Trouble adding time to a notification

hey folks,
I’m trying to add a timestamp to a slack notification. For some reason, this errors:

{
  "message": "Sunset! Lights on {{ now().strftime("%H:%M") }}"
}

If I paste:

 {{ now().strftime("%H:%M") }}

Into the Templates GUI, it works perfectly. But if I do it in the automation, it doesnt work.

Any tips?

Here is one of mine that works:

  - service: notify.david_ios_notify
    data_template:
      message: Created backup named "Automated Backup {{ now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}"

Just be aware, in your example, you can’t use double quotes outside as well as inside…

so try:

{
  "message": "Sunset! Lights on {{ now().strftime('%H:%M') }}"
}
1 Like

here is a automation I wrote this morning

- id: scentsy_wax Timer
  alias: Scentsy Wax Timer
  trigger:
  - entity_id: switch.scentsy_wax
    platform: state
    to: "on"
  condition: []
  action:
  - data_template:
      title: "Home Assistant"
      message: "Scentsy Wax we turn off @  {{ (as_timestamp(now()) + 60*15) | timestamp_custom('%H:%M') }}"
    service: notify.stephan_phone  
  - delay: '00:15:00'
  - data:
      entity_id: switch.scentsy_wax
    service: switch.turn_off