8.4 KiB
| title | description |
|---|---|
| Automation blueprint tutorial | Tutorial on creating an automation blueprint. |
While the tutorial only shows how to create an automation blueprint, scripts also support blueprints in the same way.
In this tutorial, we're going to create an automation blueprint that controls a light based on a motion sensor. We will do this by taking an existing automation and converting it to a blueprint.
For this tutorial, we use a simple automation. The process for converting a complex automation is not any different.
Our automation
To create a blueprint, we first need to have a working automation. The automation we're going to use in this tutorial, which controls a light based on a motion sensor, looks like this:
{% raw %}
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.motion_kitchen
action:
service: >
{% if trigger.to_state.state == "on" %}
light.turn_on
{% else %}
light.turn_off
{% endif %}
target:
entity_id: light.kitchen
{% endraw %}
Create the blueprint file
Automation blueprints are YAML files (with the .yaml extension) and live in the <config>/blueprints/automation/ folder. You can create as many subdirectories in this folder as you want.
To get started with our blueprint, we're going to copy the above automation YAML and save it in that directory with the name motion_light_tutorial.yaml.
Add basic blueprint metadata
Home Assistant needs to know about the blueprint. This is achieved by adding a blueprint: section. It should contain the domain of the integration it is for (automation) and name, the name of your blueprint. Optionally, you can also include a description for your blueprint.
Add this to the top of the file:
blueprint:
name: Motion Light Tutorial
description: Turn a light on based on detected motion
domain: automation
Define the configurable parts as inputs
Now we have to decide what steps we want to make configurable. We want to make it as re-usable as possible, without losing its original intent of turning on a light-based on a motion sensor.
Configurable parts in blueprints are called inputs. To make the motion sensor entity configurable, we're replacing the entity ID with a custom YAML tag !input. This YAML tag has to be combined with the name of the input:
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: !input motion_sensor
For the light, we can offer some more flexibility. We want to allow the user to be able to define any device or area as the target. The target property in the service action can contain references to areas, devices and/or entities, so that's what we will use.
Inputs are not limited to strings. They can contain complex objects too. So in this case, we're going to mark the whole target as input:
{% raw %}
action:
service: >
{% if trigger.to_state.state == "on" %}
light.turn_on
{% else %}
light.turn_off
{% endif %}
target: !input target_light
{% endraw %}
Add the inputs to the metadata
All parts that are marked as inputs need to be added to the metadata. The minimum is that we add their names as used in the automation:
blueprint:
name: Motion Light Tutorial
description: Turn a light on based on detected motion
domain: automation
input:
motion_sensor:
target_light:
Use it via configuration.yaml
With the bare minimum metadata added, your blueprint is ready to use.
Open your configuration.yaml and add the following:
automation tutorial:
use_blueprint:
path: motion_light_tutorial.yaml
input:
motion_sensor: binary_sensor.kitchen
target_light:
entity_id: light.kitchen
Reload automations and your new automation should popup. Because we configured the exact values as the original automation, they should work exactly the same.
Adding user friendly names to the inputs
Blueprints are easier to use if it's easy to see what each field is used for. We can improve this experience by adding names and descriptions to our inputs:
blueprint:
name: Motion Light Tutorial
description: Turn a light on based on detected motion
domain: automation
input:
motion_sensor:
name: Motion Sensor
description: This sensor will be synchronized with the light.
target_light:
name: Lights
description: The lights to keep in sync.
Describing the inputs
Our blueprint doesn't currently describe what the inputs should contain. Without this information, Home Assistant will offer the user an empty text box.
To instead allow Home Assistant to offer more assistance, we will use selectors. Selectors describe a type and can be used to help the user pick a matching value.
The selector for the motion sensor entity should describe that we want entities from the binary sensor domain that have the device class motion.
The selector for the target light should describe that we want to target light entities.
blueprint:
name: Motion Light Tutorial
domain: automation
input:
motion_sensor:
name: Motion Sensor
description: This sensor will be synchronized with the light.
selector:
entity:
domain: binary_sensor
device_class: motion
target_light:
name: Lights
description: The lights to keep in sync.
selector:
target:
entity:
domain: light
By limiting our blueprint to working with lights and motion sensors, we unlock a couple of benefits: the UI will be able to limit suggested values to lights and motion sensors instead of all devices. It will also allow the user to pick an area to control the lights in.
The final blueprint
After we have added all the steps, our blueprint will look like this:
{% raw %}
blueprint:
name: Motion Light Tutorial
description: Turn a light on based on detected motion
domain: automation
input:
motion_sensor:
name: Motion Sensor
description: This sensor will be synchronized with the light.
selector:
entity:
domain: binary_sensor
device_class: motion
target_light:
name: Lights
description: The lights to keep in sync.
selector:
target:
entity:
domain: light
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: !input motion_sensor
action:
- service: >
{% if trigger.to_state.state == "on" %}
light.turn_on
{% else %}
light.turn_off
{% endif %}
target: !input target_light
{% endraw %}
Use it via the UI
To configure it via the UI, go to {% my config %} and then {% my blueprints %}. Find the "Motion Light Tutorial" blueprint and click on "Create Automation".
Video Tutorial
This video tutorial explains how to create a blueprint that toggles a light on motion when the lux value is below a certain threshold.
Share the love
The final step is to share this blueprint with others. For this tutorial we're going to share it on GitHub Gists.
Informal Sharing
For this tutorial, we're going to share it on GitHub Gists. This is a good option if you don't want to publish your blueprint to a larger audience.
- Go to GitHub Gists
- Gist description: blueprint tutorial
- Filename including extension:
motion_light_tutorial.yaml - Content is the content of the blueprint file.
- Click the "Create Gist" button
You can now copy the URL of your new Gist and share it with other people. They can import it by going to Settings -> Automations & Scenes -> Blueprints and clicking on the blue "Import Blueprint" button.
Share on the Blueprint Exchange
If you follow the Rules and format for posting, you can share your blueprint on the Home Assistant Blueprint Exchange forum. This option is accessible to the general Home Assistant community but recommended only for your original blueprints. Please don't post this tutorial to the Blueprint Exchange, but instead, remember this as an option for releasing your real blueprints.