In the doc that I have read so far it looks like you have to choose between using the UI or YAML files to set up your dashboard files. And once you have chosen the YAML route there is no way back.
I am running HA core-2025.11.3 in a docker container on a Raspberry PI5.
I can freely use the UI interface to set up a new dashboard, then switch to the ‘raw file’ YAML editor and copy and change things, save and then continue to use the UI editor to further change the dashboard that I working on.
Does that mean that the doc is outdated when it touches on the yaml/UI editing?
Or am I missing something here?
Nope. The YAML you are editing in the UI mode raw editor is actually saved as a json file in the .storage register. It is only translated to YAML for you to edit. One disadvantage of this is you lose comments when saved as json as this is not supported.
If using “real” YAMl mode, i.e. YAML saved in your configuration.yaml then no translation to json for saving in the .storage register occurs (and you can use comments).
Personally I find the UI editors perfectly fine and only occasionally drop into the raw YAML for custom cards and some options that are not supported in the UI. The UI is the best of both worlds - if you can handle not having comments available.
Others use Lovelace Gen, which simplifies repetitive configuration, but this is only available in YAML mode.
The docs are valid, you can use ‘raw file’ option to change the dashboard via YAML but that is not the same as using YAML mode. With YAML mode you would have to create a your-dashbord.yaml file in the config directory, add the yaml mode configuration to your configuration.yaml file, and manage the dashboard from the file itself… the UI is no longer an option at that point.
I have a few YAML mode dashboards, but honestly the UI has come so far in the last few years that there’s hardly a need for it other than some specific use cases where all my cards in that dashboard are custom and there is no UI option anyways. Example: ha-floorplan based dashboards. Then again some people just prefer YAML, in which case it makes sense for them to go that route.
Thanks Tom.
That clarifies a lot.
Just like you I did not want to lose the ability to use the UI and do everything through YAML. I prefer the combination of both worlds. And I am relieved to hear that it is perfectly OK to do so.
It is per dashboard, so you can have one or more dashboard in your sidebar that is YAML-only and one or more dashboards that are GUI controlled.
You can even have one or more dashboard that are auto-generated, but since they all would be the same, then more than one would not make sense.
