Add network state (online/offline) to every z2m device in 3 easy steps!

Configuration Zigbee
1

Hi everyone,

If this is a duplicate, please let me know. I was just reading and saw multiple questions about adding an availability sensor.

This can easily be achieved!

Step 1
In your z2m configuration, make sure you select MQTT version 5, this is needed for message retention. And make sure you have availability: enabled: true. This is disabled by default.
Restart if needed.

Now z2m publishes the network state (online/offline) of each device in it own topic, for instance: zigbee2mqtt/Kitchen motion sensor/availability

Step 2
You need to create a sensor for each of the devices. See MQTT Sensor - Home Assistant. But who has time for that!
Luckily, we have Jinja. Find the device name of your bridge, by default its Zigbee2MQTT Bridge. If you changed it, then also change it in the code below.

Copy and paste this code in “Developer tools” > “Template editor”.

{% set id_zigbee_radio = device_id('Zigbee2MQTT Bridge') %}

mqtt:
  binary_sensor:
{%- set ns = namespace(out=[]) -%}
{%- set device_ids = integration_entities('mqtt') | map('device_id') | unique | list -%}
{%- for device_id in device_ids -%}
{%- if device_attr(device_id, "via_device_id") == id_zigbee_radio %}
    - device:
        identifiers:
          - {{ (device_attr(device_id, "identifiers")|first)[1] }}
      enabled_by_default: true
      entity_category: diagnostic
      device_class: connectivity
      icon: mdi:network
      state_topic: zigbee2mqtt/{{ device_attr(device_id, "name") }}/availability
      unique_id: {{ (device_attr(device_id, "identifiers")|first)[1] | replace('zigbee2mqtt_', '') }}_network_state
      value_template: >
        {{ "{{ " }} 'ON' if value_json.state == 'online' else 'OFF' {{ " }}" }}
      name: network state
{%- endif %}
{%- endfor %}

Your output should look something like this.

mqtt:
  binary_sensor:
    - device:
        identifiers:
          - zigbee2mqtt_0x0000000000000000
      enabled_by_default: true
      entity_category: diagnostic
      device_class: connectivity
      icon: mdi:network
      state_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Kitchen motion/availability
      unique_id: 0x0000000000000000_network_state
      value_template: >
        {{  'ON' if value_json.state == 'online' else 'OFF'  }}
      name: network state
    - device:
        identifiers:
          - zigbee2mqtt_0x0000000000000000
      enabled_by_default: true
      entity_category: diagnostic
      device_class: connectivity
      icon: mdi:network
      state_topic: zigbee2mqtt/Livingroom motion/availability
      unique_id: 0x0000000000000000_network_state
      value_template: >
        {{  'ON' if value_json.state == 'online' else 'OFF'  }}
      name: network state

Step 3
Copy output (!) and paste it in your configuration.yaml. Be sure to check your configuration.
Now click on “Developer tools” > “YAML” > “YAML configuration reloading” > “Manually configured mqtt entities.”

Et voilà, every Z2M device has a sensor online/offline.

Hope this helps, kind regards,
- Ingrid

Edit: changed the sensor to a binary_sensor with device_class connectivity

2

And did you know that you can keep your last_seen entity from going to “unavailable” when the device is offline.

Add this to your zigbee2mqtt configuration.yaml.

device_options:
  homeassistant:
    last_seen:
      enabled_by_default: true
      availability: []

Kind regards,
- Ingrid