Many users rely on Entity IDs rather than Device IDs for automations, dashboards, and scripts — and for good reason: Entity IDs are simpler, more predictable, and often better suited for reusable automations and UI configurations.
I would like to propose a feature that allows changing an Entity ID via a Home Assistant action, making it accessible through automations, scripts, Node-RED, etc.
Why?
When replacing smart devices (e.g., when a light fails), there’s currently no automated way to deprecate the old entity and assign its ID to a new one. Ideally, I want to:
Rename the old entity (e.g. add _archive suffix),
Allow onboarding a new device (e.g. via Zigbee2MQTT script),
Assign the original Entity ID to the new device — all automatically.
This would greatly improve long-term maintainability in smart homes with many devices, and avoid the need to manually go into the settings with Admin user and rename every Entity of the new device on your own.
Conclusion
While many discussions have shown user interest in this area, I haven’t seen a formal feature request for enabling Entity ID renaming via automation. It would allow everything — dashboards, automations, scripts — to continue functioning seamlessly without manual intervention or admin access to the UI.
do you know how much time i spent to add smart relays behind each light switch in my apartment? like 3 days xD wonder how much time I saved on turning on/off my lights manually xD
I totally get your point — creating an automated solution could easily take more time than it saves. But looking at it from that perspective, the same could be said for most aspects of Smart Home setups. Automating lights or blinds probably won’t save you the time you invest in developing those systems either. The real benefit is in the added convenience once it’s done properly.
From my point of view, it’s no different here. With around 70 to 80 devices in use, breakdowns are bound to happen fairly often. Having some sort of automation in place to handle these situations would simply make life a bit easier.
I have more than double that, and I have not had to replace a single device this year. Last year, two. Both required me to join a new device then go into the device, rename it and it’s entities. (and because I never use device triggers at that point I was done.) Grand total 10 min each. X2 in a year.
Im not automating that. I’m just going to use good naming and avoid device triggers.
