Newbie question - what am I doing wrong in my configuration?

1

Hi all,
I’m quite experienced with home assistant and I have two instances in two houses running.
I feel ashamed to ask for help to understand what am I doing wrong with this configuration in terms of yaml? I get the folllowing error:


Logger: homeassistant.components.websocket_api.http.connection
Source: components/homeassistant/__init__.py:170
Integration: Home Assistant WebSocket API
First occurred: 10:53:15 AM (5 occurrences)
Last logged: 11:14:34 AM

    [1827832784] The system cannot restart because the configuration is not valid: Error loading /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml: while parsing a block collection in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 31, column 3 expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 56, column 4
    [1826324544] The system cannot restart because the configuration is not valid: Error loading /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml: while parsing a block collection in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 31, column 3 expected <block end>, but found '?' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 32, column 3
    [1826681832] The system cannot restart because the configuration is not valid: Error loading /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml: while parsing a block mapping in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 1, column 1 expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 41, column 3

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.9/site-packages/homeassistant/components/websocket_api/commands.py", line 185, in handle_call_service
    await hass.services.async_call(
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.9/site-packages/homeassistant/core.py", line 1495, in async_call
    task.result()
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.9/site-packages/homeassistant/core.py", line 1530, in _execute_service
    await handler.job.target(service_call)
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.9/site-packages/homeassistant/helpers/service.py", line 733, in admin_handler
    await result
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.9/site-packages/homeassistant/components/homeassistant/__init__.py", line 170, in async_handle_core_service
    raise HomeAssistantError(
homeassistant.exceptions.HomeAssistantError: The system cannot restart because the configuration is not valid: Error loading /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml: while parsing a block collection
  in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 31, column 3
expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>'
  in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 56, column 4

This is line 31 (starting from - platform)

switch:

### SHELLY 1 EM ###
   - platform: mqtt
     name: "Output"
     state_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F/relay/0"
     command_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F/relay/0/command"
     qos: 1
     payload_on: "on"
     payload_off: "off"
     retain: false
2

hi

switch:
### SHELLY 1 EM ###
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Output"
    state_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F/relay/0"
    command_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F/relay/0/command"
    qos: 1
    payload_on: "on"
    payload_off: "off"
    retain: false

??? (2 spaces) ???

3

Could you elaborate a bit?

4

switch:
‘space1’ 'space2"- platform
2 spaces not 4

5

I see two spaces before - platform
Ah no it was three! My bad

6

I still get the same error:

 Logger: homeassistant.util.yaml.loader
Source: util/yaml/loader.py:127
First occurred: 10:53:15 AM (10 occurrences)
Last logged: 12:38:42 PM

    while parsing a block collection in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 31, column 3 expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 56, column 4
    while parsing a block collection in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 31, column 3 expected <block end>, but found '?' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 32, column 3
    while parsing a block mapping in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 1, column 1 expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 41, column 3
    while parsing a block collection in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 31, column 2 expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 41, column 3
    while parsing a block collection in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 26, column 3 expected <block end>, but found '<block sequence start>' in "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml", line 51, column 4

Line 26:

switch:
### SHELLY 1 EM ###
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Output"
    state_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0"
    command_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0/command"
    qos: 1
    payload_on: "on"
    payload_off: "off"
    retain: false
7

Should it look like this?

switch:
### SHELLY 1 EM ###
- platform: mqtt
  name: "Output"
  state_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0"
  command_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0/command"
  qos: 1
  payload_on: "on"
  payload_off: "off"
  retain: false
8

try to paste your full yaml here:
http://yaml-online-parser.appspot.com/
because the code you send seems good

9

there is a problem with space somewhere
could you try to write Output output , thx you

10

write it where? With the yaml parser i get the same error but if I count the spaces they are correct!

11

there is no error on the code you send
name: “Output” —>
name: “output”

12

Then why home assistant gives me an error? Could it be a type of space UNIX vs windows Idk

13

it can. but the little code of your yaml do not show error. the error should be before

14

this is what I have from line 1:


default_config:

group: !include groups.yaml
automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml
scene: !include scenes.yaml

homeassistant:
  customize: !include customize.yaml
  packages: !include_dir_named packages

system_health:

updater:

history:

sun:

recorder:


switch:

### SHELLY 1 EM ###
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Output"
    state_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0"
    command_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0/command"
    qos: 1
    payload_on: "on"
    payload_off: "off"
    retain: false
15

i m using sublime text on windows i have to switch to views/line_ending/unix instead of windows

16

I’m using Gedit on Ubuntu… I’ll try something different

17

try mine

18

no error with this (copy from your paste)

default_config:

group: !include groups.yaml
automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml
scene: !include scenes.yaml

homeassistant:
  customize: !include customize.yaml
  packages: !include_dir_named packages

system_health:

updater:

history:

sun:

recorder:
switch:

### SHELLY 1 EM ###
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Output"
    state_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0"
    command_topic: "shellies/shellyem-0620F1/relay/0/command"
    qos: 1
    payload_on: "on"
    payload_off: "off"
    retain: false

its the same code but you shoud have tab or blank somewhere try to remove all blank line and space at each end of line and try sublimetext

19

or:

20

Ok I did some find & replace with the spaces, saved with Sublime, put a little bit of cinnamon and it worked.
Thank you so much for the support @tomdudu38

1 Like