I found it to be easy to use. I followed the documentation.
Does the value you are assigning to the target: option contain multiple email addresses? If so, is it defined as a list?
I used the same documentation but the doc doesn’t say anything about not being able to use it in the UI or in any automations in automations.yaml or needing to create and manage the automations outside of HA.
The target is a single email address.
The examples in the documentation show how to reference a secret value in the configuration of a REST Sensor, which is exclusively defined in YAML (no UI). Any application beyond what the documentation shows may be subject to restrictions.
If you feel the documentation ought to be improved, everyone is free to submit modifications. At the bottom of every documentation page you’ll find this:
If you used Home Assistant’s Automation Editor, whether in its Visual or YAML modes, it qualifies as “creating it in the UI”.
For future reference, the Automation Editor, since its inception, does not expose all of Home Assistant’s automation features. It also introduces a few constraints of its own (like not supporting YAML comments). The current version (2025.12.3) is the most feature-rich version ever but still doesn’t do everything that’s possible by composing an automation in YAML using a text editor. Maybe some day it will achieve parity but currently it does not.
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If you feel the documentation ought to be improved, everyone is free to submit modifications
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I am obviously not qualified to write documentation for this doc since it appears I know almost nothing about it.
Understood. Thanks. I’ll probably continue to use the UI editor rather than manually creating yaml files since it allows me to see all my automations in one location and run them to test that they actually work. I don’t see any way to run manually created automation files.
You’re sufficiently qualified to describe your personal experience with it (it cannot be use with the Automation Editor).