Set vacation

Use this action to set the vacation auto-responder for your Google Mail account. You can set the subject and message of the automatic reply, choose when it starts and ends, and limit who receives it.

This is handy in automations, for example to turn on your out-of-office reply when a vacation calendar event starts and turn it off again when you return.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To set the vacation responder from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. Select what you want to control. Under By target (see Targets), select your Google Mail account.
6. From the actions shown for that target, select Set vacation.
7. Turn Enabled on and enter a Message. Optionally, set a Title, a Start and End date, and the other options.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as google_mail.set_vacation. A basic example looks like this:

action: google_mail.set_vacation
target:
  entity_id: sensor.example_gmail_com_vacation_end_date
data:
  enabled: true
  title: "On vacation"
  message: "I am on vacation and will reply when I am back."

This turns on the vacation responder with the given subject and message.

Options in YAML

Targets of the action

This action requires a target. The target is the object of the action. You can point the action at a single entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more], a device, an area, a floor, or a label, and Home Assistant will run the action on every matching google_mail entity behind that target.

• Entity: one specific google_mail entity, such as google_mail.living_room.
• Device: every google_mail entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every google_mail entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every google_mail entity on a floor.
• Label: every google_mail entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one action. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same action to run the action on both of them at once.

Good to know

• To end the vacation responses, call this action again with Enabled turned off.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Developer tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

More examples

Real scenarios where this action shows up in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.