MQTT User Config

So I am following the instructions to install the MQTT broker from the addon repo, it mentions to create a user, I’ve looked and I can’t see the option to add one, I’ve also had a google around and all the answers say to enable Advanced view which I’ve had enabled for a while, I turned it off and back on again to make sure there wasn’t something funky, I can confirm advanced options are visible elsewhere

core-2021.2.3
supervisor-2021.02.11
Home Assistant OS 5.12
MQTT 5.1.1


I use the Old school method :wink:
logins:
  - username: user
    password: passwd

It indicates to enable Advanced Mode so that Configuration > Users becomes visible. Normally this menu option is hidden.

Use Configuration > Users to create a user account. This account can access several things (aside from Home Assistant itself) including the MQTT broker (Mosquitto Add-on). That’s what I did when I needed an account to login to the broker using an external MQTT client (MQTT Explorer).

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Advanced mode is enabled yet the user option is still not visible:
image

When I check the logs it’s showing that it can’t find a user yet it’s working
image

I tried this config as per the GITHUB but it throws an error about the YAML being invalid:
image

I would say, you have to loose the first line (logins: []) in your config, as now you have logins defined twice. So if you delete the first line, the actual logins defined lower down will take effect.

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How I didn’t spot that I don’t know lol, fresh eyes and all that jazz lol,

I assume this is all good according to the logs

For those finding this like I have and failed to understand the instuctions at first glance. The instruction is to create a new user within Home Assistant, not Mosquitto itself. It can be a little confusing seeing “configuration → users” when there is a configuration page for Mosquitto. This new user will be used by misquitto (and by extention MQTT devices).

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I thought this was fairly straightforward when I wrote it last March:

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I confirm it is confusing. Went through the same thing as Aidan to finally end up here. Why don’t you change the help text to something like this?

Create a new user for MQTT via Home Assistant’s (not Mosquitto’s configuration tab) ConfigurationUsers (manage users). Notes:

  1. This name cannot be homeassistant or addon, those are reserved usernames.
  2. If Home Assistant does not show the option to create a new user, ensure that Advanced Mode is enabled in your Home Assistant profile.
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Everyone has the opportunity to modify the documentation. This post explains how:

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Didn’t know that, thanks for the suggestion. I filed a pull request.

I have posted a question that is related to MQTT User Config over in this topic.
Hoping someone can help answer it…

HA reminds me of the old TECO editor on DEC PDP11 machines. To comprehend the docs you needed to first figure out how TECO worked.