esphome-docs/guides/configuration-types.rst

Configuration Types
===================

.. seo::
    :description: Documentation of different configuration types in ESPHome
    :image: settings.png

ESPHome’s configuration files have several configuration types. This
page describes them.

.. _config-id:

ID
--

Quite an important aspect of ESPHome are “ids”. They are used to
connect components from different domains. For example, you define an
output component together with an id and then later specify that same id
in the light component. IDs should always be unique within a
configuration and ESPHome will warn you if you try to use the same
ID twice.

Because ESPHome converts your configuration into C++ code and the
ids are in reality just C++ variable names, they must also adhere to
C++’s naming conventions. `C++ Variable
names <https://venus.cs.qc.cuny.edu/~krishna/cs111/lectures/D3_C++_Variables.pdf>`__
…

-  … must start with a letter and can end with numbers.
-  … must not have a space in the name.
-  … can not have special characters except the underscore (“_“).
-  … must not be a keyword.

.. _config-pin:

Pin
---

ESPHome always uses the **chip-internal GPIO numbers**. These
internal numbers are always integers like ``16`` and can be prefixed by
``GPIO``. For example to use the pin with the **internal** GPIO number 16,
you could type ``GPIO16`` or just ``16``.

Most boards however have aliases for certain pins. For example the NodeMCU
ESP8266 uses pin names ``D0`` through ``D8`` as aliases for the internal GPIO
pin numbers. Each board (defined in :doc:`ESPHome section </components/esphome>`)
has their own aliases and so not all of them are supported yet. For example,
for the ``D0`` (as printed on the PCB silkscreen) pin on the NodeMCU ESP8266
has the internal GPIO name ``GPIO16``, but also has an alias ``D0``. So using
either one of these names in your configuration will lead to the same result.

.. code-block:: yaml

    some_config_option:
      pin: GPIO16

    some_config_option:
      # alias on the NodeMCU ESP8266:
      pin: D0

.. _config-pin_schema:

Pin Schema
----------

In some places, ESPHome also supports a more advanced “pin schema”.

.. code-block:: yaml

    some_config_option:
      # Basic:
      pin: D0

      # Advanced:
      pin:
        number: D0
        inverted: True
        mode: INPUT_PULLUP

Configuration variables:

-  **number** (**Required**, pin): The pin number.
-  **inverted** (*Optional*, boolean): If all read and written values
   should be treated as inverted. Defaults to ``False``.
-  **mode** (*Optional*, string): A pin mode to set for the pin at
   startup, corresponds to Arduino’s ``pinMode`` call.

Available Pin Modes:

-  ``INPUT``
-  ``OUTPUT``
-  ``OUTPUT_OPEN_DRAIN``
-  ``ANALOG`` (only on ESP32)
-  ``INPUT_PULLUP``
-  ``INPUT_PULLDOWN`` (only on ESP32)
-  ``INPUT_PULLDOWN_16`` (only on ESP8266 and only on GPIO16)

More exotic Pin Modes are also supported, but rarely used:

-  ``WAKEUP_PULLUP`` (only on ESP8266)
-  ``WAKEUP_PULLDOWN`` (only on ESP8266)
-  ``SPECIAL``
-  ``FUNCTION_0`` (only on ESP8266)
-  ``FUNCTION_1``
-  ``FUNCTION_2``
-  ``FUNCTION_3``
-  ``FUNCTION_4``
-  ``FUNCTION_5`` (only on ESP32)
-  ``FUNCTION_6`` (only on ESP32)

.. _config-color:

Color
-----

When using RGB-capable displays or LEDs/lighting in ESPHome you may wish to use custom colors.
A ``color`` component exists for just this purpose:

.. code-block:: yaml

    color:
      - id: my_light_red
        red: 100%
        green: 20%
        blue: 25%
        white: 0%

RGB displays use red, green, and blue, while grayscale displays may use white. LEDs or LED-based light bulbs
may use all four color elements depending on their capabilities.

.. _config-time:

Time
----

In lots of places in ESPHome you need to define time periods.
There are several ways of doing this. See below examples to see how you can specify time periods:

.. code-block:: yaml

    some_config_option:
      some_time_option: 1000us  # 1000 microseconds = 1ms
      some_time_option: 1000ms  # 1000 milliseconds
      some_time_option: 1.5s  # 1.5 seconds
      some_time_option: 0.5min  # half a minute
      some_time_option: 2h  # 2 hours

      # Make sure you wrap these in quotes
      some_time_option: '2:01'  # 2 hours 1 minute
      some_time_option: '2:01:30'  # 2 hours 1 minute 30 seconds

      # 10ms + 30s + 25min + 3h
      some_time_option:
        milliseconds: 10
        seconds: 30
        minutes: 25
        hours: 3
        days: 0

      # for all 'update_interval' options, also
      update_interval: never  # never update
      update_interval: 0ms  # update in every loop() iteration

.. _config-substitutions:

Substitutions
-------------

Starting with version 1.10.0, ESPHome has a powerful new way to reduce repetition in configuration files:
Substitutions. With substitutions, you can have a single generic source file for all nodes of one kind and
substitute expressions in.

