extract-homeassistant-dashboard-entities

name

extract-homeassistant-dashboard-entities

description

Extracts unique Home Assistant entity IDs from Lovelace dashboard YAML (entity:, entity_id:, script: lines, grid/solar, template variable values, states['…'] in JS). Produces alphabetized entities: (non-script only), separate scripts: list, counts, and satellite scripts.yaml stubs that call script.remote_<name> for dual-instance remote_homeassistant setups. Omits camera.*, replaces weather.local_weather with sensor.local_weather_forecast, excludes template/user placeholders. Decluttering templates are only scanned when reachable from active (non-comment) YAML. Use when auditing dashboard entities, building remote allowlists, inventorying dashboards/decluttering templates, or generating script forwarding stubs for a UI satellite instance.

Extract Home Assistant entities from dashboard YAML

Instructions

Extract all Home Assistant entities referenced in dashboard YAML files and produce a deduplicated list excluding the script domain in the main entities: block (scripts are listed and forwarded separately per steps 15–16). When the inventory includes script.* entities, also produce the scripts: inventory (step 15) and secondary-instance scripts.yaml forwarding stubs (step 16).

Default scope for this repository: the dashboards/ directory tree (including dashboards/home.yaml, components/panels/, components/decluttering_templates/, and related YAML). Adjust the path if the user specifies another folder. Do not treat every file under decluttering_templates/ as in-use; see step 2.

More examples: See examples.md in this skill folder (template variables, cameras/weather, grid/solar, states['…'], dedupe, remote_ edge case).

Process steps

CRITICAL WARNING: When extracting entities from template variables, ONLY extract the actual entity values (right side of colon), NOT the template variable names (left side of colon). Template variable names like apple_tv_media_player_entity are NOT entities—they are variable names used in templates.

1. Comment-aware YAML text: For discovery and extraction, treat # as starting an end-of-line comment (strip from # to EOL). Ignore matches that would come only from commented-out text—e.g. archived Lovelace in # … blocks must not add templates or entities.

2. Reachable decluttering templates only (before scanning decluttering_templates/ for entity IDs):

   • Start from the dashboard entry YAML (here: dashboards/home.yaml). Recursively follow !include targets to collect all panel and layout files that are part of the live dashboard.
   • In those files (comment-aware), find template: <name> on custom:decluttering-card (and equivalent decluttering usage). That seeds a set of used template names.
   • For each used template, open dashboards/components/decluttering_templates/<name>.yaml (root key is typically <name>:). Inside that file, add any nested template: <other> names (e.g. a group template that instantiates a row template). Repeat until the set stops growing.
   • Extract entities from decluttering YAML only for templates in this reachable set. Omit entities that appear exclusively in decluttering files that are never referenced from active (non-comment) dashboard YAML—e.g. templates kept for archival alongside commented-out views.

3. Identify target files for extraction:

   • Always include: reachable panel/layout YAML from step 2, plus reachable decluttering template files.
   • Optionally include other YAML under dashboards/ that is clearly part of the active UI (e.g. kiosk_mode.yaml if included from the entry file). Do not blindly grep all of decluttering_templates/ without applying step 2.

4. Extract direct entity references: Find lines containing entity: across the target YAML files from step 3.

   • CRITICAL: Use high head_limit (1000+) to avoid truncation.
   • CRITICAL: If truncation occurs, search each file individually.
   • CRITICAL: Use files_with_matches first to get the complete file list.

5. Extract script references: Find lines containing script:.

   • Look for both script: script_name and script: script.script_name.
   • Convert to script.script_name (add script. prefix if missing).
   • CRITICAL: Use high head_limit to avoid truncation.

6. Extract alternative patterns: Lines that may reference entities without entity::

   • grid:, solar:, battery:, power:, voltage:, current:, load:, status:, source:, temperature:, capacity:, runtime:, charge:, level:, mode:, water: (filter to values that look like domain.object_id where appropriate).

7. Extract templated references: entity_id: (e.g. lovelace_gen), {{ … }} entity contexts, template definitions.

8. Extract template variable assignments: entity_id: entity_name, lists in lovelace_gen !include variables, *_entity: domain.entity.

   • CRITICAL: Only extract VALUES, not names like apple_tv_media_player_entity.

9. Parse entity names from lines such as:

   • entity: sensor.temperature
   • entity_id: camera.front_door (camera values are still parsed for completeness but removed in filter step)
   • script: script_name → script.script_name

10. Filter out non-entities:

• entity: template, entity: user (state-switch cards)
• Placeholders: [[entity]], {{ camera.entity_id }} as literals (resolve cameras via parent definitions when listing real IDs; still exclude camera.* from output)
• Template variable names: not entities
• Camera entities: exclude all camera.* from final outputs (remote_homeassistant proxy limitation)
• Weather: replace weather.local_weather with sensor.local_weather_forecast
• Other non-entity config values

11. Deduplicate (including scripts until partitioned in step 12).

12. Partition scripts: Split into non-script vs script.*. Only non-script entities go in entities:. Scripts feed steps 15–16 only.

13. Alphabetize each partition separately.

14. Format entities: (non-script only):

    entities:
      - binary_sensor.example_sensor
      - light.example_light
      - sensor.example_temperature
    

15. Format scripts: (if any):

    scripts:
      - script.turn_on_lights
    

16. Satellite scripts.yaml: For each script.<name> from dashboards, emit a wrapper on the secondary instance with key <name> whose single step calls script.remote_<name> on the primary. If <name> already starts with remote_, do not double-prefix. Prefer sequence + action: script.remote_<name> (HA 2025.x); fall back to service: or script.turn_on + target.entity_id if needed. Include readable alias text. Output the scripts: list from step 15 near this block.

17. Verification: Confirm all relevant YAML was searched, truncation did not drop matches, and unreachable decluttering templates were excluded per step 2.

Commands to use

Use repository search tools (grep, glob, read_file) analogously to:

# After computing reachable files (see process step 2–3), grep within those paths only;
# do not use path="dashboards" alone if that would pull in unreachable decluttering_templates.
grep pattern="entity:" path="<reachable-file-or-dir>" output_mode="content"
# …per-file passes if results truncate

Also search for states['domain.entity'] in dashboard YAML when present.

Output requirements

• Alphabetized entities: with every script.* omitted
• Count of non-script entities
• If scripts exist: count, scripts: list, and copy-pasteable scripts.yaml for the satellite (step 16)
• Valid domain.entity_name entries

Example usage

When scanning dashboards/:

1. Extract entity:, entity_id:, script:, alternate keys, template values
2. Apply filters (no cameras in output, weather replacement, no template/user)
3. Dedupe → partition scripts → sort
4. Emit entities:, scripts:, counts, and satellite scripts.yaml stubs

Minimal output example

See examples.md for many input→output cases. End-to-end shape:

entities:
  - binary_sensor.downstairs_motion
  - light.kitchen_lights
  - sensor.local_weather_forecast
  - sensor.temperature
  - switch.example_switch

scripts:
  - script.turn_on_lights

Total non-script entities: 5 · Total scripts: 1

Satellite scripts.yaml (secondary only; primary implements script.remote_turn_on_lights):

turn_on_lights:
  alias: "Turn on lights (forward to primary)"
  mode: single
  sequence:
    - action: script.remote_turn_on_lights

Capabilities summary

• Static and templated Lovelace references; reachable decluttering templates only; lovelace_gen includes
• Comment-aware parsing so archived/commented YAML does not expand the entity list
• Truncation-aware search (per-file if needed)
• Camera exclusion, weather → sensor forecast, scripts split + remote_* forwarding stubs for dual-instance setups