
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
owm_pressure:
friendly_name: 'Outside pressure'
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.owm_report.attributes.main["pressure"] }}'
unit_of_measurement: "hP"
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
owm_humidity:
friendly_name: 'Outside humidity'
value_template: '{{ states.sensor.owm_report.attributes.main["humidity"] }}'
unit_of_measurement: "%"
entity_id: sensor.owm_report
```
{% endraw %}