r/homeassistant

Templating is where most Home Assistant users get stuck at some point. The docs used to be one massive 1,800-line page that felt like homework. I reworked them with one goal: make them more approachable.

The new version is live on home-assistant.io right now. This is a first pass, and feedback from real people using the docs is what makes them better.

Now:

• Every template function (all 200) has its own page with examples

https://preview.redd.it/cc64g0yl8ftg1.png?width=2914&format=png&auto=webp&s=50490e1aab8565aae2c8fcc9b0df09f3a526bd85

• 14 learning pages covering concepts step by step
• 2 practical tutorials that build something you will actually use: a daily low battery notification (a real automation) and an average home temperature sensor (a real template sensor)

https://preview.redd.it/4590u0ji8ftg1.png?width=2914&format=png&auto=webp&s=35ca180dacd95382dc0232291483a9aa14c706c4

• A searchable error messages page (paste the exact error you see into Google, land on a fix)
• Support bridges at the bottom of every page pointing to Discord, forum, , and AI helpers
• Interactive template code blocks site-wide. Hover over any function in an example to see its description; click to jump to its reference. Parameter names hover too. Works everywhere template examples appear, including templates inside YAML examples.
• A new way to show templates and their results. Clean input block, arrow, clean output block. See exactly what a template produces without running it.

https://preview.redd.it/x4f38fbk8ftg1.png?width=1692&format=png&auto=webp&s=e2b5eecba11d949083e58f68ab44a958c723d9b7

What I tried to change:

• Language a broader audience can follow, without losing precision for experienced users
• Plain language, no "advanced" or "simple" gatekeeping
• Realistic examples, not contrived ones
• Better cross-linking between reference and learning pages
• A wider goal: making Home Assistant feel more approachable. Templating is the corner that fights against that the most, so clearer docs here have broader effect. They also help AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude give better answers when people paste template questions in.

Check it out: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/templating/
Or the function reference at: https://www.home-assistant.io/template-functions/

I would love feedback, especially from anyone who has helped others with templates. What's confusing? What's missing? Any patterns you use all the time that should be in the cookbook?

Got a great example you think would help others? Drop it in a comment or contribute it directly to the docs. Small PRs with a single extra example are very welcome.

../Frenck

I've been using Alexa for about 7 years, but Alexa+ is just SO slow. So its time to migrate.

I need to know what I need to know, a primer maybe. I'm a software dev so I can handle what needs to be done, I just want to do it right.

we have about 100 devices, mostly just a couple of manufacturers, and a small collection of Routines. We just want a quicker response time and I want to ensure that our voice commands work without 'no bitch, I didn't say that' (in fairness, her listening abilities have improved over the years)

So if I need to spend more to do it the right way I'm ok with that.

thanks for any insight

Since so many of us come here to vent or find solutions to problems, I figured I'd make a post about how seamless things are actually going in my home assistant setup right now. I've been using HA for about five years and I currently have 70 zwave devices, 40 zigbee devices,10 matter over thread devices (Ikea), several wifi devices, a dozen Bluetooth devices (Switchbot )and plenty of other devices added via various integrations. With few exceptions, all my devices have required very little hair pulling to get running and it's all humming along nicely. I only have a few complex automations, I'm not a heavy fancy dashboard guy but I do occasionally use Google to control the system by voice (which is usually my only recurring issue). I just added in a few more Ikea matter devices this morning and things went so well, I thought it'd be nice to see a post like this. Huuuuuge thanks to the folks at home assistant for this awesome platform as well as everyone in this group and so many others for all the support. This is my favorite hobby😁

Hi, I am quite new to all this so this is some information about my setup and what I’m trying to solve.

I have HomeAssistant setup on a truenas OS server Version 25.10.2.1 (hardware is an old laptop). I can access the webui through the ip address with the port (xx.xx.xx.xx:8123), but not with the http://homeassistant.local:8123 address.

