Home Assistant

Update

An update entity is an entity that indicates if an update is available for a device or service. This can be any update, including update of a firmware for a device like a light bulb or router, or software updates for things like add-ons or containers.

The state of the update entity indicates if there is an update pending or not, and if there is an update available, more information on that update can be provided by an integration to the entity. For example, the version that is available, a summary of the release notes, and even links that provide more information on the available update.

Lastly, there are two services available for the update entity. If possible and made available by the integration providing the update entity, triggering the actual update from Home Assistant. The other service exposed allows for skipping the offered update.

Building block integration

The update integration cannot be directly used. You cannot create your own update entities using this integration. This integration is a building block for other integrations to use, enabling them to create update entities for you.

For a list of integrations offering update entities, on the integrations page, select the “Update” category.

The state of an update entity

The state of an update entity reflects whether an update is available or not. When the state is on, it means there is an update available; when everything is up-to-date, the state is off.

Additionally, the following state attributes are exposed to provide more information on the update state:

  • title: The title/name of the available software or firmware. As the device name or entity name can be changed in Home Assistant, this title will provide the actual name of the software or firmware.
  • installed_version: The current version that is currently installed and in use.
  • latest_version: The latest version that is available for installation.
  • skipped_version: If a version update is skipped, this attribute will be set and contains the actual version that was skipped.
  • release_summary: A summary of the release notes for the update available.
  • release_url: A link to the full release announcement for the update available.

Device Classes

The way these update entities are displayed in the frontend depend on their device classes. The following device classes are supported for switches:

  • None: A generic software update. This is the default and doesn’t need to be set.
  • firmware: This update integration provides firmwares.

Services

The update entity exposes two services that can be used to install or skip an offered software update.

Service update.install

The update.install service can be used to install an offered update to the device or service.

This service is only available for an update entity if an integration provides this capability. Additionally, if allowed by the integration, the service provides for installing a specific version and even could make a backup before installing the update.

Service data attribute Optional Description
entity_id no String or list of strings that point at entity_ids of updates. To target all updates, set entity_id to all.
version yes A specific update version to install, if not provided, the latest available update will be installed. Availability of this atrribute is dependent on the integration.
backup yes If set to true, a backup will be made before installing the update. Availability of this attribute is dependent on the integration.

Example service call:

service: update.install
target:
  entity_id:
    - update.my_light_bulb

Service update.skip

The update.skip service can be used to skip an offered update to the device or service.

After skipping an offered update, the entity will return to the off state, which means there is no update available.

service: update.skip
target:
  entity_id:
    - update.my_light_bulb

Even if an update is skipped and shows as off (meaning no update), if there is a newer version available, calling the update.install service on the entity will still install the latest version.

Service update.clear_skipped

The update.clear_skipped service can be used to remove skipped version marker of a previously skipped an offered update to the device or service.

After skipping an offered update, the entity will return to the off state, but will not return to it until a newer version becomes available again.

Using the update.clear_skipped service, the skipped version marker can be removed and thus the entity will return to the on state and the update notification will return.

service: update.clear_skipped
target:
  entity_id:
    - update.my_light_bulb

This can be helpful to, for example, in an automation that weekly unskips all updates you have previously marked as skipped; as a reminder to update.

Example: Sending update available notifications

A common use case for using update entities is to notify you if an update has become available for installation. Using the update entities, this is fairly straightforward to do.

This is a YAML example for an automation that sends out a notification when the update for a light bulb becomes available.

automation:
  - alias: "Send notification when update available"
    trigger:
      platform: state
      entity_id: update.my_light_bulb
      to: "on"
    action:
      alias: "Send notification to my phone about the update"
      service: notify.iphone
      data:
        title: "New update available"
        message: "New update available for my_light_bulb!"