Home Assistant Dashboard Skill

Configure Lovelace dashboards, cards, views, and themes for Home Assistant.

Before You Start

This skill prevents 5 common errors and saves ~40% tokens.

Metric	Without Skill	With Skill
Setup Time	30+ min	10 min
Common Errors	5	0
Token Usage	~8000	~4800

Known Issues This Skill Prevents

1. YAML indentation errors (must use 2 spaces, never tabs)
2. Invalid entity ID format (must be domain.entity_name)
3. Missing required card properties (e.g., entity for button cards)
4. Incorrect view type configuration
5. Theme variables with wrong syntax

Quick Start

Step 1: Enable YAML Mode (Optional)

# configuration.yaml
lovelace:
  mode: yaml

Why this matters: YAML mode gives full control over dashboard configuration and enables version control.

Step 2: Create Basic Dashboard Structure

# ui-lovelace.yaml or dashboards.yaml
title: My Home
views:
  - title: Home
    path: home
    cards:
      - type: markdown
        content: Welcome to your dashboard!

Why this matters: This minimal structure validates your YAML setup before adding complexity.

Step 3: Add Cards to Views

views:
  - title: Living Room
    path: living-room
    cards:
      - type: entities
        title: Lights
        entities:
          - light.living_room
          - light.kitchen
      - type: weather-forecast
        entity: weather.home
        forecast_type: daily

Why this matters: Cards are the building blocks of dashboards - start with simple cards before complex ones.

Critical Rules

Always Do

• Use 2-space indentation consistently
• Use entity ID format: domain.entity_name (e.g., light.living_room)
• Validate YAML before reloading (use an online YAML validator)
• Define tap_action for interactive cards
• Test on mobile devices

Never Do

• Use tabs for indentation
• Hardcode entity names that might change
• Create views with 20+ cards (split into multiple views)
• Forget forecast_type on weather-forecast cards (required since 2023)
• Mix UI-managed and YAML-managed dashboards without understanding the mode

Common Mistakes

Wrong:

type: button
entity:light.living_room
  tap_action:
    action: toggle

Correct:

type: button
entity: light.living_room
tap_action:
  action: toggle

Why: Missing space after colon and incorrect indentation are the most common YAML errors.

Known Issues Prevention

Issue	Root Cause	Solution
"Unknown card type"	Missing custom card resource	Add to lovelace.resources
Cards not updating	Browser cache	Hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R)
Theme not applying	Wrong variable name	Check theme variable spelling
Blank dashboard	YAML syntax error	Validate YAML, check logs
Entity unavailable	Wrong entity ID	Check entity in Developer Tools > States

Configuration Reference

Dashboard Configuration (configuration.yaml)

lovelace:
  mode: yaml                    # or 'storage' for UI mode
  resources:
    - url: /local/card.js       # Custom card resources
      type: module
  dashboards:
    lovelace-custom:
      mode: yaml
      title: Custom
      icon: mdi:view-dashboard
      show_in_sidebar: true
      filename: custom-dashboard.yaml

Key settings:

• mode: yaml for manual control, storage for UI editing
• resources: Load custom cards/CSS (only in YAML mode)
• dashboards: Define additional dashboards

View Configuration

views:
  - title: View Name           # Tab title
    path: view-path            # URL path (/lovelace/view-path)
    icon: mdi:home             # Tab icon (optional)
    type: masonry              # masonry, panel, sections, sidebar
    theme: dark-mode           # Apply specific theme
    subview: false             # Hide from navigation
    cards: []                  # Card list

Common Patterns

Horizontal Stack of Buttons

type: horizontal-stack
cards:
  - type: button
    entity: light.living_room
    name: Living
    tap_action:
      action: toggle
  - type: button
    entity: light.bedroom
    name: Bedroom
    tap_action:
      action: toggle

Conditional Card Display

type: conditional
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity: binary_sensor.home_occupied
    state: "on"
card:
  type: entities
  title: Home Controls
  entities:
    - light.living_room
    - climate.thermostat

Bundled Resources

References

Located in references/:

• card-reference.md - All built-in card types with YAML examples
• view-types.md - View layout comparison and selection guide
• theme-variables.md - CSS variables for theming
• common-patterns.md - Conditional visibility, stacks, entity rows

Note: For deep dives on specific topics, see the reference files above.

Assets

Located in assets/:

• dashboard-template.yaml - Starter dashboard configuration
• card-snippets.yaml - Copy-paste card examples

Copy these templates as starting points for your implementation.

Context7 Documentation

For current documentation, use these Context7 library IDs:

Library ID	Purpose
/home-assistant/home-assistant.io	User docs - dashboards, cards, views, themes
/home-assistant/developers.home-assistant	Developer docs - custom card development
/hacs/documentation	HACS frontend cards

Official Documentation

• Dashboards Overview
• Card Types
• Views
• Themes
• Custom Cards (Developer)

Troubleshooting

Dashboard Shows Blank

Symptoms: Dashboard loads but shows nothing or error.

Solution:

# Check Home Assistant logs
ha core logs | grep -i lovelace

# Validate YAML online or locally
python -c "import yaml; yaml.safe_load(open('ui-lovelace.yaml'))"

Custom Card Not Loading

Symptoms: "Custom element doesn't exist" error.

Solution:

# Ensure resource is loaded
lovelace:
  resources:
    - url: /local/my-card.js
      type: module  # or 'js' for non-module

# Check file exists at /config/www/my-card.js

Setup Checklist

Before using this skill, verify:

• Home Assistant is running (2023.1+)
• You have access to configuration files (File Editor or VS Code add-on)
• You know your entity IDs (check Developer Tools > States)
• You've decided on YAML vs UI mode for dashboard management