Config Storage - Updateting a docker was a pain - Best practice?

Hello,

I recently updated from 0.104 to 0.108. I must say it was a big pain. Needless to say I have my full config in a git repo. But update was far from smooth. I must agree I have no longer full clue where all the configuration is stored.

1/ The HACS plugins/integrations. Is there a way it “autoupdates” after an update of the underlying docker? I had to manually reinstall all of those integrations/plugins.
2/ The modifications done in the interface. Say new integrations which dont require config yamls. Like Aelxa Media Player, Hue, … . Where are those stored?
3/ Modifcations done on single entities. Say I renamed the entity ID of an echo to be more descriptive (it was named “media_player.this device”

I am afraid moving again to a new version. An update must be as flawless as possible to be able to keep up to date with the pace rpovided within this project.

Whats best practice to get this going? Any help appreatiated. Thank you.

Regards
Ralf

I found the .storage Folder. How is this supposed to work. Getting this in git seems a bad option bc it stores passwords/etc. there seem no secret.yaml Kind of principle. What do I miss?