Template Text Sensor

The template text sensor platform allows you to create a text sensor with templated values using lambdas.

# Example configuration entry
text_sensor:
  - platform: template
    name: "Template Text Sensor"
    lambda: |-
      return {"Hello World"};
    update_interval: 60s

Possible return values for the lambda:

return {"STRING LITERAL"}; the new value for the sensor of type std::string. Has to be in brackets {} !
return {}; if you don’t want to publish a new state (advanced).

Configuration variables

lambda (Optional, lambda): Lambda to be evaluated every update interval to get the new value of the text sensor
update_interval (Optional, Time): The interval to check the text sensor. Set to never to disable updates. Defaults to 60s.
All other options from Text Sensor.

`text_sensor.template.publish` Action

You can also publish a state to a template text sensor from elsewhere in your YAML file with the text_sensor.template.publish action.

# Example configuration entry
text_sensor:
  - platform: template
    name: "Template Text Sensor"
    id: template_text

# in some trigger
on_...:
  - text_sensor.template.publish:
      id: template_text
      state: "Hello World"

  # Templated
  - text_sensor.template.publish:
      id: template_text
      state: !lambda 'return "Hello World";'

Configuration options:

id (Required, ID): The ID of the template text sensor.
state (Required, string, templatable): The state to publish.

ℹ️ Note
This action can also be written in lambdas:
id(template_text).publish_state("Hello World");

Useful Template Sensors

Here are some useful text sensors for debugging and tracking project info.

# Example configuration entry
text_sensor:
  - platform: template
    name: "ESPHome Project Version"
    id: esphome_project_version_text_short
    icon: "mdi:information-box"
    entity_category: "diagnostic"
    update_interval: 600s
    lambda: |-
      return { ESPHOME_PROJECT_VERSION };

  - platform: template
    name: "ESPHome Project Version Detailed"
    id: esphome_project_version_text_detailed
    icon: "mdi:information-box"
    entity_category: "diagnostic"
    update_interval: 600s
    lambda: |-
      return { ESPHOME_PROJECT_VERSION " " + App.get_compilation_time() };

  - platform: template
    name: "ESPHome Project Name"
    id: esphome_project_name
    icon: "mdi:information-box"
    entity_category: "diagnostic"
    update_interval: 600s
    lambda: |-
      return { ESPHOME_PROJECT_NAME };

Template Text Sensor

Template Text Sensor

Configuration variables

text_sensor.template.publish Action

Useful Template Sensors

See Also

Template Text Sensor

`text_sensor.template.publish` Action