.. code-block:: yaml

    substitutions:
      devicename: livingroom
      upper_devicename: Livingroom

    esphome:
      name: $devicename
      # ...

    sensor:
    - platform: dht
      # ...
      temperature:
        name: ${upper_devicename} Temperature
      humidity:
        name: ${upper_devicename} Humidity

In the top-level ``substitutions`` section, you can put as many key-value pairs as you want. Before
validating your configuration, ESPHome will automatically replace all occurrences of substitutions
by their value. The syntax for a substitution is based on bash and is case-sensitive: ``$substitution_key`` or
``${substitution_key}`` (same).

Additionally, you can use the YAML ``<<`` syntax to create a single YAML file from which a number
of nodes inherit:

.. code-block:: yaml

    # In common.yaml
    esphome:
      name: $devicename
      # ...

    sensor:
    - platform: dht
      # ...
      temperature:
        name: ${upper_devicename} Temperature
      humidity:
        name: ${upper_devicename} Humidity

.. code-block:: yaml

    # In nodemcu1.yaml
    substitutions:
      devicename: nodemcu1
      upper_devicename: NodeMCU 1

    <<: !include common.yaml

.. tip::

    To hide these base files from the dashboard, you can

    - Place them in a subdirectory (dashboard only shows files in top-level dir)
    - Prepend a dot to the filename, like ``.base.yaml``

.. _command-line-substitutions:

Command line substitutions
**************************

You can define or override substitutions from the command line by adding e.g. ``-s KEY VALUE``
which overrides substitution KEY and gives it value VALUE. This can be issued multiple times,
so e.g. with the following ``example.yaml`` file:

.. code-block:: yaml

    substitutions:
      name: default
      platform: ESP8266

    esphome:
      name: $name
      platform: $platform
      board: $board

and the following command:

.. code-block:: bash

    esphome -s name device01 -s board esp01_1m example.yaml config

You will get something like the following output (please note the unchanged ``platform``,
added ``board``, and overridden ``name`` substitutions):

.. code-block:: yaml

    substitutions:
      name: device01
      platform: ESP8266
      board: esp01_1m
    esphome:
      name: device01
      platform: ESP8266
      board: esp01_1m
      includes: []
      board_flash_mode: dout
      libraries: []
      esp8266_restore_from_flash: false
      build_path: device01
      platformio_options: {}
      arduino_version: espressif8266@2.2.3

We can observe here that command line substitutions take precedence over the ones in
your configuration file. This can be used to create generic 'template' configuration
files (like the ``example.yaml`` above) which can be used for multiple devices,
using substitutions which are provided on the command line.

.. _config-packages:

Packages
--------

Another way to modularize and reuse your configuration is to use packages. This feature allows
you to put common pieces of configuration in separate files and keep only unique pieces of your
config in the main yaml file. All definitions from packages will be merged with your main
config in non-destructive way so you could always override some bits and pieces of package
configuration.

Consider the following example where author put common pieces of configuration like WiFi,
I2C into base files and extends it with some devices specific configurations in the main config.

Note how the piece of configuration describing ``api`` component in ``device_base.yaml`` gets
merged with the services definitions from main config file.

.. code-block:: yaml

    # In config.yaml
    substitutions:
      node_name: mydevice
      device_verbose_name: "My Device"

    packages:
      wifi: !include common/wifi.yaml
      device_base: !include common/device_base.yaml

    api:
      services:
        - service: start_laundry
          then:
            - switch.turn_on: relay
            - delay: 3h
            - switch.turn_off: relay

    sensor:
      - platform: mhz19
        co2:
          name: "CO2"
        temperature:
          name: "Temperature"
        update_interval: 60s
        automatic_baseline_calibration: false

.. code-block:: yaml

    # In wifi.yaml
    wifi:
      ssid: "your_ssid"
      password: !secret wifi_password
      domain: .yourdomain.lan
      fast_connect: true

.. code-block:: yaml

    # In device_base.yaml
    esphome:
      name: ${node_name}
      platform: ESP32
      board: wemos_d1_mini32
      build_path: ./build/${node_name}

    # I2C Bus
    i2c:
      sda: GPIO21
      scl: GPIO22
      scan: True
      frequency: 100kHz

    # Enable logging
    logger:
      level: ${log_level}

    api:
      password: !secret hass_api_key
      reboot_timeout: 1h

    sensor:
      - <<: !include common/sensor/uptime.config.yaml
      - <<: !include common/sensor/wifi_signal.config.yaml
    binary_sensor:
      - <<: !include common/binary_sensor/connection_status.config.yaml

    switch:
      - !include common/switch/restart_switch.config.yaml

See Also
--------

- :doc:`ESPHome index </index>`
- :doc:`getting_started_command_line`
- :doc:`faq`
- :ghedit:`Edit`