Entities¶

Entities are used in cards and screensaver lists.

Entity keys¶

Supported Home Assistant domains¶

• switch
• input_boolean
• automation
• lock
• input_text
• input_select
• select
• light
• fan
• button
• input_button
• scene
• script
• number
• input_number
• timer
• alarm_control_panel
• vacuum
• media_player
• sun
• person
• climate
• cover
• sensor
• binary_sensor
• weather

Internal entities¶

• navigate.<key>: Navigate to card with matching key.
• navigate.UP: Navigate back.
• delete: Placeholder/empty slot.
• iText.<text>: Static text entry.
• service.<domain>.<action>: Button that calls a Home Assistant action with data, as in AppDaemon.

Action buttons (service.*)¶

A service.<domain>.<action> item shows a button labelled "Run". Pressing it calls the action with data as its action data, so name target entities in data. With status, the icon and color follow that entity's state, and per-state icon/color maps apply.

- entity: service.water_heater.set_operation_mode
  name: Boiler on
  icon: mdi:water-boiler
  status: water_heater.boiler
  color:
    electric: [255, 128, 0]
  data:
    entity_id: water_heater.boiler
    operation_mode: electric

Only items configured on the current card can call actions. A raw MQTT event naming a service.* entity is refused.

Template-based values¶

The backend supports Home Assistant template rendering for selected fields when prefixed with ha::

• icon: "ha:{{ ... }}"
• color: "ha:{{ ... }}" (must evaluate to JSON RGB list)
• value: "ha:{{ ... }}"
• qrCode: "ha:{{ ... }}"

Example:

- entity: light.kitchen
  icon:
    "on": mdi:lightbulb
    "off": mdi:lightbulb-outline
  color:
    "on": [255, 210, 90]
    "off": [80, 120, 170]

Sensor display precision¶

Numeric sensor values respect Home Assistant's resolved display precision, including the sensor's configured precision and integration-suggested precision when provided by HA. For example, 7.75165151099879 with precision 2 is sent as 7.75, and precision 0 produces 8. This applies before units and grid value icons are generated.

Precision changes in Home Assistant refresh the display without restarting the add-on. Sensors without precision metadata retain their original value; nonnumeric states such as unknown and unavailable are not rounded. Explicit value templates continue to take precedence. This does not change the underlying HA state or add locale-specific decimal separators. The US portrait entity-card character limit still applies.

Smaller sensor values on grids (4.8.3+)¶

Set font on each entity to adjust its grid icon/value font. For numeric sensor readings, use medium or small:

- type: cardGrid
  title: Humidity
  entities:
    - entity: sensor.bedroom_humidity
      name: Bedroom
      font: medium
    - entity: sensor.living_room_humidity
      name: Living room
      font: small

From 4.8.5, sensor readings in the grid icon/value area omit the unit, matching the former AppDaemon backend. For example, 8.44 g/m³ is displayed as 8.44, leaving more room for the reading and its font-selection suffix. To show the unit, include it in the entity name, such as Bedroom (g/m³). Entity cards and screensavers still show units.

The options are small, medium, medium-icon (an icon font), and large. Grid font selection also applies when cardGrid automatically switches to cardGrid2 for more than six entities. It affects the large icon/value area, not the entity label. It does not change sensor precision or the screensaver's separate status-icon font handling.

Dynamic templates (4.8.5+)¶

Use ha: followed by a Home Assistant template for an entity's name, icon, color, or value:

- entity: sensor.bedroom_humidity
  name: 'ha:{{ states("sensor.bedroom_label") }}'
  color: 'ha:{{ states("sensor.bedroom_color") }}'

Name templates also work on navigate.* and iText.* items. The backend shares subscriptions for identical expressions and refreshes the displayed entity when the template result changes, including time-based templates. Subscriptions are restored after Home Assistant reconnects.

Color templates can return RGB text such as [223, 255, 0], (223, 255, 0), #dfff00, or rgb(223,255,0). RGB components must be integers from 0 to 255. Invalid or unavailable colors use the default entity color.

Weather forecast retrieval (4.8.5+)¶

day: 0 selects the first daily forecast entry; day: 1 selects the next entry. hour: 0 likewise selects the first hourly entry. Dates depend on the forecast supplied by the Home Assistant integration.

Forecast entries share a cache by weather entity and forecast type. When rendered, missing or expired forecasts are refreshed in the background, with an eight-second response timeout and a five-minute cache lifetime. A successful refresh updates the panel automatically. Slow responses do not block panel interaction. Failed refreshes retain the last valid forecast and allow another attempt on a subsequent render after 30 seconds.

Conditional items (4.8.8+)¶

state_template is a hide condition, matching AppDaemon: true hides the item and false shows it. Hidden items are omitted, so subsequent grid items fill their places. The configured grid layout remains unchanged.

- entity: input_boolean.stop_robot_mower
  name: Stop & Return
  icon: mdi:home-lightning-bolt-outline
  state_template: '{{ states("binary_sensor.raccoon_mower_e5019c_mowing") == "off" }}'

The condition may reference different entities from the displayed item. Changes to the template result refresh the card automatically. Both bare Jinja and ha: templates are supported. Pending or unavailable template results leave the item visible; visibility conditions are not access controls. Existing state and state_not filters continue to apply.