Initiating a conversation by proactively asking a question

Configuration Voice Assistant
1

Hi there,

I recently purchased the Voice Preview Edition. I was excited that in 2025.4, HA added the ability for the device to proactively start listening.

I wanted to create a very simple automation or script that:

  1. Asks a question, like “Do you want me to turn the lights on?”
  2. Starts listening
  3. If the user says yes/sure/ok, turn the lights on

I will incorporate this more contextually into my automations, but for now I just wanted to get it to work.

I am open to using either OpenAI (cloud) or local.

I just haven’t been able to find a simple example.

Thanks so much in advance!
Matt

2

Nothing’s simple. However…

Don’t know if they work! :grin:

1 Like
3

Thanks @jackjourneyman .

In this example, I’m unsure how to tell it to call a script (that turns a light off) in the event the user responds in the affirmative.

automation:
  - alias: 'Proactive Energy Advice'
    trigger:
      - platform: numeric_state
        entity_id: sensor.total_energy_consumption
        above: 500  # kWh threshold
    action:
      - service: conversation.process
        data:
          text: 'Your energy consumption is unusually high. Would you like recommendations for reducing usage?'
4

Well… I’ve never tried this either. Are you familiar with custom sentences and intent scripts?

The custom sentence might be:

language: "en"
intents:
  CustomYes:
    data:
      - sentences:
          - "[That would be a] yes"
          - "( OK | okay ) [go ahead] [if you like] [go on then]"

And the intent script might be:

CustomYes:
  action:
    - service: tts.picotts_say
      metadata: {}
      data:
        cache: false
        entity_id: media_player.living_room
        message: Turning off the living room lights
    - service: switch.turn_off
      target:
        entity_id: switch.all_living_room_lights

Two problems with this:

  • You still have to say the wake word before “Yes”
  • How can you make sure the “Yes” is part of the same conversation as the original question.

More research needed. :grin:

5

@jackjourneyman thank you sir for the replies! I’m not, this is actually my first foray into voice AND LLMs. I have a lot to learn. I appreciate the links. I’ll read up!

Cheers!
Matt

6

You can start a conversation with Home assistant PE using action: assist_satellite.start_covversation . It work perfectly with Gemini and Open Ai.
The post I created was before that you can effectively use start_conversation with PE

1 Like