Why I need it to be accessible is the following: I am trying to setup an integration with xiaomi home with HACS. I believe I have set up hacs correctly, I have installed it directly in the config dataset of Home Assistant. However, in order to authenticate and link my account, the url that would need to be accessed is "http://homeassistant.local:8123" and I don’t think I can make the auth go directly to the ip instead.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm building a Home Assistant automation that controls my lights based on my Apple TV state. When I press pause I want the lights to turn on, but the problem is that when I fast forward, the Apple TV briefly enters a paused state which triggers my automation and turns the lights on unintentionally.

I've looked into using media_position to detect if the position changed between two checks, but the position is already frozen by the time the automation reads it after fast forwarding ends.

I've also noticed that the idle and off states seem unreliable, sometimes they fire hours after the actual event, which causes my automation to trigger unexpectedly in the middle of the night.

Is there any attribute or state that changes differently during fast forward vs a real pause? Or is there a reliable way to distinguish between the two?

My setup:

• Apple TV integrated via the native HA integration
• Automation triggered on state -> paused

Operation

I followed up on RPJacobs-s work and finalized my project!

If anyone wants to follow: https://github.com/Artooditu/TMT_CHOW_CB19-GATE-CONTROL-SYSTEM/tree/main

The problem with original solution is that is puts you behind a paywall, limiting the capabilities of the system. Even if you pay you were forced to IFTT.

That's not good enough! I need to know if gate is moving, which direction is it moving, and get a constant feedback of the state.

To-be-done: As this relies on MQTT I need to implement a healthcheck to know if gate is available, I'll update it soon :)

Super happy with the solution!

https://preview.redd.it/ts0dsbolpitg1.png?width=955&format=png&auto=webp&s=d29d2a44ac6316720493e1d52fabcfc51c87c11b

I am building a new dashboard, and am looking for some good ideas to display swimming pool information. I would like to have a smallish card on the main dashboard with a picture of the pool, and well as several pieces of status data: pool temp, air temp, pump on/off, heat on/off, etc. I also plan to have a full view dedicated to detailed pool data and controls. I get all of my data from the Jandy Aqua Link.

Has anyone created a cool card(s) that they would like to share? Stylistically I am looking for something that would fit a liquid glass theme. But the style is not that important. If I find something nice, I will modify it.

Hello everyone, I’ve moved into my own apartment and want to setup smart home features. In the past the most I’ve done in my room was sensibo and a smart light with siri shortcuts. My main goal for the home is to have automations and have everything controlled via voice commands. I also wish to integrate some personal vibe coded apps for things like how many things I have from each food in my fridge etc (like be able to say “Hey _ how many eggs do I have?” - For this I have thought of running a custom app using netlify and a google firebase for cloud.

My questions are: What’s a recommended way to do voice control? From reading here I saw mixed thoughts on the voice PE device, if it works for simple things and using gemini with it works well enough then it’s fine for me, but I’d like to know if there’s a better option out there? Not looking to play music on it and the apartment is pretty small, I just want it to hear the wake up phrase and be able to use a cloud ai model like gemini (I don’t mind paying for the cloud subscription of HA if needed)

My second question is regarding the personal app- if anyone has any experience integrating an app like that with home assistant? Right now the app works by using a gemini api for understanding the phrases and updating the amount of groceries, but I wonder if it’s possible to make it work on the home assistant.

Last question- if doing this on cloud is the green enough for this use case? Along with ZBT-2 and a voice satellite? If I understand correctly that’s all I need to set this up?

I appreciate any help with these questions, thank you!

I'm trying to set up Tempest weather station integration in HomeAssistant, using the non-cloud service. All I get is the above error.

HomeAssistant is a brand new install of 1.8.15 (TrueNAS app version 2026.4.0) of all vanilla settings. No imports of any settings or devices, out of the box with not even as much as a theming change. It's running in a Docker container on TrueNAS.

One suggestion I kept seeing to resolve this problem was having the Tempest on the same subnet as HomeAssistant, so I moved it from my IoT subnet to the subnet I use for everything else. Nothing changed.

Mosquitto is already installed and running in another container. I've seen some suggestions that not having an MQTT broker installed was the problem. Still can't install the WeatherFlow integration.

All I'm finding now is hundreds of other clueless idiots like myself "me too"ing on hundreds of other "how do I fix it" posts.

