Using configuration.yaml to override or customise automatic configuration

Configuration
1

Hi,

I have been playing around with Home Assistant for a few weeks now. When I used it a few years ago it was possible to configure it all manually through yaml, but the default install has a very basic configuration.yaml and appears to be storing the config in a database.

In Home Assistant 2021 is it possible to use both a configuration.yaml for device definition and use the default configuration method for other integrations like the MQTT broker, Samba etc?
If I define a tasmota nased device in configuration.yaml, will HA also try to discover that device independently?

2

There are many integrations that still use yaml. There are many going to only ui and there are some that can use both.

The path forward for the core integrations are to have them all only configurable thru the ui.

But you’ll need to check the documentation for each integration to know the config method.

As far as tasmota with the latest tasmota integration I think it will try to discover it.

If you just use the mqtt config method then it won’t try to discover it. So the answer is it depends.

I don’t use the tasmota integration so I can’t help you that much further.

3

Thank you for your reply. I finally decided to just use a node-red dashboard with nodered as the engine. I spent about three weeks trying to get my head around Home Assistant but could never predict how it would behave in terms of discovering devices or working with yaml configs. Node-red still has that direct relationship to a device, you configure it to do something with an mqtt node and it does it; personally, I could not predictably achieve that with HA. I am sure the issue is on my side, but when I used HA a few years ago I had few problems setting it up. I do appreciate the feedback, thanks again.