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

title, description, ha_category, ha_iot_class, ha_release, ha_domain

title	description	ha_category	ha_iot_class	ha_release	ha_domain
MQTT Device Tracker	Instructions on how to use MQTT to track devices in Home Assistant.	Presence Detection	Configurable	0.7.3	mqtt

The mqtt device tracker platform allows you to define new device_trackers through manual YAML configuration in configuration.yaml and also to automatically discover device_trackers through a discovery schema using the MQTT Discovery protocol.

YAML Configuration

To use this device tracker in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

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

{% configuration %} devices: description: List of devices with their topic. required: true type: list qos: description: The QoS level of the topic. required: false type: integer payload_home: description: The payload value that represents the 'home' state for the device. required: false type: string default: "home" payload_not_home: description: The payload value that represents the 'not_home' state for the device. required: false type: string default: "not_home" 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 {% endconfiguration %}

Complete YAML example configuration

# Complete configuration.yaml entry
device_tracker:
  - platform: mqtt
    devices:
      paulus_oneplus: "location/paulus"
      annetherese_n4: "location/annetherese"
    qos: 1
    payload_home: "present"
    payload_not_home: "not present"
    source_type: bluetooth

YAML Usage

To set the state of the device_tracker then you need to publish a JSON message to the topic (e.g., via mqtt.publish service). As an example, the following JSON message would set the paulus_oneplus device_tracker to home:

{
  "topic": "location/paulus",
  "payload": "present"
}

Discovery Schema

MQTT device_trackers are also supported through MQTT discovery. This is different to the YAML configuration from above. Here, the device_tracker can be created via a discovery topic that follows the following topic name convention: <discovery_prefix>/device_tracker/[<node_id>/]<object_id>/config and the JSON message content of a specific format as defined below.

{% 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 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_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." required: false type: map keys: 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, map] 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 name: description: The name of the device. 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: The icon for the device tracker. 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 payload and then set as device_tracker attributes. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation. required: false type: string name: description: The name of the MQTT device_tracker. 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 qos: description: The maximum QoS level of the state topic. 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. required: true 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: false type: string value_template: description: "Defines a template that returns a device tracker state." required: false type: template {% endconfiguration %}

Discovery Example

You can use the discovery protocol to create a new device tracker and set it's state using 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 home-assistant/device_tracker/a4567d663eaf/config -m '{"state_topic": "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 a4567d663eaf/state -m 'home'