Practical home automations,
written up step by step.
Each workflow is a tested Home Assistant or ESPHome pattern. Some come from our own setup; others build on community blueprints, credited on the page. Read the free overview, grab the ready-to-import pack, or have us build it for you.
Learn it, import it, or hand it off.
Guides
Full write-ups with the exact hardware we use. Some links are affiliate links.
Workflow packs
Blueprints, ESPHome YAML, dashboards and notes, ready to import. ESPHome sensor packs starting at $9; standard HA packs starting at $19; multi-device system packs starting at $29. All-access bundle starting at $79.
Consulting
Remote audits and fixed-scope builds for your Home Assistant setup. Auditsstarting at $149.
New on the site.
Office entry while empty
Know when someone actually walks into an empty room — not when a door is just left open. Contact sensor + mmWave presence + camera person detection, with a snapshot push and cooldown.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32DIYESP32-C6 climate sensor
A tiny Wi-Fi temperature/humidity sensor for any room: ESP32-C6 Super Mini + AHT20 over I²C, flashed with ESPHome and auto-discovered by Home Assistant.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantCamerasPTZDriveway storm timelapse
Turn a PTZ security camera into a storm-chasing timelapse rig: park on a saved sky pose, refocus, and sweep while snapping frames — then put tracking back when you are done.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32Home Assistant12-button CYD touch panel
A wall-friendly 12-button control panel on the ESP32-2432S028 Cheap Yellow Display — ESPHome plus LVGL, live entity colors, and taps that call Home Assistant.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantESPHomeBLE room presence
Room-level presence from phones, watches, and tags — ESPHome bluetooth_proxy on ESP32 nodes you already have, plus Bermuda to put each tracker in an area and drive lights or climate.
Free overview · Pack from $29
ESPHomeESP32DIYBattery reed door sensor
An ultra-low-power ESPHome door/window sensor on an ESP32-C3 Super Mini — reed switch, deep sleep with GPIO wakeup, and a battery-voltage entity so you know when to recharge.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantWindow-open climate pause
When a door or window contact stays open past a debounce, save the HVAC mode and setpoint and turn climate off; when it closes stably, restore. Helpers make it restart-safe.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantLaundry handoff reminders
Washer and dryer cycle-done alerts from a power-monitoring plug (or a vibration sensor), quiet hours, and a repeating washer-to-dryer handoff reminder if the dryer does not start within about 30 minutes.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantOffline devices report
A scheduled scan of sensors, binary sensors, and switches that are unavailable or unknown — with include and exclude filters — then one grouped phone push plus a persistent notification for post-outage triage.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantLow battery alerts
A house-wide scan of battery sensors that pages when any drop below a threshold (for example 15%) or go unavailable, with exclusions, quiet hours, and a weekly roll-up instead of a push per flicker.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantHVAC health monitor
When the thermostat is actually calling for heat or cool, check that room temperature moves the right way within a set time; send a critical alert if it does not — failed equipment, a frozen coil, or a dirty filter.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantMailbox mail-arrived notifier
A battery contact on the mailbox flap increments a “mail waiting” counter and sends a push (optional generic camera snapshot); a second contact or a dashboard action resets the count when the mail is collected.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantAway-mode lived-in lighting
When an away helper is on and after sunset, randomly turn interior lights on and off inside set time windows with realistic delays, then turn the set off at a chosen end time so the house does not look empty — or look scripted.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeVoice “find my phone”
Say “find my phone” to a Home Assistant Assist satellite and ring the matching Companion device with a critical alert that can cut through silent mode — iOS critical, Android alarm stream, mapped per person.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeSmoke and gas alarm linker
Tie independent smoke, heat, and gas detectors into one emergency mode — every siren and buzzer, lights full bright and red, a critical push, and an optional exhaust fan — with door-unlock left as an explicit opt-in.
