IFTTT config instructions are confusing

According to this, I need to create the following in my configuration.yaml

ifttt:
key: xxxxx-x-xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The first confusion is that the service on IFTTT is no longer called Maker, it’s Webhooks. The 2nd problem is that the key that is given to me at the end of the URL under Webhook settings doesn’t have any dashes in it.

Thirdly, if I add the configuration shown above into the .yaml file, HASS quits working and I have to restart it.

Any ideas?

It looks like IFTTT change the format of the key, possibly when they renamed it from just Maker to (Maker) Webhooks. The original documentation dates from 2017, and it looks like nobody’s raised any issue to get it updated. I’ve submitted a preliminary pull request to update the documentation to reflect those changes.

For the last problem, what error message do you get?

I resolved the issue. TextMate was adding a ‘\t’ instead of spaces on the line below the IFTTT: line which was screwing things up.

At this point, I’m completely stumped as to what to do next. I can’t make sense of the language of this system yet and need some basic automation examples.

As discussed on Discord, have a look at the Getting Started guide for how the formatting works, and here for how YAML works. Beyond that, the documentation contains a number of example automations, and there’s a whole examples section.

I’d suggest you look at the list of components, what have you already got? Build a test automation around those to begin your learning. If you’re new at this, diving into IFTTT and all the complications it brings will make your life harder.

For example, a really easy starter would be to get some form of presence detection going. With that working you could then add a notification when somebody else comes home.