Door opened

The Door opened trigger reacts when a targeted door changes to open. Use it when you want Home Assistant to respond the moment someone opens a front door, patio door, or back door.

This trigger is useful for entry lighting, arrival notifications, security checks, and automations that should start as soon as access to a room or building changes.

Using this trigger from the user interface

If you prefer building automations visually, Home Assistant walks you through this trigger step by step. You pick what to watch, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To use this trigger in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the When section, select Add trigger.
4. From the search box, search for and select Door opened.
5. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your door is in, like your entryway or hallway. You can also select a floor, a device, a specific entity, or a label.
6. Under Trigger when (see Behavior), pick Each, First, or All.
7. Under For at least, enter how long the door must stay open before the trigger fires. Leave it at zero to fire right away.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this trigger in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required. For how an automation is built in YAML, refer to Automations in YAML.

In YAML, put the settings that are specific to this trigger under options. Keep target, if the trigger uses one, and general settings such as id, alias, enabled, and variables at the top level, next to trigger.

When this trigger starts an automation, it passes data about what happened to the automation. You can use this trigger data in the templates of your conditions and actions. To see which data is available, refer to Trigger data in templates.

In YAML, refer to this trigger as door.opened. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: door.opened
target:
  entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door

This fires when binary_sensor.front_door opens.

Options in YAML

Targets of the trigger

This trigger requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will watch. You can select a single 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], a device, an area, a floor, or a label as a target, and Home Assistant will watch every matching door sensor or motorized door behind that target.

• Entity: one specific door sensor or motorized door, such as binary_sensor.front_door.
• Device: every door sensor or motorized door that belongs to a device.
• Area: every door sensor or motorized door in a room or area.
• Floor: every door sensor or motorized door on a floor.
• Label: every door sensor or motorized door that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one trigger. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same trigger to monitor both of them at once.

To learn which entities Home Assistant includes for a device, area, floor, or label, and how it handles several entities, refer to Automation targets.

Trigger variables

When the trigger reacts, the trigger variable identifies the entity that made it react. This is useful when a target contains multiple entities, such as a device, area, floor, or label.

The following trigger-specific variables are available:

• trigger.entity_id: Entity ID of the entity that made the trigger react.
• trigger.from_state: Previous state object of that entity.
• trigger.to_state: New state object of that entity.
• trigger.for: Timedelta object of how long the trigger criteria were met, if applicable.

For example, use {{ trigger.to_state.name }} in an action to include the name of the entity that made the trigger react in a notification.

The trigger variable describes the entity that made the trigger react. It doesn’t contain all the entities of the target.

Behavior with multiple targets

When you target more than one entity (or select an area, floor, or label that contains several), the Trigger when option controls how the trigger responds:

• Each (default): the trigger fires every time any one of the targeted entities transitions. For example, if you monitor three motion sensors in the living room and someone walks past sensor 1, the automation fires. When they walk past sensor 2 a moment later, it fires again. Every individual event counts.
• First: the trigger fires only on the first transition in the targeted group, then waits until none of the targeted entities is in that state anymore before it fires again. For example, if you monitor the same three motion sensors, the automation fires when the first one picks up movement (someone entered the room). The other two firing afterward are ignored, so you get one notification per “someone walked in” event instead of three.
• All: the trigger fires only after the last targeted entity in the group has fired, meaning all of them are now in the expected state. For example, if you monitor the lights in the living room, bedroom, and hallway, the automation fires only once all three have turned off. This is useful for scenarios like “start the robot vacuum only after every light on the floor is off,” so you know the room is truly empty.

Good to know

• Use a door contact sensor or door cover that uses the door device class.
• Garage doors have their own trigger. To react when a garage door opens, use Garage door opened.
• If an entity comes back from Unavailable or Unknown, that recovery does not count as opening the door.
• The For at least option only fires the automation if the door stays open for the entire time you set.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, create a new automation, and add this trigger. Save the automation, and then make the trigger react. For example, change the state of the targeted 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], turn on a light that the trigger monitors, or change its brightness. To check whether the automation ran, open its traces.

More examples

Real scenarios where this trigger fires in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup. In the visual editor, select the UI options listed in the example when they are available, or paste the YAML code.

Automation: turn on the entry light when the front door opens after dark

If someone comes home after sunset, this automation turns on the entry light as soon as the front door opens. It gives you light right where you need it instead of leaving the hallway dark.

• Trigger: Door opened
• Target: Front door sensor
• Action: Turn on light

alias: "Turn on entry light when front door opens after dark"
triggers:
  - trigger: door.opened
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door
conditions:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sun.sun
    attribute: elevation
    below: 0
actions:
  - action: light.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: light.entryway

Automation: notify you if the back door opens after you leave home

If the back door opens after you leave home, you probably want to know right away. This automation waits 30 seconds, then sends a notification so brief movement does not alert you unnecessarily.

• Trigger: Door opened
  • Target: Back door
  • For at least: 00:00:30
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Notify when back door opens after leaving home"
triggers:
  - trigger: door.opened
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.back_door
    options:
      for: "00:00:30"
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: person.frenck
    state: "not_home"
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      title: "Back door opened"
      message: "The back door has been open for 30 seconds after you left home."

Still stuck?

To find out why the trigger didn’t react, make the change that it should react to, and then open the traces of the automation. If the automation didn’t run, there’s usually no trace, but some triggers record a Did not trigger trace. For details, refer to Testing automations. For common problems and their solutions, refer to Troubleshooting automations.

If that doesn’t help, the Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the trigger you’re using and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related triggers

Explore related triggers:

• Door closed: Triggers when one or more doors close.