2026.10.2
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Tutorial: Create your first automation

Now that your devices are connected, you can put them to work. AutomationsAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more] let your home react to things on its own: turn the lights on when the sun goes down, lower the heat when everyone leaves, or remind you to close the garage door at bedtime. You build them with the visual automation editor, so you can follow this tutorial without writing a single line of code.

In this tutorial, you create two automations: one that turns the lights on before the sun sets, and a second that dims them later in the evening before a workday.

Turning on the lights before sunset

Prerequisites

  • You have installed Home Assistant.
  • You have completed the onboarding steps.
  • You have followed the steps on adding an integration.
  • You have a light that is integrated into Home Assistant.
    • If you don’t have a light yet, and are unsure what to buy, try Philips Hue, Nanoleaf, or products supporting WLED.
  • Your lights are assigned to an areaAn area in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of devices and entities that represents a room or space in your home, such as the living room, kitchen, or garage. [Learn more], so you can turn on all lights in a room at once. To learn more, refer to Areas.

To automatically turn on the lights before sunset

  1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes and select Create automation > Create new automation.
    • Result: An empty automation opens.
  2. Define what starts the automation. This is the triggerA trigger is the part of an automation that makes the automation start when something specific happens, for example, when the sun sets, a door opens, or a button is pressed. [Learn more].
    1. In the When section, select Add trigger.
    2. From the search box, search for and select Sunset.
    3. Under Offset, enter 30 minutes.
    4. Under Offset type, select Before.
    • Result: The automation starts 30 minutes before sunset.
  3. Define what the automation does. This is the actionAn action makes Home Assistant do something, for example, turn on a light, send a notification, or activate a scene. Automations and scripts run a list of actions. [Learn more].
    1. In the Then do section, select Add action.
    2. From the search box, search for and select Turn on light.
    3. Under Targets, select Add target, and then select the area of your lights.
      • For example, select Living room to turn on all lights in the living room.
  4. To save the automation, select Save. Enter a name, and optionally a description, and then select Save again.
    • Choose a specific name, so that you can find the automation even when you have many.
      • For example, Turn on living room lights before sunset.
    • Result: The automation turns on the lights 30 minutes before sunset. To see it work right away, test your automation.

Dimming the lights the night before a workday

This automation dims the light at a specific time on the evening before a workday, but only if the light is on.

Prerequisites

To dim the light the night before a workday

  1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes and select Create automation > Create new automation.
    • Result: An empty automation opens.
  2. Set the time when the automation starts.
    1. In the When section, select Add trigger > Time and sun > Time.
    2. Choose a fixed time, and enter the time.
      • For example, 21:45.
  3. Add a conditionConditions check whether something is true at that moment, for example, whether a door is closed. You can use them in automations and scripts. If a condition is not met, the actions that come after it in the same sequence do not run. At the top level of an automation or script, this stops the automation or script. [Learn more], so that the automation only continues if tomorrow is a workday.
    1. In the And if section, select Add condition.
    2. From the search box, search for and select State.
    3. In Entity, select your workday sensor.
    4. In State, select On.
  4. Make sure the light is only dimmed when it’s on. To do this, use an If-then building block.
    1. In the Then do section, select Add action > Blocks > If-then.
    2. Under If, select Add condition, and then search for and select State.
    3. In Entity, select your light. In State, select On.
    • Result: The actions under Then only run if the light is on.
  5. Define how to dim the light.
    1. Under Then, select Add action, and then search for and select Turn on light.
    2. Under Targets, select Add target, and then select your light.
    3. Under Additional options, set the brightness. Depending on your light, you can also set the color temperature or color.
  6. To save the automation, select Save. Enter a name, and optionally a description, and then select Save again.
    • For example, Dim living room light the night before a workday.
  7. Test your automation.

  Presence detection

If you want to read more about automations after completing this tutorial, refer to the following pages: