Home Assistant Automation Helper

Client-side: paste an automation YAML for a static health check, or generate trigger/condition/action snippets. Data never leaves the browser. Useful for "it never triggers" and "the action did not run" problems.

Automation YAML health check

Paste an automation YAML (either a single automation or an item under automations:) and the tool runs these heuristic checks offline, without uploading anything:

• missing trigger — no trigger / triggers, so it never fires
• empty action — has a trigger but no action / actions, so it does nothing when it fires
• trigger / condition / action type sanity — enum values are spelled correctly
• unclosed template braces — {{ }} / {% %} are balanced
• tab indentation — YAML forbids tabs; offending lines are flagged
• condition references a trigger variable that may not exist (hint, not an error)

Automation YAML (a single automation, or an item under automations:) alias: Turn on the living room light when motion is detected mode: single max_exceeded: silent triggers: - trigger: state entity_id: binary_sensor.living_room_motion from: "off" to: "on" for: "00:00:10" conditions: - condition: sun after: sunset actions: - action: light.turn_on target: entity_id: light.living_room data: brightness: 255 Run health check

Generate trigger / condition / action snippets

Pick a scenario to get a standard YAML snippet you can paste into the matching slot of an automation:

Snippet type state: entity state change (with for) time: scheduled trigger mqtt: message trigger template: custom condition condition: sunrise / sunset condition: device inside a zone action: wait N seconds action: run a template (with {{}})

Common pitfalls

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Automation never fires	missing trigger, or wrong trigger type / entity	add a trigger; entity_id must be a real entity
Fires but does nothing	empty action or a mistyped entity	add an action; double-check the entity name after action:
Action runs only sometimes	a condition that is rarely true	filter the HA log by this automation to see which condition failed
Motion sensor fires repeatedly	trigger missing for	add for: 00:00:10 so it fires only after 10 seconds
Template throws TemplateError	unclosed {{ }} or wrong variable name	use the line hint; the variable name must match the entity attribute exactly
Whole YAML fails to parse	tabs, misaligned indentation, or a colon with no space	the check flags tab lines; a colon must be followed by a space

Note: this is a static heuristic check. It only validates YAML structure and common spelling / logic pitfalls, and does not simulate Home Assistant runtime (it does not verify whether an entity is online or what a condition currently evaluates to). Treat Home Assistant's Automation validator and home-assistant.log as the source of truth.

Related guides

• Automation basics — the trigger / condition / action trio
• Trigger vs condition: when to use which — where they get confused most
• Automation YAML cheat sheet — every trigger / condition / action form
• MQTT setup and automation — wiring MQTT-triggered automations