Why does MQTT discovery add device name to entity name?

Configuration
1

I have a procedure I run (on an external computer) that sends MQTT discovery messages to Home Assistant. I group some of my lights into a device with the name: “HomeVisionXL X10”.

Example:

homeassistant/light/HVXLb1d0d912ed315aad_C_5/config

{
    "uniq_id": "HVXLb1d0d912ed315aad_C_5",
    "name": "C-5 Kitchen Table",
    "ret": false,
    "qos": 1,
    "dev": {
        "ids": [
            "HVXLb1d0d912ed315aad_X10"
        ],
        "name": "HomeVisionXL X10",
        "mdl": "HomeVision",
        "mf": "CustomSolutions"
    },
    "~": "stat/KitchenTable/RESULT",
    "stat_t": "~",
    "cmd_t": "cmnd/KitchenTable/POWER",
    "pl_on": "ON",
    "pl_off": "OFF",
    "stat_val_tpl": "{{ value_json.POWER }}",
    "bri_cmd_t": "cmnd/KitchenTable/POWER",
    "bri_stat_t": "~",
    "bri_scl": "100",
    "bri_val_tpl": "{{ value_json.Dimmer }}",
    "on_cmd_type": "brightness"
}

The above creates an entity, “light.c_5_kitchen_table”, and a Device, “HomeVisionXL X10”.

Looking at the Device in the GUI shows the light as “C-5 Kitchen Table” in the “Controls” list, as expected.

But, when I add the light to an entity card, I get this default name:

HomeVisionXL X10 C-5 Kitchen Table

Why is the device name prepended to the Entity’s name? How to I prevent that?

I know I can manually edit the entity card to delete the device name portion in the name, but I have many entities like this spread out over 10+ devices.

I checked the forum and the web in general, and haven’t found an answer.

2

Prepending the device name is an architectural decision made a long time ago but wasn’t implemented in the MQTT integration, specifically the MQTT Discovery feature, until version 2023.8.0.

If you don’t want the device name prepended to entity’s friendly_name, you’ll need to do what you have already mentioned (manually rename its friendly_name).

I have several dozen of such entities so I used Manual Customization to modify entity names in bulk.

Copy-paste the following template into the Template Editor.

{% for id in integration_entities('mqtt')
  | map('device_id') | unique | reject ('eq', None) | sort %}
{% set name = device_attr(id, "name_by_user") or device_attr(id, "name") %}
# {{ name }}
{%- for e in device_entities(id) | sort %}
{{ e }}:
  friendly_name: {{ state_attr(e, 'friendly_name') | replace(name, '') | trim }}
{%- endfor -%}
{%- endfor -%}

The Template Editor’s results window should now contain a neatly formatted YAML listing of your MQTT-based entities, grouped by device, showing each one’s entity_id and its friendly_name stripped of its device name.

Example of what the template generated

Each entity’s desired friendly_name has been stripped of its device name (HAI Omnistat2) .

# HAI Omnistat2
binary_sensor.hvac_fan_status:
  friendly_name: Furnace Fan
climate.thermostat:
  friendly_name: Thermostat
sensor.indoor_humidity:
  friendly_name: Indoor Humidity
sensor.indoor_temperature:
  friendly_name: Indoor Temperature

Copy-paste the generated listing into the customize section of your configuration.yaml file. In my case, I have that section in a separate customize.yaml file.

Make any required corrections, like proper YAML indentation, then save the file and restart Home Assistant.

5 Likes
3

Ah, that may be why I didn’t notice this until (relatively) recently.
I’ll give your work-around a try soon.
Thanks!

4

Let me know how it goes. You’re the first person (other than me) who will try the template. I’m curious to know how it will perform in your environment.

5

Just tried it. Works great! Generated a ~300 line (~150 entities over 12 devices) output in the template editor, which I put into a separate .yaml file which I included in comfiguration.yaml.

Saves me a lot of typing! Thanks again.

1 Like
6

BTW, This is how I added the file:

homeassistant:
  customize: !include customize.yaml
  customize: !include customize_mqtt_disc.yaml

This seems to work, but doesn’t “feel” right (duplicate “customize:” ). But I’m too much of a noob to know for sure if this is OK, or should be done differently.

7

I think on startup it will use only the second file, not the first one.

8

Good thing I don’t have anything in the first one yet. :slight_smile:
So is it possible to somehow have multiple include files for one “thing” (like customize:, etc.)
I couldn’t find anything that indicated a way that would do that.

9

Reference

Splitting up the configuration - Advanced usage

10

I had read that one, but didn’t see how to do what I wanted. But since you referenced it, I thought I’d better read it again, and eventually did this:

In configuration.yaml:

homeassistant:
  customize:  !include_dir_merge_named customize/

and in a new dir customize, I put

customize.yaml
customize_mqtt_disc.yaml

This seems to work fine, picking up everything in each file - I moved a small portion of the template editor results into what was otherwise an empty customize.yaml to make sure both were picked up.
I’ve since moved that part back to customize_mqtt_disc.yaml and let customize.yaml have any other general customizations I want in the future.

Thank again for your help and patience to a HA noob!

1 Like