Trigger an automation 5 minutes before an alarm (with debug)

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1

I use this to trun on my coffee machine via a Zigbee fingerbot 5 minutes before my alarm goes off on my Sonos speaker (via a different automation). The on-off switch is a helper and checks to see if coffee had been requested and is reset at the end of the automation. An input_datetime helper called ‘alarm_clock’ that stores the target alarm time

alias: Alarm Coffee
description: Turns on coffee machine 5 minutes before the alarm goes off
trigger:
  - platform: template
    value_template: |-
      {{ states('input_datetime.alarm_clock')[:-3] ==
         (now() + timedelta(minutes=5)).strftime('%H:%M') }}
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.alarm_coffee
    state: "on"
action:
  - service: notify.persistent_notification
    data:
      message: >-
        "Alarm clock is approaching! Triggering action in 5 minutes. Alarm Time:
        {{ states('input_datetime.alarm_clock') | regex_replace('T', ' ') |
        regex_replace('\....$', '') }}, Now: {{ now().strftime('%H:%M:%S') }}"
  - type: toggle
    device_id: b48faec2d4b298702039a7fddef32fb1
    entity_id: 56fa9a8aea5a92cbf84940f5f6ba697a
    domain: switch
  - service: input_boolean.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.alarm_coffee
    data: {}
mode: single
2

I find this automation pair to be a bit overengineered.

Why not bake everything into the “different automation”? Set as actions: start_coffee_machine → wait_5_min → sound_alarm
Either mentally set the alarm 5 minutes before the desired time or use a helper that is always 5 minutes earlier than what the wake up alarm is set for.