Automations are the heart of Home Assistant. It is what makes Home Assistant a home automation platform. It is the glue that binds all the other integrations together, and it is what makes your home smart and comfortable.
Non-working automations, however, are a source of frustration. And sometimes, it can take you a bit to notice there is an issue with an automation. Spook enhances the automation integration of Home Assistant by raising repairs issues in case it detects something is wrong with an automation.
Figure 1:Spook found an issue with an automation that is using non-existing entities.
Devices & entities¶
Spook does not provide any new devices or entities for this integration.
Actions¶
Spook does not provide action enhancements for this integration.
Repairs¶
While Spook is floating around in your Home Assistant instance, it will raise repairs issues if it has found something that is not right.
Unknown referenced areas¶
Automations are inspected for the use of areas. If an automation is targeting an area in one of its actions that do not exist, Spook will raise a repair issue. The repairs issue raised will contain the name of the automation and the area that is referenced but not found.
Figure 2:Spook found an issue with an automation that is using a non-existing area.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the reference to the non-existing area or fix the referenced area. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced devices¶
Automations are inspected for the use of devices. If an automation is using a device that does not exist, Spook will raise a repair issue. The repairs issue raised will contain the name of the automation and the device that is referenced but not found.
Figure 3:Spook found an issue with an automation that is using a non-existing device.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the reference to the non-existing device or fix the referenced device. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced entities¶
Automations are inspected for the use of entities. If an automation is using an entity ID that does not exist, Spook will raise a repair issue. The repairs issue raised will contain the name of the automation and the entity ID that is referenced but not found.
Figure 4:Spook found an issue with an automation that is using non-existing entities.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the reference to the non-existing entity ID or fix the referenced entity ID. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced actions¶
Automations are inspected for the use of actions. If an automation is using a action that does not exist, Spook will raise a repair issue. The repairs issue raised will contain the name of the automation and the action that is referenced but not found.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the reference to the non-existing actions. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced floors¶
Automations are inspected for the use of floors. If an automation is targeting a floor in one of its actions that does not exist, Spook will raise a repair issue. The repairs issue raised will contain the name of the automation and the floor that is referenced but not found.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the reference to the non-existing floor or fix the referenced floor. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced labels¶
Automations are inspected for the use of labels. If an automation is targeting a label that does not exist, Spook will raise a repair issue. The repairs issue raised will contain the name of the automation and the label that is referenced but not found.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the reference to the non-existing label or fix the referenced label. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced conditions¶
Automations are inspected for the conditions they use. Conditions are provided by integrations, so a condition that no installed integration can provide cannot be evaluated. An automation like that fails validation outright and becomes unavailable, which is why Spook deliberately inspects unavailable automations: they are the broken ones.
Home Assistant does notice, but it raises a generic issue about the automation. Spook names the exact conditions, which is the part you need in order to fix it.
This usually means the integration that provided the condition was removed. To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the use of these conditions or restore the integration that provides them. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Unknown referenced triggers¶
Automations are inspected for the triggers they use. Like conditions, triggers come from integrations, and if no installed integration can provide a trigger, the whole automation goes down with it: it fails validation and becomes unavailable.
So this is not a silent failure, it is a nameless one. Home Assistant raises a generic issue about the automation without saying which trigger caused it. Spook names the trigger.
To resolve the raised issue, you can either remove the use of these triggers or restore the integration that provides them. Spook will automatically remove the repair issue once the issue is fixed.
Feature requests, ideas, and support¶
If you have an idea on how to further enhance this integration, for example, by adding a new action, entity, or repairs detection; feel free to let us know in our discussion forums.
Are you stuck using these new features? Or maybe you’ve run into a bug? Please check the Support page on where to go for help.