MQTT Light
The mqtt light platform lets you control your MQTT enabled lights through one of the supported message schemas, default, json or template.
Comparison of light MQTT schemas
| Function | default |
json |
template |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brightness | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Color mode | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Color temperature | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Effects | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Flashing | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| HS Color | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| RGB Color | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| RGBW Color | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| RGBWW Color | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Transitions | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| White | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| XY Color | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
Default schema
The mqtt light platform with default schema lets you control your MQTT enabled lights. It supports setting brightness, color temperature, effects, on/off, RGB colors, XY colors and white.
Default schema - Configuration
In an ideal scenario, the MQTT device will have a state topic to publish state changes. If these messages are published with a RETAIN flag, the MQTT light will receive an instant state update after subscription and will start with the correct state. Otherwise, the initial state of the switch will be unknown. A MQTT device can reset the current state to unknown using a None payload.
When a state topic is not available, the light will work in optimistic mode. In this mode, the light will immediately change state after every command. Otherwise, the light will wait for state confirmation from the device (message from state_topic). The initial state is set to False / off in optimistic mode.
Optimistic mode can be forced, even if the state_topic is available. Try to enable it, if experiencing incorrect light operation.
Home Assistant internally assumes that a light’s state corresponds to a defined color_mode.
The state of MQTT lights with default schema and support for both color and color temperature will set the color_mode according to the last received valid color or color temperature. Optionally, a color_mode_state_topic can be configured for explicit control of the color_mode.
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
command_topic: "office/rgb1/light/switch"
Configuration Variables
A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic.
The payload that represents the available state.
The payload that represents the unavailable state.
When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability.
Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s brightness.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to brightness_command_topic. Available variables: value.
Defines the maximum brightness value (i.e., 100%) of the MQTT device.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive brightness state updates.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive color mode updates. If this is not configured, color_mode will be automatically set according to the last received valid color or color temperature
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to color_temp_command_topic. Available variables: value.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s color temperature state. The color temperature command slider has a range of 153 to 500 mireds (micro reciprocal degrees).
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive color temperature state updates.
Defines a template to extract the color temperature value.
Information about the device this light is a part of to tie it into the device registry. Only works when unique_id is set. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device.
A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.
A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].
A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number.
Flag which defines if the entity should be enabled when first added.
The encoding of the payloads received and published messages. Set to "" to disable decoding of incoming payload.
The category of the entity.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s effect state.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to effect_command_topic. Available variables: value.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to hs_command_topic. Available variables: hue and sat.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s color state in HS format (Hue Saturation). Range for Hue: 0° .. 360°, Range of Saturation: 0..100. Note: Brightness is sent separately in the brightness_command_topic.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive color state updates in HS format. The expected payload is the hue and saturation values separated by commas, for example, 359.5,100.0. Note: Brightness is received separately in the brightness_state_topic.
Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary payload and then set as sensor attributes. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.
The name of the light. Can be set to null if only the device name is relevant.
Defines when on the payload_on is sent. Using last (the default) will send any style (brightness, color, etc) topics first and then a payload_on to the command_topic. Using first will send the payload_on and then any style topics. Using brightness will only send brightness commands instead of the payload_on to turn the light on.
Flag that defines if switch works in optimistic mode.
true if no state topic defined, else false.
The payload that represents the available state.
The payload that represents the unavailable state.
The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving and publishing messages.
If the published message should have the retain flag on or not.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to rgb_command_topic. Available variables: red, green and blue.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s RGB state.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive RGB state updates. The expected payload is the RGB values separated by commas, for example, 255,0,127.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to rgbw_command_topic. Available variables: red, green, blue and white.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s RGBW state.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive RGBW state updates. The expected payload is the RGBW values separated by commas, for example, 255,0,127,64.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to rgbww_command_topic. Available variables: red, green, blue, cold_white and warm_white.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s RGBWW state.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive RGBWW state updates. The expected payload is the RGBWW values separated by commas, for example, 255,0,127,64,32.
The schema to use. Must be default or omitted to select the default schema.
Defines a template to extract the state value. The template should return the payload_on and payload_off values, so if your light uses power on to turn on, your state_value_template string should return power on when the switch is on. For example, if the message is just on, your state_value_template should be power . When your payload_on = 27, payload_off = 'off', then this template might be 'off' if value_json.my_custom_brightness_field <= 0 else 27.
An ID that uniquely identifies this light. If two lights have the same unique ID, Home Assistant will raise an exception.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light to white mode with a given brightness.
Defines the maximum white level (i.e., 100%) of the MQTT device.
Defines a template to compose message which will be sent to xy_command_topic. Available variables: x and y.