Free overview · Pack from $29
Home AssistantESPHomeButton scene cycling
One button cycles a list of scenes on short press (a counter remembers the step), resets after a timeout, and a long press — or pressing past the last scene — turns the room off.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeRelay auto-off timer
Turning on a switch, relay, or smart plug starts a Home Assistant timer, writes the planned off time to an input_datetime for dashboards, cancels on manual off, and still finishes after a HA restart.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantQuiet-hours notification hub
One script every automation calls with a priority; it checks who is home and whether quiet hours are on, holds low-priority alerts until morning, always passes critical, and writes each send to helpers a history card can show.
Free overview · Pack from $29
Home AssistantESPHomeHumidity window-vent guide
Indoor versus outdoor absolute humidity decides when opening a window will actually dry a room — notify to open, keep airing, or close, using an ESPHome climate node plus a weather entity.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeBinary-sensor short/long press
Turn any binary sensor — ESPHome GPIO, reed, dry contact, or a Papouch-class input — into a short tap versus long hold, with restart-mode spam protection so a bouncing contact does not fire both.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantDaily device scheduler
Clock-time on and off for a switch, light, or fan, with per-day toggles and an optional restore-safe timer that tracks the remaining time until the scheduled off — including after a manual override or a Home Assistant restart.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantNagging repeatable alert
Recurring Companion pushes while a sensor stays in an alert state — first after an initial delay, then on a repeat interval, up to a max — and a resolved message when it clears or you dismiss it.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantESPHome AirPlay receiver
An ESP32 or ESP32-S3 with an I2S DAC becomes a Classic AirPlay receiver in ESPHome — native media_source next to Sendspin — so a phone can stream into Home Assistant or Music Assistant.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32DIYGarageLiDAR garage parking light
Retire the tennis ball on a string: a TFmini-S LiDAR and a NeoPixel ring on an ESP32-C6 Super Mini fade blue, green, yellow, then red as you pull in, and blink when it is time to stop. ESPHome, with a Car parked sensor for Home Assistant.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantSelf-healing integration reload
A canary entity that stays unavailable past a threshold reloads its own config entry, waits, and notifies only if it is still down — with a retry cap and cooldown so the reload cannot loop.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantBin-day reminder
The evening before pickup, a Companion notification with Done and Snooze repeats every few minutes until you confirm or a cut-off time hits. Optional recycling-week line. A chore confirm, not a sensor nag.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantESPHomeHot water recirculation on demand
A morning window or bathroom motion runs a plug-in recirculation pump for a few minutes, or less when a return-pipe temperature sensor hits its target. Cooldown so motion cannot restart it constantly.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantMorning weather briefing
A morning clock time or an NFC tag builds a short forecast — high, low, rain chance, wind, in the unit you pick — from any weather entity via weather.get_forecasts, then pushes it to your phone with link buttons.
Free overview · Pack from $9
ESPHomeHome AssistantKitchen timer LED ring
A Home Assistant timer — started from a dashboard, a button, or voice — drives an ESP32 NeoPixel ring that empties as time runs out and flashes when the timer finishes. ESPHome, on the LAN.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantMQ-7 carbon monoxide sensor
An ESP32 cycles an MQ-7 heater — 60 seconds at 5 V, then 90 seconds near 1.4 V — reads the ADC at the end of the low phase, and publishes CO ppm. A high-priority push fires above a threshold you set. It is not a certified CO alarm.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantWasp-in-a-box occupancy
Door contact plus a motion sensor. Motion while the door is shut latches the room occupied until the door opens again, so lights and climate stay on while someone sits still.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantAuto-lock when the door is closed
After the door contact stays closed for a delay, lock the deadbolt, confirm it reports locked, and retry up to twice if it jams or stays unlocked. Never lock while the door is open. A high-priority push fires only after the retries fail.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantESP32-C6 Thread router
Flash an ESP32-C6 with ESPHome’s OpenThread support so it joins the home Thread network as a full Thread device and can be promoted to a router, extending Matter-over-Thread coverage. Needs ESPHome 2025.6.1 or newer and a border router you already have.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHome3D printingHome AssistantPrinter enclosure fan controller
