Service Calls

Various components allow calling services when a certain event occurs. The most common one is calling a service when an automation trigger happens. But a service can also be called from a script or via the Amazon Echo.

The configuration options to call a config are the same between all components and are described on this page.

Examples on this page will be given as part of an automation component configuration but different approaches can be used for other components too.

Use the service developer tool in the frontend to discover available services.

The basics

Call the service homeassistant.turn_on on the entity group.living_room. This will turn all members of group.living_room on. You can also omit entity_id and it will turn on all possible entities.

service: homeassistant.turn_on
entity_id: group.living_room

Passing data to the service call

You can also specify other parameters beside the entity to target. For example, the light turn on service allows specifying the brightness.

service: light.turn_on
entity_id: group.living_room
data:
  brightness: 120
  rgb_color: [255, 0, 0]

Use templates to decide which service to call

You can use templating support to dynamically choose which service to call. For example, you can call a certain service based on if a light is on.

service_template: >
  {% if states.sensor.temperature.state | float > 15 %}
    switch.turn_on
  {% else %}
    switch.turn_off
  {% endif %}
entity_id: switch.ac

Using the Services Developer Tool

You can use the Services Developer Tool to test data to pass in a service call. For example, you may test turning on or off a ‘group’ (See [groups] for more info)

To turn a group on or off, pass the following info: Domain: homeassistant Service: turn_on Service Data: { "entity_id": "group.kitchen" }

Use templates to determine the attributes

Templates can also be used for the data that you pass to the service call.

service: thermostat.set_temperature
data_template:
  entity_id: >
    {% if is_state('device_tracker.paulus', 'home') %}
      thermostat.upstairs
    {% else %}
      thermostat.downstairs
    {% endif %}
  temperature: {{ 22 - distance(states.device_tracker.paulus) }}