Looking at the dashboard code there is - entity: in front of the sensor.
type: entities
entities:
- entity: sensor.memory_use_percent
- entity: sensor.memory_use
- entity: sensor.memory_free
title: Memory
Is -entity required? I removed it and it seems to work fine. The config code now looks the following way:
type: entities
entities:
- sensor.memory_use_percent
- sensor.memory_use
- sensor.memory_free
title: Memory
As you’ve seen, it works either way. However, the second way is just a list of entities and you can’t customise how they’re displayed, what they do when you click on them etc. The first way, using an entity object for each sensor, gives you more control.
Yep you only need to use - entity: if you want to customise the way the entity is displayed (e.g. change the displayed name, icon etc…).
valid:
type: entities
entities:
- entity: sensor.memory_use_percent
name: Memory Pct
- entity: sensor.memory_use
icon: "mdi:gauge"
- entity: sensor.memory_free
secondary_info: last_changed
title: Memory
Not valid:
type: entities
entities:
- sensor.memory_use_percent
name: Memory Pct
- sensor.memory_use
icon: "mdi:gauge"
- sensor.memory_free
secondary_info: last_changed
title: Memory
Note that changing things like icon and name here only change the display of that one instance in the card. They do not update the entity. I find it handy for displaying abbreviated names in dashboards created for small displays (mobile devices) without affecting my main dashboard cards.