Group

The group integration lets you combine multiple entities into a single entity. Entities that are members of a group can be controlled and monitored as a whole.

This can be useful for cases where you want to control, for example, the multiple bulbs in a light fixture as a single light in Home Assistant.

Home Assistant can group multiple binary sensors, covers, fans, lights, locks, media players, switches as a single entity, with the option of hiding the individual member entities.

Configuration

To add the Group integration to your Home Assistant instance, use this My button:

Group behavior

Binary sensor, light, and switch groups

In short, when any group member entity is on, the group will also be on. A complete overview of how groups behave:

• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is unknown if all group members are unknown or unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is on if at least one group member is on.
• Otherwise, the group state is off.

Binary sensor, light, and switch groups allow you set the “All entities” option. When enabled, the group behavior is inverted, and all members of the group have to be on for the group to turn on as well. A complete overview of how groups behave when the “All entities” option is enabled:

• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is unknown if at least one group member is unknown or unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is off if at least one group member is off.
• Otherwise, the group state is on.

Cover groups

In short, when any group member entity is open, the group will also be open. A complete overview of how cover groups behave:

• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is unknown if all group members are unknown or unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is opening if at least one group member is opening.
• Otherwise, the group state is closing if at least one group member is closing.
• Otherwise, the group state is open if at least one group member is open.
• Otherwise, the group state is closed.

Fan groups

In short, when any group member entity is on, the group will also be on. A complete overview of how fan groups behave:

• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is unknown if all group members are unknown or unavailable.
• Otherwise, The group state is on if at least one group member is on.
• Otherwise, the group state is off.

Lock groups

In short, when any group member entity is unlocked, the group will also be unlocked. A complete overview of how lock groups behave:

• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is unknown if all group members are unknown or unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is jammed if at least one group member is jammed.
• Otherwise, the group state is locking if at least one group member is locking.
• Otherwise, the group state is unlocking if at least one group member is unlocking.
• Otherwise, the group state is unlocked if at least one group member is unlocked.
• Otherwise, the group state is locked.

Media player groups

• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is unknown if all group members are unknown or unavailable.
• Otherwise, the group state is buffering if all group members are buffering.
• Otherwise, the group state is idle if all group members are idle.
• Otherwise, the group state is paused if all group members are paused.
• Otherwise, the group state is playing if all group members are playing.
• Otherwise, the group state is on if at least one group member is not off, unavailable or unknown.
• Otherwise, the group state is off.

Sensor groups

• The group state is combined / calculated based on type selected to determine the minimum, maximum, latest (last), mean, median, range, product or sum of the collected states.
• Members can be any sensor, number or input_number holding numeric states.
• The group state is unavailable if all group members are unavailable.
• If ignore_non_numeric is false then group state will be unavailable if one member is unavailable or does not have a numeric state.

Managing groups

To edit a group, Settings -> Devices & Services -> Helpers. Find and select the group from the list.

Group options

To add or remove entities from an existing group, click on Group options, all the existing entities are listed in the members section where you add and remove entities.

YAML Configuration

Alternatively, this integration can be configured and set up manually via YAML instead. Here are example of how to configure groups when using the configuration.yaml file.

Example YAML configuration of a binary sensor group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: group
    name: "Patio Doors"
    device_class: opening
    entities:
      - binary_sensor.door_left_contact
      - binary_sensor.door_right_contact

Example YAML configuration of a cover group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
cover:
  - platform: group
    name: "Window Covers"
    entities:
      - cover.hall_window
      - cover.living_room_window

Example YAML configuration of a fan group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
fan:
  - platform: group
    name: "Downstairs Fans"
    entities:
      - fan.lanai_west
      - fan.lanai_south
      - fan.lanai_east

Example YAML configuration of a light group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
light:
  - platform: group
    name: "Kitchen Lights"
    entities:
      - light.kitchen_ceiling_lights
      - light.kitchen_under_cabinet_lights
      - light.kitchen_spot_lights
      - light.pendant_lights

Example YAML configuration of a lock group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
lock:
  - platform: group
    name: "House Locks"
    entities:
      - lock.front_door
      - lock.back_door

Example YAML configuration of a media_player group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
media_player:
  - platform: group
    entities:
      - media_player.kitchen_tv
      - media_player.living_room_tv

Example YAML configuration of a sensor group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
  - platform: group
    type: mean
    entities:
      - sensor.temperature_kitchen
      - sensor.temperature_hallway

Example YAML configuration of a switch group:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
switch:
  - platform: group
    entities:
      - switch.tv
      - switch.soundbar

Notify Groups

This group is a special case of groups currently only available via YAML configuration.

Notify groups are used to combine multiple notification services into a single service. This allows you to send notification to multiple devices with a single call.

# Example configuration.yaml entry
notify:
  - platform: group
    name: "My notification group"
    services:
      - service: html5
        data:
          target: "macbook"
      - service: html5_nexus

Old style groups

This group is a special case of groups only available via YAML configuration.

We don’t recommend using these old-style groups anymore. They are still supported, but we recommend using the groups as described above.

Back in the day, Home Assistant used groups to visually groups entities in the Home Assistant UI; it was the only way to tell which entities would show up in a single card on your Dashboard. This is no longer the case, as we now have fantastic UI editors and Dashboarding.

However, the old-style groups are still there in the roots of Home Assistant. On the one hand, they are more versatile (they can use more entity types right now); but on the other hand, they are also more limited and complicated to use.

The limited use is that these old-style groups are written to be universal, while the new style groups described above are designed to be a full replacement of their members (e.g., a light group, as described above, has all light features). Besides being only available via manual YAML configuration, they also have limited UI support in terms of customizing.

Example old-style groups YAML configuration:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
group:
  kitchen:
    name: "Kitchen Group"
    entities:
      - switch.kitchen_pin_3
  climate:
    name: "Climate Group"
    entities:
      - sensor.bedroom_temp
      - sensor.porch_temp
  awesome_people:
    name: "Awesome People"
    entities:
      - device_tracker.dad_smith
      - device_tracker.mom_smith

Old style groups can calculate group state with entities from the following domains:

• alarm_control_panel
• binary_sensor
• climate
• cover
• device_tracker
• fan
• humidifier
• light
• lock
• media_player
• person
• plant
• remote
• switch
• vacuum
• water_heater

When member entities all have a single on and off state, the group state will be calculated as follows:

When a group contains entities from domains that have multiple on states or only use on and off, the group state will be on or off.

It is possible to create a group that the system cannot calculate a group state. Groups with entities from unsupported domains will always have an unknown state.

These groups can still be in templates with the expand() directive, called using the homeassistant.turn_on and homeassistant.turn_off services, etc.

Services

This integration provides the following services to modify groups and a service to reload the configuration without restarting Home Assistant itself.