An ESP32 in the enclosure reads a DHT22 and ramps a 4-wire exhaust fan when the chamber crosses a temperature threshold, runs an optional carbon-filter fan during a print and for a run-on after, then steps the fans back down once the air is stable.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantCamerasDoor and window open notify
One Telegram message when a door or window opens, with the room temperature and humidity and an optional camera snapshot. The same message is edited when it closes, with the close time and how long the opening stayed open.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeSonoff TRVZB external temperature
When a room sensor reports, write that temperature into one or more Sonoff TRVZB external-temperature inputs (Zigbee2MQTT 2.1.2 or newer) so the valves follow the room instead of the sensor inside the radiator. An ESPHome DHT22 or AHT20, or any temperature sensor, can be the source.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeMeasured weather versus forecast
A dashboard card draws outdoor temperature history from an ESPHome sensor as a solid curve beside a dashed forecast from any weather entity, with humidity on the live panel, so you can see where the forecast and the sensor disagreed.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantRestart-proof volume ramp
Once a minute, and again when Home Assistant starts, step a playing speaker one notch toward the volume the current time block wants. Nothing sits in a long delay, so a restart continues from the live volume. A hand change pauses the ramp until the next block.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantSpeaker plug follows playback
A smart plug on an amplifier or powered speakers turns on when a media player starts playing, and turns off only after playback has stayed idle for a countdown. The countdown is a timer helper, so a Home Assistant restart still finishes the off.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32Home AssistantESP32-S3 voice satellite
An ESP32-S3 with an INMP441 microphone and a MAX98357A speaker runs a local wake word in ESPHome, streams speech to Home Assistant Assist, plays the reply, and can keep listening for a follow-up.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeHumidity climate control
Temperature-corrected humidity turns a fan, dehumidifier, or humidifier on and off with separate thresholds, a max-run watchdog, and a cooldown after you touch the switch yourself.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantAdaptive comfort setpoint
A prevailing outdoor temperature shifts an ASHRAE 55 comfort band. The thermostat setpoint moves only when the room leaves that band, instead of holding one fixed number all year.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeDoor knock alert
A vibration sensor fires a push or a chime only when the door contact has stayed closed, so a slam or someone walking through does not count as a knock.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantBathroom light and fan timers
Motion turns the bathroom light on. Closing the door starts a separate delay before the exhaust fan. Each has its own off timer, and humidity can hold the fan until the air drops.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeESPHome YAML history backup
A Home Assistant app that pushes the ESPHome Device Builder’s local git history to a private GitHub repository on every save, encrypts secrets.yaml, and restores the folder onto an empty install.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantBLE proxy advertisement filter
Drop weak and irrelevant Bluetooth advertisements on an ESPHome proxy before they cross Wi-Fi to Home Assistant. Needs ESPHome 2026.10 or newer and the bluetooth_proxy filter hook.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32DIYESP32-C6 Zigbee dimmable light
An ESP32-C6 uses its 802.15.4 radio as a Zigbee router and exposes one dimmable-light endpoint. On and level commands drive a MOSFET-dimmed LED strip. Pairs with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32DIYDirection-aware pet flap
Two staggered normally-open reed switches on a Seeed XIAO ESP32-C6 report which way a pet flap swung. Home Assistant keeps an inside / outside location that survives a restart of the board.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantActionable notification with reply
A script blueprint sends a Companion notification with up to three buttons, waits for a tap or a timeout, and returns the reply to the automation that called it. Works with the iOS and Android Companion apps.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32Home AssistantCYD touch thermostat
A single-purpose room thermostat on the ESP32-2432S028R Cheap Yellow Display. Touch steps the target temperature, and current and target readings sync from Home Assistant.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantDoor-gated presence
An entry-door contact opens a short window. Only then does Home Assistant trust the phone’s Wi-Fi SSID and GPS tracker, so drift on the couch cannot mark you away.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantNFC chore tracker
A repeating chore such as a filter change is stored as a date. Scanning an NFC tag resets it. A daily check texts you when the interval has elapsed.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantPhone-alarm wake light
