Using labels to select entities for cards #20933

jftanner · 2024-05-30T22:57:53Z

jftanner
May 30, 2024

The Request

For the cards that take lists of entities (specifically, in my case, the Logbook and Entities cards), I would love a feature to select all relevant entities using a label, rather than selecting them all individually for each card.

Cards with multiple entities support for labels:

Or, alternatively, set the list of entities using a template.

The Use-Case

As part of my security system, I've got many different sensors that can trigger events and that I want displayed on my dashboard. Each of these entities appears on at least two cards, usually three or four.

For example, I use Logbook Card that to (ideally) display all security events throughout the system:

However, the sensors in that example are only a small subset of the ones I actually want. That list will be much, much longer by the time I'm done. And, as I said, each those entities all end up being used in a bunch of places. So I have to remember to update all those places whenever I add or update a sensor. Labels have the potential to make that a whole lot easier!

I can already use templates to set up automations (both triggers and actions) using labels. So the only missing piece is updating the dashboards as well.

Example

Let's say I want to add a new door sensor for the basement bulkhead, which should never usually be opened.

Without labels, I need to:

Connect and configure the sensor
Add it as a new trigger to the "Alarm Triggers: Home" automation
Add it as a new trigger to the "Alarm Triggers: Away" automation
Add it as a new trigger to the "Alarm Triggers: Night" automation
Add it to the "Security Events" Logbook Card on my "Security" dashboard
Add it to the "Doors" Entities Card on my "Security" dashboard
Add it to my "Basement" dashboard

With labels, I could:

Connect and configure the sensor
Add the "Alarmed: Always" label

With the features currently available, my three automations can use that label (either with a template, or through a template entity such as binary_sensor.alarmed_always_sensor_tripped) to automatically pick up the new sensor. That's all (relatively) easy to configure through the UI.

Unfortunately, using built-in features, I would still need to update the three dashboards manually.
But with this feature, I could also have the cards auto-update with the labels. Super fast and easy!

Workaround

Of course, there is always a workaround in Home Assistant, and this is no exception. There are custom cards I can use to generate cards from templates, but those are 3rd party and a lot more complicated to set up. I'll probably take the time to do it anyway, but a friendly, built-in option would be a lot easier. Hence the feature request.