Home Assistant Core Integration

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.

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
     unit_system: metric
     currency: USD
     country: US
     time_zone: "America/Los_Angeles"
     external_url: "https://www.example.com"
     internal_url: "http://homeassistant.local:8123"
     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"

Actions

The homeassistant integration provides actions for controlling Home Assistant itself, as well as generic controls for any entity.

Action homeassistant.check_config

Reads the configuration files and checks them for correctness, but does not load them into Home Assistant. Creates a persistent notification and log entry if errors are found.

Action homeassistant.reload_all

Reload all YAML configuration that can be reloaded without restarting Home Assistant.

It calls the reload action on all domains that have it available. Additionally, it reloads the core configuration (equivalent to calling homeassistant.reload_core_config), themes (frontend.reload_themes), and custom Jinja (homeassistant.reload_custom_templates).

Prior to reloading, a basic configuration check is performed. If that fails, the reload will not be performed and will raise an error.

Action homeassistant.reload_custom_templates

Reload all Jinja templates in the config/custom_templates directory. Changes to these templates will take effect the next time an importing template is rendered.

Action homeassistant.reload_config_entry

Reloads an integration config entry.

Action homeassistant.reload_core_config

Reloads the core configuration under homeassistant: and all linked files. Once loaded the new configuration is applied. New customize: information will be applied the next time the state of the entity gets updated.

Action homeassistant.restart

Restarts the Home Assistant instance (also reloading the configuration on start).

This will also do a configuration check before doing a restart. If the configuration check fails then Home Assistant will not be restarted, instead a persistent notification with the ID persistent_notification.homeassistant_check_config will be created. The logs will show details on what failed the configuration check.

Action homeassistant.stop

Stops the Home Assistant instance. Home Assistant must be restarted from the Host device to run again.

Action homeassistant.set_location

Update the location of the Home Assistant default zone (usually “Home”).

Example

actions:
  - action: homeassistant.set_location
    data:
      latitude: 32.87336
      longitude: 117.22743
      elevation: 120

Action homeassistant.toggle

Generic action to toggle devices on/off. Same usage as the light.toggle, switch.toggle, etc. actions. The difference with this action compared the others, is that is can be used to mix different domains, for example, a light and a switch can be toggled in a single action.

Example

actions:
  - action: homeassistant.toggle
    target:
      entity_id: 
        - light.living_room
        - switch.tv

Action homeassistant.turn_on

Generic action to toggle devices on. Same usage as the light.turn_on, switch.turn_on, etc. actions. The difference with this action compared the others, is that is can be used to mix different domains, for example, a light and a switch can be turned on in a single action.

Example

actions:
  - action: homeassistant.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id:
        - light.living_room
        - switch.tv

Action homeassistant.turn_off

Generic action to toggle devices off. Same usage as the light.turn_off, switch.turn_off, etc. actions. The difference with this action compared the others, is that is can be used to mix different domains, for example, a light and a switch can be turned off in a single action.

Example

actions:
  - action: homeassistant.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id:
        - light.living_room
        - switch.tv

Action homeassistant.update_entity

Force one or more entities to update its data rather than wait for the next scheduled update.

Example

actions:
  - action: homeassistant.update_entity
    target:
      entity_id:
      - light.living_room
      - switch.coffe_pot

Action homeassistant.save_persistent_states

Save the persistent states (for entities derived from RestoreEntity) immediately. Maintain the normal periodic saving interval.

Normally these states are saved at startup, every 15 minutes and at shutdown.