Before the phone’s next alarm, bedroom lights ramp from a dim warm level to a brighter neutral one. The ramp runs only when that person is home and it is still dark.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantAdaptive night path
At night, motion turns a path of lights on at a low brightness. The lights stay on while the sensor still sees you, and a new detection restarts the off timer.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32Home AssistantESP32-C6 water meter
An ESP32-C6 Super Mini counts pulses from a normally-open reed on an analog water meter, publishes liters per minute and a total, and flags a flow that never stops.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantSensor watchdog
When an entity stays unavailable, or stays online and stops updating, cycle the smart plug that powers it. Notify only if that cycle does not bring it back.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeSensor failover
A template sensor reports the primary reading while that sensor is online, and the average of the backup sensors that are still online when the primary drops out.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantESPHomeVersatile thermostat
One virtual climate entity regulates a heater plug, an existing thermostat, or a radiator valve from a room sensor, with presets, a TPI on-time, and whole-home load shedding.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantIKEA Badring leak alert
A wet IKEA Badring sends a critical phone alert immediately. On ZHA, a poll keeps asking the sensor until it reports dry, so a cleared puddle does not stay in alarm.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantSleep-trainer light
A bedroom RGB lamp turns red at a start time, purple shortly before wake-up, and green when an input_datetime says it is time to get up, then turns off at a stop time.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantParked-car location
When the phone drops the car’s Bluetooth connection, Home Assistant copies the phone’s GPS onto a device tracker so the car shows up on the map.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantVoice satellite media duck
While an Assist satellite is listening, other media players in the room mute or drop in volume, then return to the level they had when the satellite goes idle.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantSpace-heater plug manager
A smart plug on a space heater runs only inside a schedule, and only when the room is occupied and someone assigned to it is home. A watt floor turns the plug off if the heater never actually draws power.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantCoffee machine left-on reminder
After a coffee-machine plug stays on for a set runtime, a Companion notification asks you to keep it on or turn it off. Silence turns it off, and Keep on starts another runtime.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantOpen-window reminder, temperature-scaled wait
A door or window left open waits longer on a mild day and pages you sooner when the indoor-outdoor gap is large. A warm outdoor reading skips the reminder, and closing the contact clears it.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32Home AssistantESPectre Wi-Fi motion sensor
An ESP32-C6 running the ESPHome ESPectre component reports motion from Wi-Fi channel state, with no PIR and no radar. It sees movement, not a person sitting still.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantPassive-cooling window advisory
When outdoor air is cooler, dry of rain, and not too windy, a notification or a spoken line says to open the windows. It says to close them when that benefit goes away, including on a fixed evening check.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantOccupancy lighting with a lux gate
PIR or mmWave occupancy turns lights on only when the room is dim, holds them while any sensor is on, and can dim before the final off. A keep-on helper blocks that off for guests.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeESP32Home AssistantReboot-safe ESPHome event counter
An ESPHome counter sensor stores door openings or slow reed pulses on the ESP32 and restores them after a restart, so a Utility Meter helper is not starting from zero every boot.
Free overview · Pack from $9
ESPHomeHome AssistantDesk companion on a Cheap Yellow Display
A Home Assistant event sends a short line to an ESP32-2432S028R. The screen changes a figure's expression, shows a status card, and flashes the onboard RGB LED.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomePC hardware monitor on a Cheap Yellow Display
CPU and GPU temperature, load, power, memory, and fan speed on a Cheap Yellow Display, sent over the USB cable from the PC. The readings do not need Wi-Fi.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantBattery charge limiter with a timed failsafe
A battery below the low mark turns an energy-monitoring plug on. The plug turns off at the high mark, when a max time elapses, or when it never draws power, and a failsafe cut-off sends a notification.
Free overview · Pack from $9
Home AssistantOpen the cover when the window opens
A window or door contact that opens saves the cover's position and opens the cover. When the contact has been closed for a few seconds, the cover goes back, unless you moved it while the window was open.
