Vague Conditional/Templating Error Statement?

Configuration
,
1

Hi all. I am having an odd problem with my automation which was working, but then I changed it to involve a conditional AND statement. I think I might be confused at this point after looking at it for so long, and trying so many things in dev tools. I even found one github issue that was related as it also had a super vague error. https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/31461#issue-559836620

To summarise the intention, I set an alarm on my android phone (or the alarm changes itself depending on weekend/weekdays, etc), tasker then sends this new alarm via POST, grabbed by a webhook and recorded as an input_datetime. This new alarm is offset by a variable (to switch on heating X minutes before alarm), and then checked against the current time. This was the original conditional statement and worked fine. I then added in the AND statement that checks the outdoors temperature against the variable thermostat temp, and only if both cases are true will the action run.

### Morning Heating Time Set ###
- alias: 'Turn on heating in morning wrt alarm'
  trigger:
    - platform: template
  condition:
    condition: and
    conditions:
      - condition: template
        value_template: >
          {% set hours = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','hour')|int %}
          {% set minutes = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','minute')|int %}
          {% set heat_on=(60*(hours*60 + minutes - states('input_number.heat_pre_alarm')|int))|timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) %}
          {% if  states('sensor.time') == heat_on %}true{% endif %}
      - condition: template
        value_template: >
          {{ states('input_number.heating_threshold') | float > state_attr('weather.XXX','temperature')|float }}
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_on
      entity_id: switch.shelly_XXX

The resulting error statement when the config is checked:

Invalid config for [automation]: required key not provided @ data['trigger'][0]['value_template']. Got None. (See /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml, line 14).

This has been driving me crazy so any help would be very appreciated.
Thanks,
Callum.

2

Where’s the trigger template?

The error message asks exactly that.

required key not provided @ data['trigger'][0]['value_template']. Got None.

Means there is no template for the first trigger (counting from zero).

3

Ah I see. That was a bit of a hold over from the old automation:

- alias: 'Turn on heating in morning wrt alarm' 
  trigger:
    platform: template
    value_template: >
      {% set hours = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','hour')|int %}
      {% set minutes = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','minute')|int %}
      {% set heat_on=(60*(hours*60 + minutes - states('input_number.heat_pre_alarm')|int))|timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) %}      
      {% if  states('sensor.time') == heat_on %}true{% endif %}
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_on
      entity_id: switch.shelly_xxx

Should I put the conditions indented within the trigger then?
Cheers, Callum.

4

Hi Tom, your comment made me realise my mistake. After coming back to HA automations after a while I had forgotten quite how things worked. I had moved my trigger condition into the condition for the automation, leaving the trigger bare. I have now reverted that and included the new addition in the automation condition, which has now passed the check. Thanks for the help, Tom!


### Morning Heating Time Set ###
- alias: 'Turn on heating in morning wrt alarm' 
  trigger:
    - platform: template
      value_template: >
        {% set hours = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','hour')|int %}
        {% set minutes = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','minute')|int %}
        {% set heat_on=(60*(hours*60 + minutes - states('input_number.heat_pre_alarm')|int))|timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) %}      
        {% if  states('sensor.time') == heat_on %}true{% endif %}
  condition:
    condition: template
    value_template: >
      {{ states('input_number.heating_threshold') | float > state_attr('weather.stoatybearhaus','temperature')|float }}
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_on
      entity_id: switch.shelly_xxx
5

There’s a much simpler way to do it:

value_template: "{{ states('sensor.time') == states('input_datetime.time_alarm')[0:5] }}"
6

I could simplify the last line a bit, but the reason for the convoluted method is to offset the alarm time before the condition is tried. Perhaps if I offset using another datetime value rather than converting manually because of a plain number value?

7

You could use the input_datetime’s timestamp attribute to streamline the template:

### Morning Heating Time Set ###
- alias: 'Turn on heating in morning wrt alarm' 
  trigger:
    - platform: template
      value_template: >
        {% set ts = state_attr('input_datetime.time_alarm','timestamp') - ((states('input_number.heat_pre_alarm')|int) * 60) %}
        {{ states('sensor.time') == ts | timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) }}
  condition:
    condition: template
    value_template: >
      {{ states('input_number.heating_threshold') | float > state_attr('weather.stoatybearhaus','temperature')|float }}
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_on
      entity_id: switch.shelly_xxx