Help with an automation that calls a script

Configuration
1

I have a heating boiler that has the following three states:

  • Off–0 W
  • Water Pump Only Running- 80W
  • Burner and Water pump running - above 100W

I would like to have one automation with six triggers (for crossing between the three states in each direction). Then, this automation would execute a script that receives as a variable which trigger and direction combo caused the triggering and then posts a note to a Google sheet to log the time and a trigger note.

I know how to do this with six separate automations, but I think that might be confusing in the future and problematic to maintain.

I have researched it and believe it can be done but am running in circles, so I need a bit of guidance on the approach… or maybe just an example of a script receiving trigger status passed from an automation.

Thanks in advance.

2

It would help us provide you with an answer specific to your situation if you share at least one of those automations and the target script. Questions Guidlines #9 & 11

One general option would be to attach variables to each trigger

triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: ?
    to: ?
    from: ?
    variables:
      type: A
      direction: decrease
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: ?
    to: ?
    from: ?
    variables:
      type: B
      direction: decrease
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: script.example
    data:
      type: "{{ type }}"
      direction: "{{ direction }}"
3

If your trigger already contains the data you want to pass, you can do that directly using the trigger variable. For a state trigger it would be this, leveraging Drew’s example:

triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: ?
    to: ?
    from: ?
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: ?
    to: ?
    from: ?
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: script.example
    data:
      from: "{{ trigger.from_state.state }}"
      to: "{{ trigger.to_state.state }}"

Also note that you can call the script using the blocking or non-blocking format, depending on whether you want your automation to wait for the completion of the script before the automation continues to the next step. The non-blocking format would be

actions:
  - action: script.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: script.example
    data:
      variables:
        from: "{{ trigger.from_state.state }}"
        to: "{{ trigger.to_state.state }}"
4

Thanks Didgeridrew. I don’t actually have a script yet. That is why I needed some conceptual help which you and mekhaneck provided. Many thanks. I have started to implement your suggestions and will post some code when I have it.

5

Thanks Didgeridrew and mekhaneck. You got me on the right path. Here is my solution. Comments welcomed and thanks so much!!

alias: TestReadStatus
description: Reads input number and post data to Google sheet
triggers:
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id:
      - input_number.testnumber
    below: 2
    variables:
      type: Boiler Off
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id:
      - input_number.testnumber
    above: 80
    variables:
      type: Burner Running
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id:
      - input_number.testnumber
    below: 81
    above: 1
    variables:
      type: Boiler On Burner Off
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: google_sheets.append_sheet
    metadata: {}
    data:
      config_entry: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
      worksheet: Test
      data:
        Type: "{{type}}"
mode: single