(Not solved, but answered) Hide username/password in automations

Configuration
1

I’ve created a doorbell automation the sends a message to a Telegram account and have my Google Nest speaker inform us that there is someone at the door. The ha_uptime check is there because otherwise it’ll go off if my HA reboots. I’m going to implement a check so it’ll won’t use the speaker if nobody is home.

Most important question: Is there a way to use the username and password stored in secrets.yaml?
Also I would like to send an image at first and a small video second, how can I accomplish this?

alias: Notification - Doorbell
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: device
    type: turned_on
    device_id: xxx
    entity_id: switch.doorbell
    domain: switch
condition:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.ha_uptime
    above: '0.5'
action:
  - service: notify.telegram
    data:
      message: Notification
      data:
        photo:
          - url: http://10.xxx.xxx.xxx/Streaming/channels/1/picture
            authentication: digest
            username: **username**
            password: **Password123!**
            caption: There is someone at the door (1/2)
  - service: tts.google_cloud_say
    data:
      entity_id: media_player.livingroom
      message: 'Notification. There is someone at the door!'
  - delay: '3'
  - service: notify.telegram
    data:
      message: Text
      data:
        photo:
          - url: http://10.xxx.xxx.xxx/Streaming/channels/1/picture
            authentication: digest
            username: **username**
            password: **Password123!**
            caption: There is someone at the door (2/2)
mode: single
2

Create a secrets.yaml

Add in this file your usernames ans passwords:

username: my_username
password: my_password

In your normail yaml scripts you add this

username: !secret username
password: !secret password

Now your usernames and passwords are hidden

3

And you can hide the URL in the same way (in some cases one wants to).

1 Like
4

I’ve haven’t yet tried it because some posts indicated that this didn’t work.
Going to try it and let you know :slight_smile:

5

I added the URL (camera_url) to my secrets.yaml and replaced the url, username and password with the !secret arguments. Unfortunately it didn’t work.

service: notify.telegram
data:
  data:
    photo:
      - url: !secret camera_url
        authentication: digest
        username: !secret camera_username
        password: !secret camera_password
        caption: There is someone at the door (1/2)
  message: There is someone at the door (1/2)
6

did you create the secret.yaml file in the /config/ folder?

7

Yes, I’m using it to store/access my Telegram apikey/chatid and other usernames/passwords.
I had to double check, but I also use it for my my HikVision camera. It’s feed is being shown on one of my overview-pages.

8

Maybe you have characters in the YAML values that’s interpreted by the YAML parser, e.g. an & that’s an anchor. Try to place all the string values in quotes. I’m guessing here, since you can’t show the contents of your secrets.yaml.

9

Did you restart Home Assistant after changing secrets.yaml?

10

I’ve rebooted my Home Assistant.
My secrets.yaml has the following entry and it’s not much different in characters as my functioning Telegram settings:

camera_url: http://10.xxx.xxx.xxx/Streaming/channels/1/picture
camera_username: username
camera_password: PassWord99!

My automation has the following action:

service: notify.telegram
data:
  data:
    photo:
      - url: !secret camera_url
        authentication: digest
        username: !secret camera_username
        password: !secret camera_password
        caption: Er staat iemand aan de deur (3/2)
  message: Er staat iemand aan de deur (3/2)

If I save it “!secret camera_url” is being changed to “null”.

11

If you are using symbols you need to double quote the secret

12

Done that, didn’t change the outcome.
Whenever I save the automation it’s being changed to:

service: notify.telegram
data:
  message: Er staat iemand aan de deur (3/2)
13

How to use secrets in automations.yaml seem to address the same issue, but I might be wrong.

14

Are you creating them from the UI? The UI doesn’t support secrets.yaml.