Basic tutorial on automation (scripting, templates, blueprints, ...)

[123 (Taras)]

@danhi

are these various items related.

Automations and Scenes and Scripts, oh my

A scene is a series of actions, where each action is limited to setting an entity’s state. You can activate a scene from the UI, a script, or automation. Example: Set bedroom light brightness to 50%. A script is a series of actions optionally controlled by logic, able to execute any service call. You can activate a script from the UI or an automation. Example: Set bedroom light brightness to 50% but only if the light is currently off and the current time is after 20:00:00. An automation li…

• A blueprint allows its author to share an automation with end-users that can be easily configured by the end-user (a blueprint includes a form that, when completed by the end-user, produces a customized version of the original automation).

• A template isn’t in the same category as scenes, scripts, automations or blueprints. It’s a means of dynamically computing a value, using Jinja2, and is optionally employed within a script, automation or blueprint.

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If you want something to happen when an event occurs, you use an automation. Its triggers section is where you define what it should monitor/detect, its optional conditions section lets you provide additional constraints (i.e. like within a specific time period) and its actions section is for what should happen (additional logic can be added here, like do this action only if whatever is true).

If multiple automations perform similar actions (i.e. code duplication), those actions can be centralized in a script and then the automations can call the script. The automations can pass variables to the script.

If you have something like a Button Card and, when tapped, you want a series of actions to be performed, you put them in a script that’s called by the button.