Is not cristal clear how to use integration/add-on [mosquito mqtt/zwave-js]

[bestbug456]

Hello everyone,

First thing first, I'm hoping to select the correct category since is my first time opening an issue here in HA. That said for a lot of things the UI/UX are really solid but when I went to manage mosquito mqtt and zwave-js I've to scratch my head a little bit too much then expected, with this in mind I would like to propose some changes that I think can help to avoid this kind of situation.

integration should return a specific error when no add-on are set

Something that really put a giant question mark on my head was the inability to run zwave-js, since I was wrongly run it from "integration" and not from addon. It take me a while to understand this which could be avoided if a warning like "no add-on detected, add it first" was shown instead of a more generic "could not start zway-js". Even better if an integration needed an add-on and it is not installed it should drive the user to the step needed for the installation of the add-on.

mosquito mqtt should have utility front-end for add new devices

I'm not entirely sure if this is still the right place to discuss about this but the UX for the mosquito broker have little usability, no feedback is sent when using the "Publish a packet" is used. I've to use it because I have to insert the data needed to add an entity which was not auto-discovered.
The final back-end API called by the form can be the same but I think if the target is a generic final user is better to abstract the various concept. For example instead of a 2 field form "topic" and "payload" I think it could be generally essayer for everyone to understand a form set up as follow (for add a new device):

[TOPIC (the same you setup on your device)]
[entity_name]
[command_topic] (where home assistant will send the topic for example cmnd/[topic]/POWER)
[state_topic] (where home assistant will check the command result for example stat/[topic]/POWER)

in the end we could have the same back-end API but a user does not needed to study or research to the documentation "how to add a new device manually to HA", is the front-end that guide the user to the process.

last but not least I would prefer if the add-on asked which type of mqtt device I've on my network in order to maybe suggest some other add-on or integration usefull to simplify the process.

Switch on unknow state should not have interaction icon

This was the point where it took me the most to understand how to fix it. I've missconfigured the switch that I've add by myself the switch was shown on the dashboard, I was able to turn it on and off via dashboard but I was unable to run the automation again, I don't know if this is the right place to discuss it but I think a device on unknow state should have "?" and not a "power on/power off" button or at the very least it should inform the user about the unknow state without open the detail state.

Have a great day

Cheers