topic Re: triggering automation with automation in Home Automation

triggering automation with automation

smarthomie — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 16:54:49 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to make an automation that triggers two other automations, which have different conditions in order to create an if-else situation. Does anyone know how to do that?

Thank you!

Re: triggering automation with automation

EricTsengTy — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 17:36:45 GMT

My approach is just a workaround in the current Google Home implementation.
The implementation below is written by Scripted Automation, but it can also be implemented with a normal routine.

Callee

Add a starter with the type "assistant.event.OkGoogle" and set the property "is" to a function name. It's better that the function name is not a valid English sentence. For example, I prefer "turn_off_the_tv" instead of "Turn off the TV".

metadata: name: Turn off the Air description: Simply turn off the Air via scene in third party app automations: starters: - type: assistant.event.OkGoogle eventData: query is: turn_off_the_air actions: - type: device.command.ActivateScene activate: true devices: Power off Air

Caller

Now in the script you wanna call the above script, you can trigger the script by specifying the function name with "assistant.command.OkGoogle".

actions: - type: assistant.command.OkGoogle okGoogle: turn_off_the_air devices: Nest - Living Room

Re: triggering automation with automation

smarthomie — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 18:34:44 GMT

Pretty good idea, I also had it. In my automations it does not work sadly, did you manage to get it working properly?

Re: triggering automation with automation

EricTsengTy — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 02:52:26 GMT

Yep, it works (at least when I test it last week).

Maybe you can provide your script then I can help you check it.

It's also possible that I miss something.

Re: triggering automation with automation

smarthomie — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 08:16:41 GMT

That's cool! My scripts look like that:

Caller:

metadata:

name: Untitled description: Caller

automations:

starters:

type: assistant.event.OkGoogle

eventData: query is: start my test routine

actions:

type: assistant.command.OkGoogle okGoogle: this_is_a_test devices: Badezimmer - Badezimmer

Callee:

metadata: name: Untitled2 description: Callee automations: starters: type: assistant.event.OkGoogle eventData: query is: this_is_a_test actions: type: assistant.command.Broadcast message: it works devices: Badezimmer Badezimmer

Thanks for your help!

Re: triggering automation with automation

EricTsengTy — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 12:41:09 GMT

Feels like I can't find any obvious problem in your script. I only notice that you don't have the dash "-" in front of the keyword "type", but I'm not sure whether it's just a copy/paste problem.
Btw, you can use the "Insert/Edit code sample" to format your script to make it more understandable.

Re: triggering automation with automation

smarthomie — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 13:40:10 GMT

Thanks for the tip! I found a solution called "Google Home Playground". With that developer function you can create fake lights or other smart home devices. With the on/off states of them you can trigger other automations with an automation, works perfectly fine!

Re: triggering automation with automation

JacobWaterweg — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 12:17:04 GMT

I also had the OkGoogle idea, but it doesn't want to work for me either.

The solution with the 'Google Home Playgroud' works perfectly. Thanks!!!

Re: triggering automation with automation

MisterE — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 17:46:01 GMT

I know this is old, but I was looking to accomplish the same (call another automation from within a automation) and figured a trick to do so without using/creating scripts for anyone interested.

My solution was to use another Nest mini speaker. In the active automation, I set a speaker to a specific volume (eg. 2%). The other automation is triggered whenever that speaker was set at 2% and runs its commands. Additionally, it's important that within that other automation I use a spoken command at the end to set that same speaker back to another preferred/reset volume level (eg. 40%).

Using this trick, it's possible to create 100 different other automations that can be triggered on. Add another speaker, and you get another 100. I suppose it's even possible to create nested automations and loops this way.