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RESTful Sensor

The rest sensor platform is consuming a given endpoint which is exposed by a RESTful API of a device, an application, or a web service. The sensor has support for GET and POST requests.

Tip: If you want to create multiple sensors using the same endpoint, use the RESTful configuration instructions.

To enable this sensor, add the following lines to your configuration.yamlThe configuration.yaml file is the main configuration file for Home Assistant. It lists the integrations to be loaded and their specific configurations. In some cases, the configuration needs to be edited manually directly in the configuration.yaml file. Most integrations can be configured in the UI. [Learn more] file for a GET request:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT

or for a POST request:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT
    method: POST
    payload: '{ "device" : "heater" }'

or a template based request:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource_template: http://IP_ADDRESS/{{ now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}
    headers:
      Authorization: >
        Bearer {{ states("input_text.my_access_token") }}
    params:
      start_date: >
        {{ (now() - timedelta(days = 1)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?

authentication string (Optional)

Type of the HTTP authentication. basic or digest.

availability template (Optional)

Defines a template if the entity state is available or not.

device_class string (Optional)

Sets the class of the device, changing the device state and icon that is displayed on the frontend.

force_update boolean (Optional, default: false)

Sends update events even if the value hasn’t changed. Useful if you want to have meaningful value graphs in history.

headers template | list (Optional)

The headers for the requests.

icon template (Optional)

Defines a template for the icon of the REST sensor.

json_attributes string | list (Optional)

A list of keys to extract values from a JSON dictionary result and then set as sensor attributes. If the endpoint returns XML with the text/xml, application/xml or application/xhtml+xml content type, it will automatically be converted to JSON according to this specification

json_attributes_path string (Optional)

A JSONPath that references the location of the json_attributes in the JSON content.

method string (Optional, default: GET)

The method of the request. Either POST or GET.

name template (Optional, default: REST Sensor)

Defines a template for the name of the REST sensor.

params template | list (Optional)

The query params for the requests.

password string (Optional)

The password for accessing the REST endpoint.

payload string (Optional)

The payload to send with a POST request. Depends on the service, but usually formed as JSON.

picture template (Optional)

Defines a template for the entity picture of the REST sensor.

resource string Required

The resource or endpoint that contains the value.

resource_template template Required

The resource or endpoint that contains the value with template support.

state_class string (Optional)

The state_class of the sensor.

timeout integer (Optional, default: 10)

Defines max time to wait data from the endpoint.

unique_id string (Optional)

An ID that uniquely identifies this entity. This allows changing the name, icon and entity_id from the web interface.

unit_of_measurement string (Optional)

Defines the units of measurement of the sensor, if any.

username string (Optional)

The username for accessing the REST endpoint.

value_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract the value.

verify_ssl boolean (Optional, default: true)

Verify the SSL certificate of the endpoint.

Important

Use either resource or resource_template.

curl can help you identify the variable you want to display in your Home Assistant frontend. The example below shows the JSON response of a device that is running with aREST.

$ curl -X GET http://192.168.1.31/temperature/
{"temperature": 77, "id": "sensor02", "name": "livingroom", "connected": true}

The response is expected to be a dictionary or a list with a dictionary as its 0th element.

Using templates

For incoming data, a value template translates incoming JSON or raw data to a valid payload. Incoming payloads are rendered with possible JSON values, so when rendering, the value_json can be used to access the attributes in a JSON based payload, otherwise the value variable can be used for non-json based data.

Additional, the this can be used as variables in the template. The this attribute refers to the current entity state of the entity. Further information about this variable can be found in the template documentation

Note

Example value template with json:

With given payload:

{ "state": "ON", "temperature": 21.902 }

Template {{ value_json.temperature | round(1) }} renders to 21.9.

Examples

In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.

External IP address

You can find your external IP address using the service JSON Test at their http://ip.jsontest.com/ URL.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://ip.jsontest.com
    name: External IP
    value_template: "{{ value_json.ip }}"

Single value from a local Glances instance

The glances sensor is doing the exact same thing for all exposed values.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADRRESS:61208/api/2/mem/used
    name: Used mem
    value_template: "{{ value_json.used| multiply(0.000000954) | round(0) }}"
    unit_of_measurement: MB

Value from another Home Assistant instance

The Home Assistant API exposes the data from your attached sensors. If you are running multiple Home Assistant instances which are not connected you can still get information from them.

If the Home Assistant instance in the resource variable is protected by an API password, you can append ?api_password=YOUR_PASSWORD to the resource URL to authenticate or use headers:.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:8123/api/states/sensor.weather_temperature
    name: Temperature
    value_template: "{{ value_json.state }}"
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"

Accessing an HTTP authentication protected endpoint

The REST sensor supports HTTP authentication and customized headers.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:5000/sensor
    username: ha1
    password: test1
    authentication: basic
    headers:
      User-Agent: Home Assistant
      Content-Type: application/json

The headers will contain all relevant details. This will also give you the ability to access endpoints that are protected by tokens.

