Automation UI Suggested Upgrade for unparalleled viewing

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:jigsaw: Feature Request: Show Live Entity Status in Automation Editor

automation UI mockup
automation UI mockup1024Ă—1024 52.5 KB

Image above is a mock up of sensor data alongside the automation configuration.

Summary

Add a contextual entity status panel to the automation editor that displays live values, availability, and update timestamps for all entities used in the automation’s triggers, conditions, and actions.

Why it’s useful

When editing or debugging automations—especially those that rely on live sensor data—it’s common to ask:

  • “Is this sensor even updating right now?”
  • “What’s the current value of the battery SoC?”
  • “Why didn’t this automation fire?”

To answer these, users have to switch between the automation UI and Developer Tools, search entities manually, and try to mentally piece together the state snapshot.

A live sensor context panel would solve this by bringing the entity data into the automation screen, reducing context-switching and improving clarity.

Proposed features

For every entity referenced in the automation:

  • Show current state/value (e.g. 2.1 kW)
  • Show last updated time (e.g. 5 sec ago)
  • Show availability (e.g. :white_check_mark: or :warning: unavailable)
  • Optional: click to view history graph
  • Optional: highlight stale data (> 2 min old) or unknown/unavailable states

This info could appear:

  • Inline under each trigger/condition that references an entity, or
  • As a collapsible sidebar panel listing all entities used in the automation

Real-world example

For a solar diverter automation that:

  • Reads grid export (sensor.modbus_grid_ct)
  • Monitors battery SoC (sensor.modbus_battery_soc)
  • Uses a PV forecast (sensor.energy_production_today_remaining)
  • Adjusts a Mixergy cylinder charge level

… you often need to verify that:

  • The grid CT is exporting more than 200 W
  • The battery is already > 60%
  • Forecast is still positive
  • The current charge is below the target

Right now, this requires switching tabs multiple times. A live summary would make diagnosing why an automation didn’t fire much easier—without ever leaving the screen.

Bonus points (future enhancements)

  • Automatically flag sensors that are unavailable, unknown, or stale
  • Add a quick “Test with current state” button
  • Show expected outcome if automation were triggered right now
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You can already check this in the automation traces.

As for “live” data, you’d have to have the automation open and be staring at the screen constantly to catch it before the value changes. Even so, for certain events (like a button event which fires both when the button is pressed and also when it’s released), the data you’re looking for can be overwritten before you had the chance to read it.

(Side note: the text on that AI generated picture is cursed)

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The whole text looks like “improved” by AI.

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Lol, so I went a step further and built a custom Addon yesterday to prove that this could be achieved.

This provides highlighted areas in which entities are causing the automation not to work or have potential issues.

Check it out and lwt me know your thoughts.

Graham

5

FYI

Your Feature Request is for enhancements to the Automation Editor. That’s a change to Home Assistant’s Frontend and those requests are not reported here but as a new Issue in Home Assistant’s Github Frontend repository.

Feature Requests for other aspects that don’t involve how something is displayed, are reported here in the Feature Request section.

6

Could it run with home assistant container?

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Reply to self, yes, it runs next to HA in a docker container, image made with instructions on github.
I had to change line 16 in /app/dependency_map.py to get the hostname of my system from the environment variable.
As SUPERVISOR_TOKEN i use a long-lived access token.

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