okey, cool - I’m trying to make it so I can generate those packages with templates so I can at least avoid having to update 6 different files for each area with a motion sensor.
I’m seeing the same issue here.
While the countdown timer works nicely in the standard UI as a badge, it fails to countdown in Lovelace.
Setup is as follows:
configuration.yaml
timer:
countdown:
duration: '00:20:00'
ui-lovelace.yaml
- type: entities
title: Timer
entities:
- entity: timer.countdown
name: "Remaining Time:"
im trying to get the packages !include_dir_named packages to work by creating a packages folder and put the content of what you pasted verbatim in afiled called motionlight.yaml.
The result is this error:
expected a dictionary for dictionary value @ data['packages']['motionlight']
any idea on what can cause this ?
maybe any chance you have your config shared somewhere ?
thanks again!
okey so I accidentally deleted the first line and that gave that error…
Here is what I actually have in my file:
automation:
- alias: Turn on winter garden when there is movement
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.presence_winter_garden
to: 'on'
action:
- service: timer.start
entity_id: timer.timer_winter_garden
- service: homeassistant.turn_on
entity_id: group.winter_garden_lights
- alias: Turn off winter garden lights at end of timer
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: timer.finished
event_data:
entity_id: timer.timer_winter_garden
action:
service: homeassistant.turn_off
entity_id: group.winter_garden_lights
timer:
timer_winter_garden:
duration: '00:05:00'
which gives me:
Invalid config for [automation]: required key not provided @ data['action']. Got None
required key not provided @ data['trigger']. Got None. (See ?, line ?). Please check the docs at https://home-assistant.io/components/automation/
afaics its exactly like yours…I even tried copying yours verbatim whichs gives me similar:
automation:
- alias: Turn on office lights when there is movement
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.office_presence_sensor
to: 'on'
action:
- service: timer.start
entity_id: timer.timer_office
- service: switch.turn_on
entity_id: group.office_light
- alias: Turn off office lights at end of timer
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: timer.finished
event_data:
entity_id: timer.timer_office
action:
service: switch.turn_off
entity_id: group.office_light
timer:
timer_office:
duration: '00:05:00'
Under action, 2 spaces are missing before “- service” and before “entity_id”
Same for the trigger entry.
i thuoght that too but even when I get things indented I keep getting same error ;/
in this I dropped the use of include_dir… (for now)
packages:
pack1:
automation:
- alias: Turn on winter garden when there is movement
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.presence_winter_garden
to: 'on'
action:
- service: timer.start
entity_id: timer.timer_winter_garden
- service: homeassistant.turn_on
entity_id: group.winter_garden_lights
- alias: Turn off winter garden lights at end of timer
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: timer.finished
event_data:
entity_id: timer.timer_winter_garden
action:
- service: homeassistant.turn_off
entity_id: group.winter_garden_lights
timer:
timer_winter_garden:
duration: '00:05:00'```so via Invalid config for [automation]: required key not provided @ data['action'] I found that if I comment out automation: !include automations.yaml then the check passes.
no idea why that should matter since my automations.yaml is empty 
Your automation.yaml being empty might actually be an issue - I recall following a discussion here where linking to an empty automation file cause issues, so somebody created a dummy automation in the yaml-file:
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fyi I opened https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/issues/18821 and after submitting found a bunch of other issues having related issues with timers that I linked in too.
Hopefully we can get that cleaned up
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