Failed Condition Automation Notification

[z5nd3r (z)]

I have a cat feeder that runs two times per day. If my wife and I aren’t home we don’t want the cat feeder to run so I configured two conditions that checked for our zone status. If one of us aren’t home the automation still runs however if we both aren’t home the automation cancels (we have a dog who LOVES cat food! )

My question is, sometimes we forget to feed the cats so I was hoping I could configure some sort of notification that will send if the automation doesn’t run because we both aren’t home.

I tried using the search function but everything had to do with failing. This has to do with conditions that aren’t met.

Here’s my code:

alias: Cat Food
description: “”
triggers:

• trigger: time
  at: “06:00:00”
• trigger: time
  at: “18:00:00”
  conditions:
• condition: or
  conditions:
  • condition: zone
    entity_id: person.sam
    zone: zone.home
  • condition: or
    conditions:
    • condition: zone
      entity_id: person.pugliese_hh
      zone: zone.home
      actions:
• device_id: 3ce9893943989f3207315cd1dc865900
  domain: number
  entity_id: e9f57b95b3f9c970e3aeb403ada31d31
  type: set_value
  value: 4
  mode: single

[Didgeridrew]

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As currently configured, the second Or condition isn’t doing anything.

@z5nd3r

My question is, sometimes we forget to feed the cats so I was hoping I could configure some sort of notification that will send if the automation doesn’t run because we both aren’t home.

Instead of placing your presence conditions in the condition block, use them in an If/Then or Choose action.

[z5nd3r (z)]

I got this working to handle the first issue but wasn’t able to get the If/Then statement to run:

alias: Cat Food
description: “”
mode: single
triggers:

• at: “06:00:00”
  trigger: time
• at: “18:00:00”
  trigger: time
  conditions:
• condition: template
  value_template: “{{ state_attr(‘zone.home’, ‘persons’) | count > 0 }}”
  actions:
• device_id: 3ce9893943989f3207315cd1dc865900
  domain: number
  entity_id: e9f57b95b3f9c970e3aeb403ada31d31
  type: set_value
  value: 4

Here was my attempt at the if/then:

alias: Cat Food
description: “”
mode: single
triggers:

• at: “06:00:00”
  trigger: time
• at: “18:00:00”
  trigger: time
  conditions:
• condition: state
• if:
  • alias: “People are home!”
    condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: zone.home
    above: 0
    then:
  • alias: “Feed the cats!”
    actions:
    • device_id: 3ce9893943989f3207315cd1dc865900
      domain: number
      entity_id: e9f57b95b3f9c970e3aeb403ada31d31
      type: set_value
      value: 4
      else:
    • action: notify.notify
      data:
      message: “The cats were not fed because no one was home.”

I know there are indent issues but what’s going on with it?

[z5nd3r (z)]

Never mind, I got it! I went the choose route. Here’s what I came up with:

alias: Cat Food
description: “”
mode: single
triggers:

• at: “06:00:00”
  trigger: time
• at: “18:00:00”
  trigger: time
  actions:
• choose:
  • conditions:
    • condition: template
      value_template: “{{ state_attr(‘zone.home’, ‘persons’) | count > 0 }}”
      sequence:
    • device_id: 3ce9893943989f3207315cd1dc865900
      domain: number
      entity_id: e9f57b95b3f9c970e3aeb403ada31d31
      type: set_value
      value: 4
      default:
  • alias: Notify that no one is home
    data:
    message: No one is home! Rory didn’t get the cat food!
    action: notify.notify