The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the light’s XY state.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive XY state updates. The expected payload is the X and Y color values separated by commas, for example, 0.675,0.322.
Make sure that your topics match exactly. some-topic/ and some-topic are different topics.
Default schema - Examples
In this section you will find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.
Brightness and RGB support
To enable a light with brightness and RGB support in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
name: "Office Light RGB"
state_topic: "office/rgb1/light/status"
command_topic: "office/rgb1/light/switch"
brightness_state_topic: "office/rgb1/brightness/status"
brightness_command_topic: "office/rgb1/brightness/set"
rgb_state_topic: "office/rgb1/rgb/status"
rgb_command_topic: "office/rgb1/rgb/set"
state_value_template: "{{ value_json.state }}"
brightness_value_template: "{{ value_json.brightness }}"
rgb_value_template: "{{ value_json.rgb | join(',') }}"
qos: 0
payload_on: "ON"
payload_off: "OFF"
optimistic: false
Brightness and no RGB support
To enable a light with brightness (no RGB version) in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
name: "Office light"
state_topic: "office/light/status"
command_topic: "office/light/switch"
brightness_state_topic: 'office/light/brightness'
brightness_command_topic: 'office/light/brightness/set'
qos: 0
payload_on: "ON"
payload_off: "OFF"
optimistic: false
Brightness without on commands
To enable a light that sends only brightness topics to turn it on, add the following to your configuration.yaml file. The command_topic is only used to send an off command in this case:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
name: "Brightness light"
state_topic: "office/light/status"
command_topic: "office/light/switch"
payload_off: "OFF"
brightness_state_topic: 'office/light/brightness'
brightness_command_topic: 'office/light/brightness/set'
on_command_type: 'brightness'
Default schema - Implementations
- A basic example using a NodeMCU board (ESP8266) to control its built-in LED (on/off).
- Another example to control a RGB LED (on/off, brightness, and colors).
- Integration guide for the ESPUrna firmware (ESP8285/ESP8266).
JSON schema
The mqtt light platform with JSON schema lets you control a MQTT-enabled light that can receive JSON messages.
This schema supports on/off, brightness, RGB colors, XY colors, color temperature, transitions and short/long flashing. The messages sent to/from the lights look similar to this, omitting fields when they aren’t needed. The color_mode will not be present in messages sent to the light. It is optional in messages received from the light, but can be used to disambiguate the current mode in the light. In the example below, color_mode is set to rgb and color_temp, color.c, color.w, color.x, color.y, color.h, color.s will all be ignored by Home Assistant:
{
"brightness": 255,
"color_mode": "rgb",
"color_temp": 155,
"color": {
"r": 255,
"g": 180,
"b": 200,
"c": 100,
"w": 50,
"x": 0.406,
"y": 0.301,
"h": 344.0,
"s": 29.412
},
"effect": "colorloop",
"state": "ON",
"transition": 2,
}
JSON schema - Configuration
In an ideal scenario, the MQTT device will have a state topic to publish state changes. If these messages are published with the RETAIN flag, the MQTT light will receive an instant state update after subscription and will start with the correct state. Otherwise, the initial state of the light will be off.
When a state topic is not available, the light will work in optimistic mode. In this mode, the light will immediately change state after every command. Otherwise, the light will wait for state confirmation from the device (message from state_topic).
Optimistic mode can be forced, even if state topic is available. Try enabling it if the light is operating incorrectly.
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: json
command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
Configuration Variables
A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic.
The payload that represents the available state.
The payload that represents the unavailable state.
When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability.
Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability.
Flag that defines if light supports brightness when the rgb, rgbw, or rgbww color mode is supported.
Defines the maximum brightness value (i.e., 100%) of the MQTT device.
Information about the device this light is a part of to tie it into the device registry. Only works when unique_id is set. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device.
A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.
A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].
A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number.
Flag which defines if the entity should be enabled when first added.
The encoding of the payloads received and published messages. Set to "" to disable decoding of incoming payload.
The category of the entity.
Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary payload and then set as sensor attributes. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.
Flag that defines if the light works in optimistic mode.
true if no state topic defined, else false.
The payload that represents the available state.
The payload that represents the unavailable state.
The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving and publishing messages.
If the published message should have the retain flag on or not.
The schema to use. Must be json to select the JSON schema.
A list of color modes supported by the list. Possible color modes are onoff, brightness, color_temp, hs, xy, rgb, rgbw, rgbww, white. Note that if onoff or brightness are used, that must be the only value in the list.
An ID that uniquely identifies this light. If two lights have the same unique ID, Home Assistant will raise an exception.
