WTH is it so hard to work with advanced templates

Month of "What the heck?!"
1

I write automations that use complex templates involving service responses or trigger variables.

These templates are difficult or impossible to test.

Can you please revamp the template/code editor (both in Developer Tools and the Automation editor) to add context?

In developer tools

  • Merge the Actions and Template tabs to let me build a sequence of service calls, variables, and template actions.
  • The template actions should automatically have access to variables and service responses from earlier actions.
  • Each action should show its output (service response, variable values, or template result) on the side, with a button to re-execute.

In the automation editor

  • Show a template result preview on the side of every YAML editor.
    • For things other than service calls, this should ideally know which YAML fields actually support templates.
  • Allow users to select a saved Trace for the automation to apply its trigger variables / service responses to the template preview.
    • This is the only way to make it possible to test templates that involve trigger variables.
    • For more advanced automations, you can allow the user to select a loop iteration.
  • Make the Run option also save the service response for use in the template preview