Where is the YAML file and should I be editing it?

i have been trying to integrate my smartthings Hub into my new HA instance on a rasberry pi 4

im searching online how to do various things but some stuff not clear

im looking at all the setting options in HA … can i see the content of the yaml file here
where is the yaml file, online instructions said it shows on screen during startup of HA but it doesnt

are we supposed to manually edit this file or are we supposed to do via teh GUI inside HA

Help!

You do not need to edit any Yaml for SmartThings.

You just add the SmartThings integration under settings it will walk you through setup.

Make sure you are familiar with the instructions here:

The SmartThings integration uses the SmartThings cloud api, so it round trips to the SmartThings cloud and does not connect to your SmartThings hub through your LAN. (no it’s not an option right now)

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thanks.
but where is the yaml file? i have HA running on a container via portainer on my Pi 4.
on startup , ha does NOT show any message about where things are located

On the left side menu choose the option for file editor.

Once there inside the config directory should be a filed called configuration.yaml

my left side of UI doesnt have that optoin (file editor)
it has
overview, energy , map , logbook, hisstory, media, dev tools, settings

and when i drill down into dev tools, i dont see any file editor .
im also looking for supervisor and configuration option (which i posted a Q for already)

Do you have the gear icon at the bottom?

If so click that, click Add-Ons.

Click Add-On Store in lower right.

Seach and Select File Editor, install it.

This should allow you to access the file editor and find your configuration.yaml file.

See here for more details:

Advanced Configuration - Home Assistant (home-assistant.io)

They won’t have that icon because they installed Home Assistant Container which doesn’t include Supervisor and the Add-on Store.

Reference: Compare Installation Methods

May I ask why you installed Home Assistant Container?

Respectfully, it’s meant for users who have sufficient Linux management skills and wouldn’t be asking where configuration files are located. For example, the installation instructions for Home Assistant Container show that the location of the configuration files will be wherever you specified to put them.

If you didn’t follow the official instructions for installing Home Assistant Container, refer to those other instructions.

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Did you use Docker compose or just run it on the command line? If you installed/started it via compose then you add the config file as a volume:

services:
  home-assistant:
    image: homeassistant/home-assistant
    ports:
      - "8123:8123/tcp"
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /srv/docker/hass-config:/config
    restart: unless-stopped

So for me, it’s on my system as /srv/docker/hass-config/configuration.yaml

If you did NOT explicitly mount this as a volume in Docker then anything you’ve done inside HA will disappear when you restart the container because docker containers are not write-able.

If you need to extract a copy from inside a running container there’s a way to do that but if you aren’t comfortable with the command line it’ll be painful.

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wierd. I have the gear at the bottom (for settings) but the settings dont include add-ons.
i see things like. home cloud assistant, device&services, automations and scenes

but i drilled down all of them and see no add-ons

im running HA 2023.3.4 and its says ‘latest’ for frontend

Read the reply from Taras above. You selected an advanced install method intended for people who know their way around Linux, config paths and container management. It does not include add-ons.

The best approach is to reinstall Home Assistant OS instead. You can transfer your current configuration.

to answer your question, i chose the container method , so as not to dedicate the Pi 4 to only one task. I have worked with linux in past as well as designed cpu architecture, so im confident that i can grasp the details, providing everything is well documented.

thanks for the link to the install instructions, i will take a look and see if i cant sort this out before i abandon container method. i may have followed install instructions from another source when i put HA on the pi 4

You don’t need addons and you don’t need to change your installation method. You can use any text editor to edit the YAML files. VSCode for example has a nifty Home Assistant extension, but you could even use vi if you were that sort of masochist.

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In that case, you should have no difficulty figuring out the path you specified when you configured it using the other instructions.

ha… i know/knew vi… i remember hating learning it but it sure came in handy