Are they "groups"?

Configuration
1

Where I have:

switch:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Bedroom Switch"
    state_topic: "switch1"
    command_topic: "switch1/set"

I’ve seen examples of:

switch:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Bedroom Switch"
    state_topic: "home/bedroom/switch1"
    command_topic: "home/bedroom/switch1/set"

Are these devices in “topic groups”? Is that the right terminology? How are these groups defined?
I want to put some switches in the house, and some in the garage. Those in the house, I want to group them in different rooms.

Where do I create the grouping?

2

They aren’t groups. Those are just different topics.

You decide what topic you want on your device and set the same on your HA. You don’t create any groups. It’s just a topic.

It’s a way to organize your topics, so if you want to watch MQTT to see what’s going on in a particular room/location/etc it’s easy to do.

MQTT only has a few rules for topics, but the rest is open for whatever you wish

3

Thanks.
I get that “groups” is the wrong word, but how do I create these “organisations of topics”?
Is it all done within HA?
How do I do it?
What would I even search for in Google?

4

No. Your device publishes and subscribes to the topic. You start with the device itself. Change the topic there and then tell HA to look at that topic

5

@KDM

I think there might be some misunderstanding based on the other thread I replied to.

The “topics” moe is referring to are the MQTT Topics that you have programmed in your device. Those topics can also be related to locations so that you can kind of make into a kind of “group” but it’s only based on the topic in the MQTT message. the Home Assistant frontend will never see that topic. All it will see is a device called “Bedroom Switch”.

The new Lovelace frontend doesn’t use the concept of “groups” to display entities anymore. To get them to display in groups in the front end you need to put all of the related entities into cards.

6

Aaahhh. Are “cards” what appear on the “Overview” screen? OKay, how do I add cards?

Bother, now I’m left wondering what “badges” are, too.

7

Cards are the things that look like cards…

They’re the little icons that appear above cards at the top of the page.

8

This should at least get you started…

9

Oh, boy. Something ELSE to learn from scratch!!