States

What is an state?

An state represent system state. For example, an state may represent the door state (open/closed), the room temperature, or if an email has been sent in the last 5 minutes.

Systems represent a unit of system state, and can be used in conditions, and have various UI elements to support showing system status.

States can be configured in automate in two ways.

• MQTT topics
• Executabe or js in automate_core folder which publish state content in json format via stdout

How do I create a state

If the action is an MQTT topic, states are implied and the system will automatically register them in the system and therefore the UI when a topic with the prefix /state/ is sent out.

You can also create a state via placing an execute or js file in the /states directory of automate_core root folder. These needs to live in /state folder and be name .state..

State content will be read from stdout of the program. Format of all state is expected to json.

Using automate UI to create states

You can create states via the automate ui as well. Currently the UI supports making javascript actions only. You can use it how you see fit, but javascript states I find are good for creating simple logical utilities.
For example, while I may have devices publishing humidity as a state, I have a javascript script set up that acts a simple program to determine if it is night time or not.