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Home Assistant 2023.11

home-assistant.io

1–10 of 195 posts

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#2
I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#3
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

Most of the YAML-configuration has been deprecated and is now in the process of being removed. With the exception of manually-configured MQTT entities and some database configuration, everything is mostly done through the UI now.

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#4
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

I ran HA for a few years, but have since switched to Homey, which is more like an appliance, but also not quite as powerful as HA can be, provided you have the right hardware.

It works well for me.

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#5
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

I used to be annoyed by the push from yaml to ui. I wanted my config to be version controlled, and I wanted the power that I though text based config gave me.

However, it turns out it's really annoying to use text based config for most things. Primarily because integrations can't edit your config, so you have to do a lot more manual migration of config. Yaml also doesn't have any proper ide support, so it's an annoying loop of restarting the app and staring at logs looking for typos.

And finally the version control was useless because so much of what I wanted to keep was state, which can't be in config.

I've recently realised that I only actually needed the complex rules and UI to be in code. And they still are: now through the ui with instant validation.

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#6
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

All the config can be done via YAML still. The UIs are just another option that makes it easier, as far as I can tell the UIs just build the YAML.

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#7
Hass is the kind of software that has a lot of rough edges, but you use it anyway because there's very little direct competition. And every release feels like so much stuff has been finally polished, but then you deploy the new version and there's still a lot of stuff that feels or looks weird (the part-bad-UI-part-YAML automation). I have been using it for a couple of years now and I still haven't decided whether I like it or not.

But it's still a huge piece of work and deserves a lot of praise.

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#8
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

All the config can be done via YAML still. The UIs are just another option that makes it easier, as far as I can tell the UIs just build the YAML.

This is false. While you can set a lot of things through yaml, some like setting the MQTT broker have to be done via the UI.

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#9
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

You can do most of the setup right from the UI nowadays. I rarely resort to yaml-files, and if I do it is because the integration is old (and probably not that many that uses it - I can think of two integrations on top of my head that I needed to configure with yaml, traccar for tracking my bike and my local public transport organization) or it's something really special special (I have a thing that calculates the block of the cheapest two hours every day to schedule my dish washer, that was tricky to do OOB in the UI).

Otherwise it's pretty straight forward nowadays!

Re: Home Assistant 2023.11

#10
post #2

I've tried getting into Home Assistant a few years ago, but it was right at the switch from declarative yaml files for (almost) everything to most of the stuff being set up via the UI. I would love to give Home Assistant another shot - is that still the case, or is there some way to set up the Home Assistant config via code?

When I tried HA that was exactly what made me hate it. It was all configurable via files, and it was documented that way back then. But my instance wasn't. It took a while and a few useless tries until I realised the UI config is the upgrade and not the other way around.
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