home-assistant.io/source/_integrations/device_tracker.mqtt.markdown

title	description	ha_category	ha_iot_class	ha_release	ha_domain	related
MQTT device tracker	Instructions on how to use MQTT to track devices in Home Assistant.	Presence detection	Configurable	0.7.3	mqtt	docs title /docs/configuration/ Configuration file

The mqtt device tracker {% term integration %} allows you to define new device_trackers through manual YAML configuration in {% term "configuration.yaml" %} and also to automatically discover device_trackers using the MQTT Discovery protocol.

Configuration

To use this device tracker in your installation, add the following to your {% term "configuration.yaml" %} file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - device_tracker:
      name: "annetherese_n4"
      state_topic: "location/annetherese"
  - device_tracker:
      name: "paulus_oneplus"
      state_topic: "location/paulus"

{% configuration %} availability: description: A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic. required: false type: list keys: payload_available: description: The payload that represents the available state. required: false type: string default: online payload_not_available: description: The payload that represents the unavailable state. required: false type: string default: offline topic: description: An MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. required: true type: string value_template: description: "Defines a template to extract device's availability from the topic. To determine the devices's availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available." required: false type: template availability_mode: description: When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability. required: false type: string default: latest availability_template: description: "Defines a template to extract device's availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices's availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available." required: false type: template availability_topic: description: The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability. required: false type: string device: description: "Information about the device this device tracker is a part of that ties it into the device registry. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device." required: false type: map keys: configuration_url: description: 'A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.' required: false type: string connections: description: 'A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].' required: false type: list hw_version: description: The hardware version of the device. required: false type: string identifiers: description: A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number. required: false type: [list, string] manufacturer: description: The manufacturer of the device. required: false type: string model: description: The model of the device. required: false type: string model_id: description: The model identifier of the device. required: false type: string name: description: The name of the device. required: false type: string suggested_area: description: 'Suggest an area if the device isn’t in one yet.' required: false type: string sw_version: description: The firmware version of the device. required: false type: string via_device: description: 'Identifier of a device that routes messages between this device and Home Assistant. Examples of such devices are hubs, or parent devices of a sub-device. This is used to show device topology in Home Assistant.' required: false type: string icon: description: "Icon for the entity." required: false type: icon json_attributes_template: description: "Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation." required: false type: template json_attributes_topic: description: "The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary message containing device tracker attributes. This topic can be used to set the location of the device tracker under the following conditions:

• If the attributes in the JSON message include longitude, latitude, and gps_accuracy (optional).\n

• If the device tracker is within a configured zone.\n

  If these conditions are met, it is not required to configure state_topic.\n\n Be aware that any location message received at state_topic overrides the location received via json_attributes_topic until a message configured with payload_reset is received at state_topic. For a more generic usage example of the json_attributes_topic, refer to the MQTT sensor documentation." required: false type: string name: description: The name of the MQTT device_tracker. required: false type: string object_id: description: Used instead of name for automatic generation of entity_id required: false type: string payload_available: description: The payload that represents the available state. required: false type: string default: online payload_home: description: The payload value that represents the 'home' state for the device. required: false type: string default: home payload_not_available: description: The payload that represents the unavailable state. required: false type: string default: offline payload_not_home: description: The payload value that represents the 'not_home' state for the device. required: false type: string default: not_home payload_reset: description: The payload value that will have the device's location automatically derived from Home Assistant's zones. required: false type: string default: '"None"' platform: description: Must be device_tracker. Only allowed and required in MQTT auto discovery device messages. required: true type: string qos: description: The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving and publishing messages. required: false type: integer default: 0 source_type: description: Attribute of a device tracker that affects state when being used to track a person. Valid options are gps, router, bluetooth, or bluetooth_le. required: false type: string state_topic: description: The MQTT topic subscribed to receive device tracker state changes. The states defined in state_topic override the location states defined by the json_attributes_topic. This state override is turned inactive if the state_topic receives a message containing payload_reset. The state_topic can only be omitted if json_attributes_topic is used. An empty payload is ignored. Valid payloads are not_home, home or any other custom location or zone name. Payloads for not_home, home can be overridden with the payload_not_homeand payload_home config options. required: false type: string unique_id: description: "An ID that uniquely identifies this device_tracker. If two device_trackers have the same unique ID, Home Assistant will raise an exception. Required when used with device-based discovery." required: false type: string value_template: description: "Defines a template that returns a device tracker state." required: false type: template {% endconfiguration %}

Examples

Using the discovery protocol

The device_tracker can be created via publishing to a discovery topic that follows the following MQTT Discovery topic name format: <discovery_prefix>/device_tracker/[<node_id>/]<object_id>/config.

You can use the command line tool mosquitto_pub shipped with mosquitto or the mosquitto-clients package to send MQTT messages.

To create the device_tracker:

mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/config -m '{"state_topic": "homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/state", "name": "My Tracker", "payload_home": "home", "payload_not_home": "not_home"}'

To set the state of the device tracker to "home":

mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/state -m 'home'

To set the state of the device tracker to a named location:

mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/state -m 'location_name'

If the device supports GPS coordinates then they can be sent to Home Assistant by specifying an attributes topic (i.e. "json_attributes_topic") in the configuration payload:

• Attributes topic: homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/attributes
• Example attributes payload:

Example message to be received at topic homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/attributes:

{
  "latitude": 32.87336,
  "longitude": -117.22743,
  "gps_accuracy": 1.2
 }

To create the device_tracker with GPS coordinates support:

mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/config -m '{"json_attributes_topic": "homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/attributes", "name": "My Tracker"}'

{% note %}

Using state_topic is optional when using json_attributes_topic to determine the state of the device tracker.

{% endnote %}

To set the state of the device tracker to specific coordinates:

mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t homeassistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/attributes -m '{"latitude": 32.87336, "longitude": -117.22743, "gps_accuracy": 1.2}'

YAML configuration

The following example shows how to configure the same device tracker through configuration.yaml

{% raw %}

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - device_tracker:
      name: "My Tracker"
      state_topic: "a4567d663eaf/state"
      payload_home: "home"
      payload_not_home: "not_home"

{% endraw %}