I can't be sure if my problem is TrueNAS, HomeAssistant, Docker, Tempest, or something else. Given other apps on TrueNAS seem to work fine and the problem occurs when attempting to set up an HA integration, I guess this is a good place to start.

Hey!

Here is my setup: Unifi UDR7 Router, two VLANs, IPv6 active on both.

HA Green Instance on IoT VLAN, Apple TV (4k, 2nd Gen) on Default VLAN.

I can ping the Apple TV (and my iPhone also on the Default VLAN) from the HA Green.

I have some Ikea Matter over Thread devices.

I can add the Ikea Matter gadgets to Apple Home without any problems, but I cannot add them to HA.

The Apple TV is set as border router in my "Preferred Network" in HA->Settings->Thread. I can send the credentials to phone.

In the companion app under Debugging->Thread I get two Apple Keychains (?!) which I can both transfer to HA.

Anybody any ideas for troubleshooting? Appreciate the help!

I’ve read through a bunch of posts regarding people who are moving and either bringing their gear and automations or starting fresh with Home Assistant.

I’ve decided I would like to start fresh but my question is, what do you mean by starting fresh? I’m running a Home Assistant Green.

Do I need to reset or am I just deleting my current home and then setting up my new home when I get settled?

If you would t mind sharing your advice, I would appreciate it.

Bonus points, what did people do with Hue, etc. Did you wipe that as well to start fresh or rename lights and rooms?

Hi all,

I’ve been using Google Home for a while and want to take the step into Home Assistant.

Current setup:

- A few “Google Home” compatible devices (FIET smart switches, Govee led strips)

- Matter devices (switches, plugs)

- Using Google TV Streamer and Nest Hub Gen 2 as my Thread border routers

Just purchased:

- Home Assistant Green

- ZBT2

What I’m trying to figure out:

If I:

- Leave my Thread devices on Google

- Use ZBT-2 for Zigbee in HA

- Connect Google Home → HA

What functionality/control do I lose vs moving Thread fully into HA

Specifically:

- Can HA dashboards fully control those Thread devices?

- Any reliability or latency differences?

- Do automations behave differently?

- Any sync/duplication issues?

Do most people have one ZBT for Thread and one for Zigbee? Or do most people just stay hybrid (Google Thread + HA Zigbee)?

Goal is:

- HA as main brain (dashboards + automations)

- Google only for voice (sometimes…before I look into the HA voice module)

Appreciate any guidance from people who’ve gone through this!

I’m rebuilding my stt/tts pipelines after cleaning up the home stack and moving HA to docker. it’s 2026 now and home assistant still only officially supports Wyoming (not counting Google as an option, that’s disgusting). The only Wyoming server I can find only supports trash cpu inference or a recent CUDA GPU. Both are asinine for anyone who just wants an efficient local stt/tts that actually works good.

what happened here?

What’s wrong with supporting hardware people actually use at home? Any decent mini pc from the past 6-7 years is fully capable of this but not supported. Are we just supposed to run giant space heaters instead of systems that average under 5-6w?

These “homelab” first solutions fit the mold of other design choices that make HA anti family.

if you’re only going to support an obscure protocol, it would make sense to actually suport it. I know all you have to do is write, test, and iterate your own python wrapper, blah, blah.

I really like Gemma4:26b because I can easily push 262k context on a single 3090, but Home Assistant tool calls are like a 40 second time to first token for me. I'm using the newest Ollama docker tag version. Non-tool responses through HA are almost instant, but when I have to pull in the tool definitions it's about a 25k token prompt and hits a bottleneck somewhere, then takes about 40 seconds to respond. No issues with qwen3.5:27b, responds only after a few seconds. I was hoping to get a serious tokens per second boost with MoE.

What is everyone else's experience with Gemma 4 on Home Assistant? Any other models you recommend?

Hey folks - we have a basement space we need tot est for radon, and would also be nice to have a CO2 tester as well. Any recommendations for a device i could place down there and get regular radon and CO2 readings from?

I recently cracked this challenge and updated a WS100+ switch with homeseer. If there is interest, I will do a write up. I am sure the same method can be used to do a WD100+ dimmer as well.