Free overview · Pack from $9
ESPHomeHome AssistantNo-solder standing desk controller
An ESP32 on the desk handset port reads height and exposes sit and stand presets to Home Assistant. A sitting timer presses stand while the desk is occupied, or sends a nudge instead. Nothing is soldered to the desk.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantMotion scenes with a late-night tier
Motion or presence inside a time window turns on a scene. A later hour can use a dimmer scene. When every sensor has been clear, a clear-out scene runs, or the chosen targets turn off.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantAutomation loop and conflict check
A Home Assistant integration reads automations and scripts, builds a trigger-and-action graph, and posts feedback loops and competing actions under Settings, Repairs. It does not change any automation.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home Assistant433 MHz codes for a Broadlink, without learning
A one-file tool turns a known 24-bit fixed code, or a Flipper .sub file, into a short Broadlink packet. Home Assistant sends it with remote.send_command. There is no frequency sweep.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantWeekday alarm on a Ulanzi TC001
ESPHome on a Ulanzi TC001 pixel clock rings a weekday time and a weekend time. The times are entities in Home Assistant. Any of the three buttons dismisses the alarm, and the face shows the date.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantE-ink daypart checklist on a CoreInk
An M5Stack CoreInk wakes for morning, midday, and evening, shows up to five to-do items for that part of the day, and sleeps. Checking an item on the device updates the Home Assistant list.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeOutdoor lamp on a sun schedule, no hub needed
An ESP32 turns a relay or a MOSFET dimmer on from sun elevation, with a late-night cutoff, and keeps doing it when Wi-Fi or Home Assistant is down.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantNow-playing screen on a Cheap Yellow Display
A Cheap Yellow Display shows album art, title, and artist while a Home Assistant media player is playing, with touch play/pause and next, then falls back to a clock.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantRoom heat switch for a heat pump or mini-split
A switch sets one room’s climate entity to heat at a comfort setpoint. Switch off, or the room empty, restores the previous mode or turns heat off, and the switch follows the remote.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantSpooky motion scene for Halloween
Motion or a door contact snapshots your lights, flickers an eerie palette, plays one sound, then puts the lights and the volume back. A cooldown and an optional date window limit it.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantMorning alert for due to-do items
At a set time, one Companion notification lists to-do items that are due or overdue. Mark the first one done or snooze. Nothing is sent when the lists are clear.
Free overview · Pack from $19
ESPHomeHome AssistantBattery button remote over BLE, months on one charge
An ESP32-C3 wakes from deep sleep on a button, broadcasts one BTHome advertisement with the press and battery percent, then sleeps again. Home Assistant maps press, double, and long through the native BTHome integration.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantCloset and pantry light on a door sensor
A door contact turns the closet light on at a day or night level, off when the door closes, and off on a safety timer if the door is left open. Motion inside can hold the light while someone is still in there.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantPresence lights that respect a manual off
Presence turns a light on and off after the room clears. A manual off while the room is still occupied is remembered from the light's own timestamps, and the light stays off until the room has been empty.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantYearly date-range switch for seasonal automations
A template binary sensor is on between two month-days each year, including ranges that wrap New Year. A second sensor counts days until the next annual date, for a filter reminder or any once-a-year chore.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Home AssistantOne button that cycles fan speeds
A script steps a fan through a list of speed percentages, from off up through high or in pull-chain order. An automation calls that script from a button event.
Free overview · Pack from $19
Machine monitoring dashboard
Glances on every Mac and Pi → Home Assistant sensors, alerts, and a dashboard.
Coming soon
3D printer watchdog
Print watchdogs, filament scripts, and a printer dashboard for Creality-class printers.
Coming soon
Every workflow goes through the same steps.
- Pick a pattern that has proven reliable, from our own setup or a well-tested community blueprint (credited on the page).
- Scrub out tokens, addresses and anything personal.
- Write the guide, the pack and the hardware list.
- Review: each one is checked and approved before it is published.