home-assistant.io/source/_integrations/file.markdown

title, description, ha_category, ha_release, ha_iot_class, ha_codeowners, ha_domain, ha_platforms, ha_integration_type

title	description	ha_category	ha_release	ha_iot_class	ha_codeowners	ha_domain	ha_platforms	ha_integration_type
File	Instructions on how to integrate sensors which read from files into Home Assistant.	Notifications Sensor Utility	pre 0.7	Local Polling	@fabaff	file	notify sensor	integration

The File integration allows to store notifications to a file or to set up a sensor based on a file's content.

{% include integrations/config_flow.md %}

Notifications

The file platform allows you to store notifications from Home Assistant as a file. Make sure that the file you want to use is added to the allowlist_external_dirs. The file will be created if it doesn't exist. Add the path of your configuration folder (e.g., /config) to save the file there. Setting the optional parameter name allows multiple notifiers to be created. Setting timestamp to true adds a timestamp to every entry.

To use notifications, please see the getting started with automation page.

Use the notify.send_message entity service to store notification messages.

Sensor

The file sensor platform reads the entries from a plain-text file and shows the found value. Only the last line of the file is used. This is similar to do $ tail -n 1 sensor.txt on the command-line. Note that file paths must be added to allowlist_external_dirs.

Examples

In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.

Entries as JSON

Assuming that the log file contains multiple values formatted as JSON like shown below:

[...]
{"temperature": 21, "humidity": 39}
{"temperature": 22, "humidity": 36}

This would require the following settings extract the temperature:

• Name: Temperature
• File path: /home/user/.homeassistant/sensor.json
• Value template: {% raw %}'{{ value_json.temperature }}'{% endraw %}
• Unit of measurement: "°C"

Entries as CSV

Assuming the log file contains multiple values formatted as CSV like shown below:

timestamp,temperature,humidity
1631472948,21,39
1631472949,22,36

This would require the following settings to extract the temperature:

• Name: Temperature
• File path: /home/user/.homeassistant/sensor.csv
• Value template: {% raw %}'{{ value.split(",")[1] }}'{% endraw %}
• Unit of measurement: "°C"