Create an automation based on state change of cover that uses MQTT

Configuration
1

I’m trying to have Home Assistant notify me when my garage door opens and I’m not at home.
My garage door configuration is a Cover using the MQTT platform. It’s a reed switch that connects to a Shelly relay that controls the garage door opener. Here’s the cover:

# Garage Door
cover:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Garage Door"
    position_topic: "shellies/shelly1-garage/input/0"
    command_topic: "shellies/shelly1-garage/relay/0/command"
    availability_topic: "shellies/shelly1-garage/online"
    retain: false
    payload_open: "on"
    payload_close: "on"
    payload_stop: "on"
    position_open: 0
    position_closed: 1
    payload_available: "true"
    payload_not_available: "false"

Everything so far works. I have a Lovelace button that changes colors based on the state of the cover.

This is what I’ve tried in the Automation GUI:

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Here’s the raw automation output:

- id: '1636145538565'
  alias: Garage Notification
  description: Notify me when the garage door changes and I'm not home
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    from: '0'
    to: '1'
    attribute: current_position
  condition: []
  action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_4_xl
    data:
      message: Garage Door Opened
  mode: single

Because the cover is using the MQTT platform, do I need to do this a different way?

2

A cover’s states are open and closed. You can confirm that by inspecting the state value of cover.garage_door in Developer Tools > States.

To constrain the automation to notify you only when you are not home, you need to include a condition that checks your current status. In the following example, I used a device_tracker but you will need to replace it with whatever entity you are currently using to indicate if you are home or not.

- id: '1636145538565'
  alias: Garage Notification
  description: Notify me when the garage door changes and I'm not home
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    from: 'closed'
    to: 'open'
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: device_tracker.your_device_tracker
    state: 'not_home'
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_4_xl
    data:
      message: Garage Door Opened
  mode: single
3

Aha! That works!

I omitted the condition because I was trying to rule out anything that could have been preventing this from working. This is my final automation that works:

- id: '1636145538565'
  alias: Garage Notification
  description: Notify me when the garage door changes and I'm not home
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    from: closed
    to: open
  condition:
  - condition: not
    conditions:
    - condition: zone
      entity_id: device_tracker.pixel_4_xl
      zone: zone.home
  action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_4_xl
    data:
      message: Garage Door Opened
  mode: single

BTW @123 you helped me with another issue with this cover I had 7 months ago. Maybe I should just call you directly next time :slight_smile: