Text changed

The Text changed trigger fires when the value of a text 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] changes. It works with both Text entities exposed by your devices and integrations, and with Text helpers. Use it to react when someone enters a new shopping list note, when a device reports a new status string, or when an automation updates a stored value.

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 Text changed 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. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target (see Targets), pick the text entity or text helper you want to monitor. You can also select an area, a floor, a device, or a label.
5. From the triggers shown for that target, select Text changed.
6. Select Save.

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 text.changed. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: text.changed
target:
  entity_id: input_text.shopping_note

This fires whenever the value of input_text.shopping_note changes.

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 text entity or text helper behind that target.

• Entity: one specific text entity or text helper, such as text.welcome_message.
• Device: every text entity or text helper that belongs to a device.
• Area: every text entity or text helper in a room or area.
• Floor: every text entity or text helper on a floor.
• Label: every text entity or text helper 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.

Good to know

• The trigger does not fire when a text entity becomes unknown or unavailable, or when it recovers from those states without a real value change.
• To check that a text entity holds a specific value before continuing, use the Text is equal to condition.

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: announce a new shopping note

Whenever you update a shopping note helper, send the new value to your phone so you don’t forget what you just typed.

• Trigger: Text changed
  • Target: Shopping note
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)
  • Message: The new note value

alias: "Announce new shopping note"
triggers:
  - trigger: text.changed
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.shopping_note
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      message: "Shopping note updated: {{ states('input_text.shopping_note') }}"

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.