HA using for automation entity ID vs entity string? Some devices not showing / missing?!?

[alexvaltchev]

It al works now, it was fixed!

[Sw737pilot (Clint B)]

For inovelli blue zigbee light switches, the button presses are recognized as devices rather than states. But again those entity IDs when looking at yaml code are not shown as friendly names

[petro]

Button presses are events, devices make the event’s “easier to use” for beginners. You can use event trigger if you are advanced enough to avoid using device based triggers.

The number you see next to the entity_id in a device trigger is the entity registry id. It’s a value that points to the entity, which in turn has an entity_id. It’s so that you can change the entity_id without it impacting your device based triggers. If you use yaml, you don’t need to use that number.

[Sw737pilot (Clint B)]

Seems like that defeats the purpose of a user friendly UI if the solution is to edit yaml.
Admittedly, I’m new to HA but it’s overwhelming and daunting for a beginner to always be directed to yaml whenever there is an issue (which seems to be quite frequently).

If yaml doesn’t require the entity id number then the ui shouldn’t either.

[Sw737pilot (Clint B)]

There should at least be a place within the UI where I can see what these registry entities are….its completely a mystery when trying to create an automation. Is there a simple table or something?

[petro]

The pinned topic in configuration covers this.

PSA: You can find any entity in developer tools, states page

I’m creating this post to raise awareness for newcomers because it seems that many people have issues finding entities on their system. If you are not finding an entity in the entity list in your devices or integration, chances are you can find it in the developer tools → states page. In fact, most YAML configured entities will show up here, but will not show up in an integration page. [Open your Home Assistant instance and show your state developer tools.] On this page, you can filter your …

[Sw737pilot (Clint B)]

No, the pinned topic does not cover my question. I understand that you can find entities and their states within developer tools, while the label for the entity is a text label, it’s not the numeric label that I’m seeing that shows up when you go to the YAML code.

The yaml code shows a long number string as the entity id instead of a text label

It shows a device ID and an entity ID that is nowhere to be found in the UI.

It won’t let me upload a pic to show the difference. These are in available blue switches that do not show up with regular friendly name entity IDs. Somewhere in the yaml code it has to be a table that lists these numeric values that represent entity IDs that are then relabeled as friendly IDs.

[petro]

You shouldn’t be using yaml to alter device triggers, conditions, or actions. Those were built to be managed via the UI, the fields are filled with unique identifiers. These are in place so that you can alter the entity_id without breaking the device trigger, action, or condition.

If you must know them, they are the entry id, which can only be seen in templates at the moment.