Make sure that your topics match exact. some-topic/ and some-topic are different topics.
RGB, XY and HSV can not be used at the same time in state_topic messages. Make sure that only one of the color models is in the “color” section of the state MQTT payload.
JSON schema - Examples
In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.
Brightness and RGB support
To enable a light with brightness and RGB support in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: json
name: mqtt_json_light_1
state_topic: "home/rgb1"
command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
brightness: true
supported_color_modes: ["rgb"]
Brightness and no RGB support
To enable a light with brightness (but no color support) in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: json
name: mqtt_json_light_1
state_topic: "home/rgb1"
command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
brightness: true
supported_color_modes: ["brightness"]
Brightness scaled
To enable a light using a brightness scale other than 8bit the brightness_scale option may be added to denote the “fully on” value:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: json
name: mqtt_json_light_1
state_topic: "home/light"
command_topic: "home/light/set"
brightness: true
brightness_scale: 4095
supported_color_modes: ["brightness"]
Home Assistant will then convert its 8bit value in the message to and from the device:
{
"brightness": 4095,
"state": "ON"
}
HS color
To use a light with hue+saturation as the color model, set supported_color_modes to ["hs"] in the platform configuration:
mqtt:
- light:
schema: json
name: mqtt_json_hs_light
state_topic: "home/light"
command_topic: "home/light/set"
supported_color_modes: ["hs"]
Home Assistant expects the hue values to be in the range 0 to 360 and the saturation values to be scaled from 0 to 100. For example, the following is a blue color shade:
{
"state": "ON",
"color_mode": "hs",
"color": {
"h": 24.0,
"s": 100.0
}
}
Brightness and RGBW support
To enable a light with brightness, RGB support and a separate white channel (RGBW) in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: json
name: mqtt_json_light_1
state_topic: "home/rgbw1"
command_topic: "home/rgbw1/set"
brightness: true
supported_color_modes: ["rgbw"]
Implementations
-
A full example of custom lighting using this platform and an ESP8266 microcontroller can be found here. It supports on/off, brightness, transitions, RGB colors, and flashing.
-
There is also another implementation forked from the above repository, it supports all the same features but is made for addressable LED strips using FastLED on a NodeMCU V3 it can be found here.
-
McLighting is another ESP8266 firmware for WS2812 addressable LEDs.
-
MQTT JSON Light is another implementation for ESP8266 including MQTT discovery.
-
ESPHome implements the JSON schema for MQTT based installs and supports MQTT discovery.
-
AiLight is a custom firmware for the Ai-Thinker (and equivalent) RGBW WiFi light bulbs that has an ESP8266 onboard and controlled by the MY9291 LED driver. It implements the MQTT JSON light platform and supports ON/OFF, RGBW colours, brightness, color temperature, flashing and transitions. Also it includes MQTT Auto Discovery) and the MQTT Last Will and Testament is enabled as well.
-
h801-mqtt-json is a custom firmware for the H801 LED dimmer, a 5 channel (RGBWWCW) WiFi LED strip controller for 12V LED strips. The firmware is meant to control the 5 channels of the H801 to simultaneously control an RGB and a Warm-white/Cold-white LED strip such as a 5050 RGB LED strip and a 5025 Dual White strip. It implements the MQTT JSON light platform and supports ON/OFF, RGBW colours (RGB strip), brightness, color temperature (CW/WW strip) and transitions.
Template schema
The mqtt light platform with template schema lets you control a MQTT-enabled light that receive commands on a command topic and optionally sends status update on a state topic.
It is format-agnostic so you can use any data format you want (i.e., string, JSON), just configure it with templating.
This schema supports on/off, brightness, RGB colors, XY colors, HS Color, color temperature, transitions, short/long flashing and effects.
Template schema - Configuration
In an ideal scenario, the MQTT device will have a state topic to publish state changes. If these messages are published with the RETAIN flag, the MQTT light will receive an instant state update after subscription and will start with the correct state. Otherwise, the initial state of the light will be off.
When a state topic is not available, the light will work in optimistic mode. In this mode, the light will immediately change state after every command. Otherwise, the light will wait for state confirmation from the device (message from state_topic).
Optimistic mode can be forced, even if state topic is available. Try enabling it if the light is operating incorrectly.
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: template
command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
command_on_template: "on"
command_off_template: "off"
Configuration Variables
A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic.
The payload that represents the available state.
The payload that represents the unavailable state.
When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability.
Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability.
Template to extract blue color from the state payload value. Expected result of the template is an integer from 0-255 range.
Template to extract brightness from the state payload value. Expected result of the template is an integer from 0-255 range.
Template to extract color temperature from the state payload value. Expected result of the template is an integer representing mired units.
