Home Assistant Best Practices

Core principle: Use native Home Assistant constructs wherever possible. Templates bypass validation, fail silently at runtime, and make debugging opaque.

Decision Workflow

Follow this sequence when creating any automation:

0. Gate: modifying existing config?

If your change affects entity IDs or cross-component references — renaming entities, replacing template sensors with helpers, converting device triggers, or restructuring automations — read references/safe-refactoring.md first. That reference covers impact analysis, device-sibling discovery, and post-change verification. Complete its workflow before proceeding.

Steps 1-5 below apply to new config or pattern evaluation.

1. Check for native condition/trigger

Before writing any template, check references/automation-patterns.md for native alternatives.