Content-Length: 1024
Host: IP_ADDRESS1:5000
Authorization: Basic aGExOnRlc3Qx
Accept-Encoding: identity
Content-Type: application/json
User-Agent: Home Assistant

If you are accessing a resource protected by a Bearer token in an Authorization header, you can either put the token in the header field of the sensor configuration (not recommended) or store the token in your secrets.yaml file. In that case, be sure to include the word Bearer in the secrets file.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:5000/sensor
    headers:
      Authorization: !secret my_sensor_secret_token

Example entry for the secrets.yaml file:

my_sensor_secret_token: Bearer gh_DHQIXKVf6Pr4H8Yqz8uhApk_mnV6Zje6Pr4H8Yqz8A8nCxz6SBghQdS51

Use GitHub to get the latest release of Home Assistant

This sample is very similar to the updater integration but the information is received from GitHub.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: https://api.github.com/repos/home-assistant/home-assistant/releases/latest
    username: YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME
    password: YOUR_GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN
    authentication: basic
    value_template: "{{ value_json.tag_name }}"
    headers:
      Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json
      Content-Type: application/json
      User-Agent: Home Assistant REST sensor

Fetch multiple JSON attributes and present them as values

JSON Test returns the current time, date and milliseconds since epoch from http://date.jsontest.com/.

rest:
  - resource: "http://date.jsontest.com/"
    sensor:
      - name: "Time"
        value_template: "{{ value_json.time }}"

      - name: "Date"
        value_template: "{{ value_json.date }}"

      - name: "Milliseconds"
        value_template: "{{ value_json.milliseconds_since_epoch }}"

JSONPlaceholder provides sample JSON data for testing. In the below example, JSONPath locates the attributes in the JSON document. JSONPath Online Evaluator provides a tool to test your JSONPath. If the endpoint returns XML, it will be converted to JSON using xmltodict before searching for attributes. You may find the XMLtoDict debug tool helpful for testing how your XML converts to JSON.

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    name: JSON users
    json_attributes_path: "$.[0].address"
    json_attributes:
      - street
      - suite
      - city
      - zipcode
    resource: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users
    value_template: "{{ value_json[0].name }}"

This sample fetches a weather report from OpenWeatherMap, maps the resulting data into attributes of the RESTful sensor and then creates a set of template sensors that monitor the attributes and present the values in a usable form.

rest:
  - resource: "https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?zip=80302,us&APPID=VERYSECRETAPIKEY"
    sensor:
      - name: "Report"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['weather'][0]['description'].title() }}"
        picture: "{{ 'https://openweathermap.org/img/w/' + value_json['weather'][0]['icon'].lower() + '.png' }}"

      - name: "Outside temp"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['main']['temp'] - 273.15 }}"
        unit_of_measurement: "°C"

      - name: "Outside pressure"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['main']['pressure'] }}"
        unit_of_measurement: "hP"

      - name: "Outside humidity"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['main']['humidity'] }}"
        unit_of_measurement: "%"

This configuration shows how to extract multiple values from a dictionary. This method avoids flooding the REST service because the result is only requested once. From that single request, multiple sensors can be created by using template sensors.

{
    "bedroom1": {
        "temperature": 15.79,
        "humidity": 55.78,
        "battery": 5.26,
        "timestamp": "2019-02-27T22:21:37Z"
    },
    "bedroom2": {
        "temperature": 18.99,
        "humidity": 49.81,
        "battery": 5.08,
        "timestamp": "2019-02-27T22:23:44Z"
    },
    "bedroom3": {
        "temperature": 18.58,
        "humidity": 47.95,
        "battery": 5.15,
        "timestamp": "2019-02-27T22:21:22Z"
    }
}

rest:
    resource: "http://<address_to_rest_service>"
    sensor:
      - name: "Bedroom1 Temperature"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['bedroom1']['temperature'] }}"
        device_class: temperature
        unit_of_measurement: "°C"
      - name: "Bedroom1 Humidity"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['bedroom1']['humidity'] }}"
        device_class: humidity
        unit_of_measurement: "%"
      - name: "Bedroom1 Battery"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['bedroom1']['battery'] }}"
        device_class: battery
        unit_of_measurement: "V"
      - name: "Bedroom2 Temperature"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['bedroom2']['temperature'] }}"
        device_class: temperature
        unit_of_measurement: "°C"

The example below shows how to extract multiple values from a dictionary from the XML file of a Steamist Steambath Wi-Fi interface. The values are used to create multiple sensors without having to poll the endpoint numerous times.

rest:
  # Steam Controller
  - resource: "http://192.168.1.105/status.xml"
    scan_interval: 15
  
    sensor:
      - name: "Steam Temp"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['response']['temp0'] | regex_findall_index('([0-9]+)XF') }}"
        unit_of_measurement: "°F"

       steam_time_remaining:
      - name: "Steam Time Remaining"
        value_template: "{{ value_json['response']['time0'] }}"
        unit_of_measurement: "minutes"

rest_command:  
  set_steam_led:
    url: http://192.168.1.105/leds.cgi?led={{ led }}

For reference, the XML content of endpoint shown above example is below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

 <response>
 	<scan>0</scan>
	<ver>12556</ver>
	<count>48</count>
	<ssid>alexander</ssid>
	<bss>
		<valid>0</valid>
		<name>0</name>
		<privacy>0</privacy>
		<wlan>0</wlan>
		<strength>0</strength>
	</bss>
	<led0>0</led0>
	<led1>0</led1>
	<led2>0</led2>
	<led3>0</led3>
	<led4>0</led4>
	<led5>0</led5>
	<led6>0</led6>
	<led7>0</led7>
	<btn0>up</btn0>
	<btn1>up</btn1>
	<btn2>up</btn2>
	<btn3>up</btn3>
	<pot0>0</pot0>
	<usr0>0</usr0>
	<temp0>0x73XF0x73XF</temp0>
	<time0> 0</time0>
 </response>

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