The Home Assistant Core integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] provides generic implementations like the generic homeassistant.turn_on action.

Editing the General Settings in YAML

The Home Assistant Core integration is also responsible for the general settings. These settings are defined during onboarding, but you can change them later under Settings > System > General. For the detailed steps, refer to Basic settings.

If you prefer editing in YAML, you can define your general settings in the configuration.yamlThe configuration.yaml file is the main configuration file for Home Assistant. It lists the integrations to be loaded and their specific configurations. In some cases, the configuration needs to be edited manually directly in the configuration.yaml file. Most integrations can be configured in the UI. [Learn more] file. Note that for some of the settings, these can’t be edited from the UI if they were defined in YAML. They will be grayed out or inaccessible.

👁 Screenshot showing coordinates cannot be edited because they are defined in configuration.yaml file
Screenshot showing coordinates cannot be edited because they are defined in configuration.yaml file.

To get started with the general settings in YAML, follow these steps:

1. Copy the following information to your configuration.yamlThe configuration.yaml file is the main configuration file for Home Assistant. It lists the integrations to be loaded and their specific configurations. In some cases, the configuration needs to be edited manually directly in the configuration.yaml file. Most integrations can be configured in the UI. [Learn more] file.

   homeassistant:
    name: Home
    latitude: 32.87336
    longitude: 117.22743
    elevation: 430
    radius: 100
    unit_system: metric
    currency: USD
    country: US
    time_zone: "America/Los_Angeles"
    allowlist_external_dirs:
    - "/usr/var/dumping-ground"
    - "/tmp"
    allowlist_external_urls:
    - "http://images.com/image1.png"
    media_dirs:
    media: "/media"
    recordings: "/mnt/recordings"
    debug: false
   

2. Edit each entry to fit your home.

Editing entity settings in YAML

The Home Assistant Core integration is also responsible for entity settings. By default, all of your devices will be visible and have a default icon determined by their domain. You can customize the look and feel of your front page by altering some of these parameters. This can be done by overriding attributes of specific entities.

Most of these settings can be changed from the UI. For the detailed steps, refer to Customizing entities.

If you prefer editing in YAML, you can define your general settings in the configuration.yamlThe configuration.yaml file is the main configuration file for Home Assistant. It lists the integrations to be loaded and their specific configurations. In some cases, the configuration needs to be edited manually directly in the configuration.yaml file. Most integrations can be configured in the UI. [Learn more] file.

Possible values

Device class

Devices classes categorize certain entities and influence how these are shown in the dashboard. Some device classes categorize by measurement type, such as sensors or binary sensors. Other device classes categorize into more specific types. For example, a cover can be a blind or a curtain. For a given platform, the device class influences what is shown in the user interface. For example: humidifier has two device classes, humidifier and dehumidifier. If the device class is set to humidifier, the UI shows Humidifying. If it is set to dehumidifier, it shows Drying.

Device class is currently supported by the following platforms:

• Binary sensor
• Button
• Cover
• Event
• Humidifier
• Media player
• Number
• Sensor
• Switch
• Update
• Valve

For a list of the supported device classes, refer to the documentation of the platform.

Manual customization

homeassistant:
 name: Home
 unit_system: metric
 # etc

 customize:
 # Add an entry for each entity that you want to overwrite.
 thermostat.family_room:
 entity_picture: https://example.com/images/nest.jpg
 friendly_name: Nest
 switch.wemo_switch_1:
 friendly_name: Toaster
 entity_picture: /local/toaster.jpg
 switch.wemo_switch_2:
 friendly_name: Kitchen kettle
 icon: mdi:kettle
 switch.rfxtrx_switch:
 assumed_state: false
 media_player.my_media_player:
 source_list:
 - Channel/input from my available sources
 # Customize all entities in a domain
 customize_domain:
 light:
 icon: mdi:home
 automation:
 initial_state: "on"
 # Customize entities matching a pattern
 customize_glob:
 "light.kitchen_*":
 icon: mdi:description
 "scene.month_*_colors":
 icon: mdi:other

Custom STUN and TURN servers

It’s possible to override the default list of STUN and TURN servers which are used to initiate WebRTC streaming. Each STUN or TURN server can be configured as described in the table below.

