home-assistant_skill

Overview

This skill helps with Home Assistant setup, automation creation, dashboard edits, entity inspection, and troubleshooting. It provides discovery tools, trace-based debugging, and YAML generation so you can produce ready-to-paste configurations. Use it to inspect live entity states, analyze automation runs, and generate Lovelace or automation YAML with clear explanations.

How this skill works

The skill queries a live Home Assistant instance to list entities, states, services, config entries, and automation definitions. It can list automation traces and provide detailed run-level traces so you can see triggers, condition evaluations, action steps, variables, timing, and errors. It also generates properly formatted YAML (2-space indent) for automations and dashboard cards and explains how to install the YAML in Home Assistant.

When to use it

• When you need to discover available entities or search for entity patterns before building automations
• When an automation is failing and you want trace-based debugging of specific runs
• When you want copy-paste ready YAML for automations or Lovelace dashboard cards
• When you need config_entry_id values (e.g., Telegram bot) or service parameter details
• When you want to check current states and attributes of specific entities

Best practices

• Start by clarifying the goal: triggers, conditions, and desired actions before generating YAML
• Use entity search to find real examples in your setup and reuse similar automations or entity patterns
• Always run trace summary and specific run traces to diagnose failures rather than guessing
• Keep YAML simple and include descriptive alias and description; use mode settings explicitly
• Avoid calling services that change state unless the user explicitly requests it

Example use cases

• Create an automation to turn on porch lights at sunset when motion is detected, providing complete YAML and installation steps
• Debug a failing automation by listing recent traces, fetching a detailed run trace, and suggesting a corrected YAML snippet
• Generate Lovelace card YAML to show temperature sensors and add helpful comments for customization
• Retrieve the Telegram bot config_entry_id and produce an automation that sends a Telegram notification on a door open event
• List all lights or all sensors to help plan a grouped scene or an area-based automation