Send username variable in RESTful_command payload

Configuration
1

Hello!

First time poster so I hope I am posting this the correct way...

I am trying to send a variable (the HA username) of the person activating the rest_command sendtestsms
But failing misserably. The command works and the payload is sent but the variable is not sent with it.
This is what I have got so far, does anyone have a solution to this?

rest_command:
  sendtestsms:
    url: "http://192.168.53.250/cgi-bin/sms_send?"
    method: POST
    payload: "username=*MYUSERNAME*&password=*MY_PASSWORD*&text={{ user }} Sent a test SMS&number=*MY_PHONE_NUMBER*"
    content_type: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
2

Oh, maybe I should add... The command works but does not send the variable.

3

Can you give us a bit more detail on how you want to use this?

4

Are you on Linux or Mac, if so you can test what this request looks like with the terminal command nc.
Like this:

nc -l 8080

And change the url to your PC/MAC ip and port 8080.

http://192.168.53.250:8080/cgi-bin/sms_send?

And you will see the request in you terminal, to see what all variables will be populated to or not.

5

This is activated by a simple button which is configured like this.
What I want to achieve is that the name of the user who pushed the button (the user who is logged in) is sent in the payload

show_name: true
show_icon: true
type: button
entity: ""
tap_action:
  action: call-service
  service: rest_command.sendtestsms
color: deep-purple
icon: mdi:comment-text
name: Send test SMS
6

Instead of calling the rest command directly, call a script that calls the rest command:

alias: Helper Script for SendSMS Button
description: ""
sequence:
  - variables:
      get_user: >
        {{ (states.person 
        | selectattr('attributes.user_id', '==', context.user_id) 
        | map(attribute='name') | first 
        | default('unknown user')).split(' ')[0] }}
  - action: rest_command.sendtestsms
    metadata: {}
    data:
      user: "{{get_user}}"

show_name: true
show_icon: true
type: button
entity: ""
tap_action:
  action: call-service
  service: script.helper_script_for_sendsms_button
color: deep-purple
icon: mdi:comment-text
name: Send test SMS
7

Maybe I am not explaining this good enough..
The command itself works, the payload is sent when the button is pressed but where I expect the username variable to be included {{ user }} there is nothing in the payload.

her is what nc returned:

POST /cgi-bin/sms_send HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.53.**:9999
User-Agent: HomeAssistant/2026.7.0 aiohttp/3.14.1 Python/3.14
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: /
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Content-Length: 92

username=CORRECT_USERNAME&password=CORRECT_PASSWORD&text=sent a test SMS&number=CORRECT_PHONE_NO

What I expected to get:

POST /cgi-bin/sms_send HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.53.**:9999
User-Agent: HomeAssistant/2026.7.0 aiohttp/3.14.1 Python/3.14
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: /
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Content-Length: 92

username=CORRECT_USERNAME&password=CORRECT_PASSWORD&text=HOME ASSISTANT USERNAME sent a test SMS&number=CORRECT_PHONE_NO

8

Sorry, payload looks exactly the same even with the helper script...

Everything is there except for the variable/username...

9

Allright, so doing this:

rest_command:
  sendtestsms:
    url: "http://192.168.53.**:9999/cgi-bin/sms_send?"
    method: POST
    payload: {{user}}
    content_type: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

I get the HA username is sent, of course now without the rest of the payload...

10

If that's working, try concatenating it inside the template delimiters.

payload: {{"username=*MYUSERNAME*&password=*MY_PASSWORD*&text="~ user ~" Sent a test SMS&number=*MY_PHONE_NUMBER*"}}
11

Sorry, no dice... Got this when checking config.

Error loading /config/configuration.yaml: while parsing a flow mapping
in "/config/configuration.yaml", line 58, column 15
expected ',' or '}', but got ''
in "/config/configuration.yaml", line 58, column 68

12

Allright, I manged to get it solved. This was a weird one...

This is how the variable should have been added to the payload:

rest_command:
  sendatestsms:
    url: "http://192.168.53.**:9999/cgi-bin/sms_send?"
    method: POST
    payload: 'username=*SECRET*&password=*SECRET*&text= {{ user }} Sent a test SMS&number=*SECRET*'
    content_type: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

And it would not work if called directly from the button but using the helper script posted by @Didgeridrew it will work.

alias: script_sendatestsms
description: ""
sequence:
  - variables:
      get_user: >
        {{ (states.person 
        | selectattr('attributes.user_id', '==', context.user_id) 
        | map(attribute='name') | first 
        | default('unknown user')).split(' ')[0] }}
  - action: rest_command.sendatestsms
    metadata: {}
    data:
      user: "{{get_user}}"