The template for off state changes. Available variables: state and transition.
The template for on state changes. Available variables: state, brightness, color_temp, red, green, blue, flash, transition and effect. Values red, green, blue, brightness are provided as integers from range 0-255. Value of color_temp is provided as integer representing mired units.
Information about the device this light is a part of to tie it into the device registry. Only works when unique_id is set. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device.
A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.
A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].
A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number.
Flag which defines if the entity should be enabled when first added.
The encoding of the payloads received and published messages. Set to "" to disable decoding of incoming payload.
The category of the entity.
Template to extract green color from the state payload value. Expected result of the template is an integer from 0-255 range.
Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.
The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary payload and then set as sensor attributes. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation.
Flag that defines if the light works in optimistic mode.
true if no state topic or state template is defined, else false.
The payload that represents the available state.
The payload that represents the unavailable state.
The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving and publishing messages.
Template to extract red color from the state payload value. Expected result of the template is an integer from 0-255 range.
The schema to use. Must be template to select the template schema.
Make sure that your topics match exact. some-topic/ and some-topic are different topics.
Template schema - Examples
In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this light.
Simple string payload
For a simple string payload with the format state,brightness,r-g-b,h-s (e.g., on,255,255-255-255,360-100), add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: template
command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
state_topic: "home/rgb1/status"
command_on_template: "on,{{ brightness|d }},{{ red|d }}-{{ green|d }}-{{ blue|d }},{{ hue|d }}-{{ sat|d }}"
command_off_template: "off"
state_template: "{{ value.split(',')[0] }}" # must return `on` or `off`
brightness_template: "{{ value.split(',')[1] }}"
red_template: "{{ value.split(',')[2].split('-')[0] }}"
green_template: "{{ value.split(',')[2].split('-')[1] }}"
blue_template: "{{ value.split(',')[2].split('-')[2] }}"
JSON payload
For a JSON payload with the format {"state": "on", "brightness": 255, "color": [255, 255, 255], "effect": "rainbow"}, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: template
effect_list:
- rainbow
- colorloop
command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
state_topic: "home/rgb1/status"
command_on_template: >
{"state": "on"
{%- if brightness is defined -%}
, "brightness": {{ brightness }}
{%- endif -%}
{%- if red is defined and green is defined and blue is defined -%}
, "color": [{{ red }}, {{ green }}, {{ blue }}]
{%- endif -%}
{%- if hue is defined and sat is defined -%}
, "huesat": [{{ hue }}, {{ sat }}]
{%- endif -%}
{%- if effect is defined -%}
, "effect": "{{ effect }}"
{%- endif -%}
}
command_off_template: '{"state": "off"}'
state_template: '{{ value_json.state }}'
brightness_template: '{{ value_json.brightness }}'
red_template: '{{ value_json.color[0] }}'
green_template: '{{ value_json.color[1] }}'
blue_template: '{{ value_json.color[2] }}'
effect_template: '{{ value_json.effect }}'
CCT light (brightnes and temperature)
This example comes from a configuration of Shelly RGBW Bulb working in White mode.
max_mireds and min_mireds set color temperature boundaries to 3000K - 6500K. Notice the same limits are applied in command_on_template, but in kelvin units this time. It’s due to conversion from mired to kelvin which causes exceeding boundary values accepted by the device.
The code also ensures bi-directional conversion of brightness scale between 0-100 (required by the device) and 0-255 (required by Home Assistant).
Add the following to your configuration.yaml file:
# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
- light:
schema: template
name: "Bulb-white"
command_topic: "shellies/bulb/color/0/set"
state_topic: "shellies/bulb/color/0/status"
availability_topic: "shellies/bulb/online"
command_on_template: >
{"turn": "on", "mode": "white"
{%- if brightness is defined -%}
, "brightness": {{brightness | float | multiply(0.39215686) | round(0)}}
{%- endif -%}
{%- if color_temp is defined -%}
, "temp": {{ [[(1000000 / color_temp | float) | round(0), 3000] | max, 6500] | min }}
{%- endif -%}
}
command_off_template: '{"turn":"off", "mode": "white"}'
state_template: "{% if value_json.ison and value_json.mode == 'white' %}on{% else %}off{% endif %}"
brightness_template: "{{ value_json.brightness | float | multiply(2.55) | round(0) }}"
color_temp_template: "{{ (1000000 / value_json.temp | float) | round(0) }}"
payload_available: "true"
payload_not_available: "false"
max_mireds: 334
min_mireds: 153
qos: 1
retain: false
optimistic: false
Template schema - No brightness or color support
If you don’t want brightness, color or effect support, just omit the corresponding configuration sections.