2025.7.2
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MQTT Vacuum

The mqtt vacuum integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] allows you to control your MQTT-enabled vacuum. The initial state of the MQTT vacuum entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] will set to unknown and can be reset by a device by sending a null payload as state.

Configuration

To use an MQTT vacuum in your installation, add the following 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. After changing 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, restart Home Assistant to apply the changes.

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - vacuum:
      state_topic: state-topic
      command_topic: command-topic

Alternatively, a more advanced approach is to set it up via MQTT discovery.

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?
availability list (Optional)

A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic.

payload_available string (Optional, default: online)

The payload that represents the available state.

payload_not_available string (Optional, default: offline)

The payload that represents the unavailable state.

topic string Required

An MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates.

value_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.

availability_mode string (Optional, default: latest)

When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability.

availability_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.

availability_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability.

command_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic to publish commands to control the vacuum.

device map (Optional)

Information about the device this switch is a part of to tie it into the device registry. Only works when unique_id is set. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device.

configuration_url string (Optional)

A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.

connections list (Optional)

A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].

hw_version string (Optional)

The hardware version of the device.

identifiers string | list (Optional)

A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number.

manufacturer string (Optional)

The manufacturer of the device.

model string (Optional)

The model of the device.

model_id string (Optional)

The model identifier of the device.

name string (Optional)

The name of the device.

serial_number string (Optional)

The serial number of the device.

suggested_area string (Optional)

Suggest an area if the device isn’t in one yet.

sw_version string (Optional)

The firmware version of the device.

via_device string (Optional)

Identifier of a device that routes messages between this device and Home Assistant. Examples of such devices are hubs, or parent devices of a sub-device. This is used to show device topology in Home Assistant.

encoding string (Optional, default: utf-8)

The encoding of the payloads received and published messages. Set to "" to disable decoding of incoming payload.

fan_speed_list string | list (Optional)

List of possible fan speeds for the vacuum.

json_attributes_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.

json_attributes_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary payload and then set as sensor attributes. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.

name string (Optional, default: MQTT Vacuum)

The name of the vacuum. Can be set to null if only the device name is relevant.

object_id string (Optional)

Used instead of name for automatic generation of entity_id

payload_available string (Optional, default: online)

The payload that represents the available state.

payload_clean_spot string (Optional, default: clean_spot)

The payload to send to the command_topic to begin a spot cleaning cycle.

payload_locate string (Optional, default: locate)

The payload to send to the command_topic to locate the vacuum (typically plays a song).

payload_not_available string (Optional, default: offline)

The payload that represents the unavailable state.

payload_pause string (Optional, default: pause)

The payload to send to the command_topic to pause the vacuum.

payload_return_to_base string (Optional, default: return_to_base)

The payload to send to the command_topic to tell the vacuum to return to base.

payload_start string (Optional, default: start)

The payload to send to the command_topic to begin the cleaning cycle.

payload_stop string (Optional, default: stop)

The payload to send to the command_topic to stop cleaning.

platform string Required

Must be vacuum. Only allowed and required in MQTT auto discovery device messages.

qos integer (Optional, default: 0)

The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving and publishing messages.

retain boolean (Optional, default: false)

If the published message should have the retain flag on or not.

send_command_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic to publish custom commands to the vacuum.

set_fan_speed_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic to publish commands to control the vacuum’s fan speed.

state_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic subscribed to receive state messages from the vacuum. Messages received on the state_topic must be a valid JSON dictionary, with a mandatory state key and optionally battery_level and fan_speed keys as shown in the example.

supported_features string | list (Optional)

List of features that the vacuum supports (possible values are start, stop, pause, return_home, battery, status, locate, clean_spot, fan_speed, send_command).

Default:

start, stop, return_home, status, battery, clean_spot

unique_id string (Optional)

An ID that uniquely identifies this vacuum. If two vacuums have the same unique ID, Home Assistant will raise an exception. Required when used with device-based discovery.

Configuration example 

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - vacuum:
      name: "MQTT Vacuum"
      supported_features:
        - start
        - pause
        - stop
        - return_home
        - battery
        - status
        - locate
        - clean_spot
        - fan_speed
        - send_command
      command_topic: "vacuum/command"
      set_fan_speed_topic: "vacuum/set_fan_speed"
      fan_speed_list:
        - min
        - medium
        - high
        - max
      send_command_topic: "vacuum/send_command"

MQTT Protocol

The configuration for this integration expects an MQTT protocol like the following.

Basic Commands

MQTT topic: vacuum/command

Possible MQTT payloads:

  • start - Start cleaning
  • pause - Pause cleaning
  • return_to_base - Return to base/dock
  • stop - Stop the vacuum.
  • clean_spot - Initialize a spot cleaning cycle
  • locate - Locate the vacuum (typically by playing a song)

Send custom command

Vacuum send_command allows three parameters:

  • entity_id
  • command
  • params - optional

If params are not provided it sends command as payload to MQTT send_command topic. If params are provided service sends JSON as payload with such structure:

{
  'command': 'command',
  'param1-key': 'param1-value'
}

Action trigger example:

- alias: "Push command based on sensor"
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: sensor.sensor
    actions:
      - action: vacuum.send_command
        target:
          entity_id: vacuum.vacuum_entity
        data:
          command: "custom_command"
          params:
            - key: value

MQTT topic: vacuum/send_command

Status/Sensor Updates

MQTT topic: vacuum/state

MQTT payload:

{
    "battery_level": 61,
    "state": "docked",
    "fan_speed": "off"
}

State has to be one of vacuum states supported by Home Assistant:

  • cleaning,
  • docked,
  • paused,
  • idle,
  • returning,
  • error.

Set Fan Speed

MQTT topic: vacuum/set_fan_speed

Possible MQTT payloads:

  • min - Minimum fan speed
  • medium - Medium fan speed
  • high - High fan speed
  • max - Max fan speed

Usage examples

Usage with cloudless Xiaomi vacuums

This integration is supported by the cloud-free Xiaomi Vacuum Webinterface Valetudo.

Retrofitting non-wifi vacuums

  • Retrofitting your old Roomba with an ESP8266. This repository provides MQTT client firmware.
  • If you own a non-wifi Neato, you can refer to this repository that uses a Raspberry Pi to retrofit an old Neato.