WebRTC configuration example

homeassistant:
 name: Home
 unit_system: metric
 # etc

 webrtc:
 ice_servers:
 # Add an entry for each STUN or TURN server
 - url:
 - "stun:stun.example.com:19302"
 - "stun:stun2.example.com:12345"
 - url: "turn:turn.domain.com"
 username: "username"
 credential: "abc123"

List of triggers

The Home Assistant Core integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] provides the following triggers. Each link below opens a dedicated page with examples, fields, and a step-by-step UI walkthrough.

• Manual event received (event) Triggers when an event is fired on the Home Assistant event bus.

• Home Assistant (homeassistant) Triggers when Home Assistant starts up or shuts down.

• Numeric state (numeric_state) Triggers when a numeric value crosses a threshold.

• State (state) Triggers when the state or an attribute changes.

• Time (time) Triggers at a specific time, or from a date/time helper or timestamp-style sensor.

• Time pattern (time_pattern) Triggers periodically at a defined interval.

For an overview of every trigger across all integrations, see the triggers reference.

List of actions

The Home Assistant Core integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] provides the following actions. Each link below opens a dedicated page with examples, parameters, and a step-by-step UI walkthrough.

• Check Home Assistant configuration (homeassistant.check_config) Checks the Home Assistant YAML configuration files for errors.

• Reload all Home Assistant configuration (homeassistant.reload_all) Reloads all YAML configuration that can be reloaded without a restart.

• Reload config entry (homeassistant.reload_config_entry) Reloads an integration’s config entry without restarting Home Assistant.

• Reload Core configuration (homeassistant.reload_core_config) Reloads the Core configuration under the homeassistant section of your YAML.

• Reload custom Jinja2 templates (homeassistant.reload_custom_templates) Reloads the custom Jinja2 templates from your custom_templates folder.

• Restart Home Assistant (homeassistant.restart) Restarts Home Assistant after checking the configuration.

• Save persistent states (homeassistant.save_persistent_states) Saves the persistent states of entities immediately.

• Set Home Assistant location (homeassistant.set_location) Updates the location of the Home Assistant home zone.

• Stop Home Assistant (homeassistant.stop) Stops the Home Assistant instance.

• Generic toggle (homeassistant.toggle) Toggles one or more entities across any domain on or off in a single action.

• Generic turn off (homeassistant.turn_off) Turns off one or more entities across any domain in a single action.

• Generic turn on (homeassistant.turn_on) Turns on one or more entities across any domain in a single action.

• Update entity (homeassistant.update_entity) Forces one or more entities to refresh their data right away.

For an overview of every action across all integrations, see the actions reference.

Home Assistant Core automation examples

You can use these core triggers to react to events, state changes, schedules, and Home Assistant lifecycle events.

Automation: send a notification when Home Assistant starts

If you restart Home Assistant for an update or maintenance, this automation lets you know when it is ready again. It sends a message to your phone as soon as startup finishes.

• Trigger: Home Assistant
  • Event: Start
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

Automation: save persistent states before Home Assistant shuts down

If you are about to restart or stop Home Assistant, this automation tells Home Assistant to save persistent states right away. This can be useful before planned maintenance.

• Trigger: Home Assistant
  • Event: Shutdown
• Action: Save persistent states

Automation: send a reminder when a door stays open for 5 minutes

If a door stays open longer than expected, this automation sends a message to your phone. It uses the State trigger to wait until the entity stays in the on state for 5 minutes.

• Trigger: State
  • Entity: Back door sensor (binary_sensor.back_door)
  • To: on
  • For: 5 minutes
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)