Counter

The Counter integration allows one to count occurrences fired by automations.

Configuration

The preferred way to configure counter helpers is via the user interface. To add one, go to Settings > Devices & Services > Helpers and click the add button; next choose the Counter option.

To be able to add Helpers via the user interface you should have default_config: in 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], it should already be there by default unless you removed it. If you removed default_config: from your configuration, you must add counter: 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] first, then you can use the UI.

Counters can also be configured via 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]:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
counter:
  my_custom_counter:
    initial: 30
    step: 1

Pick an icon that from Material Design Icons to use for your input and prefix the name with mdi:. For example mdi:car, mdi:ambulance or mdi:motorbike.

Restore state

This integration will automatically restore the state it had prior to Home Assistant stopping as long as your entity has restore set to true, which is the default. To disable this feature, set restore to false.

If restore is set to true, the initial value will only be used when no previous state is found or when the counter is reset.

Actions

Available actions: increment, decrement, reset, and set_value.

Action counter.increment

Increments the counter with 1 or the given value for the steps.

Action counter.decrement

Decrements the counter with 1 or the given value for the steps.

Action counter.reset

With this action the counter is reset to its initial value.

Action counter.set_value

This action allows setting the counter to a specific value.

Use the action

Select the Actions tab from within Developer Tools. Choose counter from the list of Domains, select the Actions, enter something like the sample below into the data field, and select Perform action.

{
  "entity_id": "counter.my_custom_counter"
}

Examples

Counting Home Assistant errors

To use a counter to count errors as caught by Home Assistant, you need to add fire_event: true 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], like so:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
system_log:
  fire_event: true

Error counting - example configuration

# Example configuration.yaml entry
automation:
- alias: "Error Counting Automation"
  triggers:
    - trigger: event
      event_type: system_log_event
      event_data:
        level: ERROR
  actions:
    - action: counter.increment
      target:
        entity_id: counter.error_counter
    
counter:
  error_counter:
    name: Errors
    icon: mdi:alert