Alerts that start automations

Every alert can start an automation — homeCore's own (something wet, smoke, a device offline, a lock jammed, a battery low), one of your alert rules ("the freezer warmer than −10 °C for 15 minutes"), or any plugin's ("firmware update available"). Telling someone stays with the alert itself (Alert rules › Tell); an automation is for everything else: turn the water off, flash a light, run a scene, send it to another channel.

Making one: "Do something…"

On Alerts, every alert has Do something… beside Seen and Ignore…. In Settings › Alert rules each rule, each of homeCore's own kinds and each plugin's kind of alert has + Do something… too.

It asks two things:

• For — which alerts:
  • only this one — this sensor, this rule, this device's plugin alert;
  • any like it — "any YoLink leak sensor" (those you add later included), "any of your alert rules", "this plugin's alert on any of its devices";
  • broader — "anything wet in the house", "anything this serious or worse".
• When it — happens, ends, or is still on after N minutes.

Make the automation opens the automation editor with a new automation whose trigger is already chosen and marked from the alert. It is an ordinary trigger: widen it, or change "happens" to "ends", like any other. The Do part offers a few to start from — set a device, run a scene, send to another channel. The alert's words can go in any message: {alert.message} (and {alert.device}, {alert.reason}, {alert.severity}, {alert.key}).

Nothing is saved until you press Save.

Seeing what an alert starts

• On Alerts, an alert that starts automations says so: Starts 1 automation: Freezer — flash garage light.
• In Settings › Alert rules, under each rule, each of homeCore's own kinds and each plugin's kind of alert, When it happens: lists the automations it starts. homeCore works this out from the automations' triggers, so ones written by hand (or in RON, or over the API) are listed too. Automations that watch a device directly — "when the leak sensor's water_detected turns true" — are not: they don't depend on the alert.
• In Automations, each one an alert starts says Started by the alert "Freezer warming up", and the Started by alerts filter shows just those.

When the alert is turned off, ignored or deleted

You…	Its automations…
turn an alert rule off	wait: they don't run, because the alert can't happen. Each says Waiting — its alert "…" is turned off. Turn the rule on and they're live again.
set a plugin's kind of alert to Show it: Off	wait, the same way.
ignore the alert (Alerts › Ignore…)	wait, the same way, while the ignore lasts.
delete an alert rule	you're asked first (below).
delete the automation	the alert stays; its When it happens list loses that name.

An automation with another trigger that can still happen isn't waiting — it runs on that one.

Deleting an alert rule that starts automations

homeCore asks what becomes of them:

• Delete the rule and its automations — the automations it alone started go too.
• Delete the rule, keep the automations turned off — they keep their steps, turned off, and say Its alert was deleted — choose another trigger or delete it. They can't be turned on until they're given another trigger; once they are, they run again.

Either way, an automation that also has another trigger keeps running on that one; only the deleted rule's trigger is removed.

A rule that starts nothing is deleted without the question.

In a rule file

The trigger is an alert trigger with a filter; every field narrows it:

// "When any YoLink leak sensor has been wet for 5 minutes"
trigger: AlertActiveFor(
    filter: AlertFilter(
        kind: Some(wet),
        plugin_id: Some("plugin.yolink"),
    ),
    minutes: 5,
),

• kind — wet, smoke, offline, jammed, low_battery, rule (an alert rule's) or plugin (a plugin's).
• plugin_id — that plugin's alerts, and homeCore's own about its devices: wet with plugin.yolink is any YoLink leak sensor.
• topic, key — a plugin's kind of alert, and what one is about.
• device_ids — only these devices'.
• rule_id — only this alert rule's. After the rule is deleted and the automation kept, it reads DELETED:{id}.
• min_severity — only this serious or worse.

The API: GET /api/v1/alerts/automations lists every automation an alert starts, with what can start each trigger and whether it is waiting; GET /api/v1/alert-rules/{id}/automations lists what deleting a rule would touch; DELETE /api/v1/alert-rules/{id}?automations=delete|disable deletes one that starts automations (without automations the answer is 409 and nothing changes). See the OpenAPI spec.