Automations & services

GardenESP can be driven from Home Assistant automations in two ways: the services gardenesp.start_line / gardenesp.stop_line (starting and stopping a line cleanly) and binary inputs (buttons/switches) as triggers.

Services: gardenesp.start_line / stop_line

With these services you drive an irrigation line from your own logic (e.g. an ET0 / weather-based schedule) — through the same path as the panel and the card (source lock, rain and level gates, consumption logging, cistern settling time).

Why not switch the valve switch directly?

A plain switch.turn_on on the valve bypasses everything — the source lock, the blocking sensors, the consumption measurement and the settling time. Only the on-device emergency shutdown would remain as a safeguard. The services are the intended route for external control.

gardenesp.start_line

Field	Required	Meaning
line_id	yes	The raw line id (e.g. ln_ff3a7f58). Shown in the panel's line and control overview as "ID (for the service)" — not to be confused with the display id L<n>.
duration_min	no	Run time in minutes (decimals are seconds, e.g. 0.5 = 30 s). Empty = the line's manual default duration.
force	no	true = "start anyway" — overrides a blocking sensor (rain). The source's level and dry-run protection stay active.

gardenesp.stop_line

Field	Required	Meaning
line_id	yes	The raw line id of the line to stop.

Unknown line_id

An unknown id produces a clean validation error through the service calls (automation, Developer tools → Actions).

Example: start a line on a timer with your own duration

automation:
  - alias: "Tomatoes, 6 minutes in the morning"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "06:00:00"
    action:
      - service: gardenesp.start_line
        data:
          line_id: ln_ff3a7f58
          duration_min: 6

Binary inputs as buttons/switches

Every binary input of a controller is visible in Home Assistant as an ordinary binary_sensor (binary_sensor.gardenesp_steuergeraet_<x>_<name>) and can be used in any automation as a trigger or condition — regardless of whether GardenESP uses it internally.

So that an input carries a meaningful name and is not treated as a blocking sensor, set it up in the controller editor with the type Button / switch (see First controller). The input is then flashed as a plain binary_sensor — with no irrigation meaning, and therefore not offered in a line's blocking-sensor list.

GardenControl & WROOM

GardenControl has 3 binary inputs (BIN1–3) that rain, the S0 water meter and buttons share — if one is taken by a water meter, it is no longer available as a button. On ESP32-WROOM you take any free GPIO. The polarity (idle = on/off) is set on the input with the invert selector.

Example: a button starts a line

automation:
  - alias: "Patio button → lawn for 10 min"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.gardenesp_steuergeraet_a_taster_terrasse
        to: "on"
    action:
      - service: gardenesp.start_line
        data:
          line_id: ln_ff3a7f58
          duration_min: 10

A deliberate separation

GardenESP offers no built-in "button → action" binding. That logic lives in HA automations on the raw binary_sensor entity — more flexible, and without duplicating the irrigation logic.