I’m looking for documentation related to creating persistent global variables that can be manipulated and used in automations.
For example, suppose I decide I need to be productive this evening. I might push a button “enter productivity mode” which sets a boolean variable. Then, my home automations behave differently: The lights in my work room don’t dim when there is no motion in the room ; The lights in the living room don’t go into the cool dim/colorful “movie mode” I have setup when my media center begins playing, etc. Perhaps some automations are just disabled, while others are enabled, and others still behave differently.
Sorry for the late reply. Thank you both for your suggestions - they work perfectly.
I can now flip a switch in the UI to enter/exit any mode I want, to change automation behaviors. I’ve even used helpers to add another layer of abstraction. For example, an automation that detects that I am sleeping by the phone charger + door sensor + computer state, then sets a toggle helper called “Sleeping”. Other automations can then simply watch the state of the “Sleeping” helper to help simplify my setups.