Alarm is armed vacation

The Alarm is armed vacation condition passes when one or more alarm control panel 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] are armed in vacation mode. Use it to skip daily routines that make no sense while you are away, like stopping the morning wake-up automation from turning on lights and heating in an empty house. You could also use it the other way around: only run vacation-specific automations (like randomly toggling lights to simulate occupancy) while the alarm is in vacation mode.

Using this condition from the user interface

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

To use this condition in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the And if section, select Add condition.
4. Select what you want to check. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your alarm panel is in (like your hallway or entryway). You can also select a floor, a device, a specific entity, or a label.
5. From the conditions shown for that target, select Alarm is armed vacation.
6. Under Condition passes if (see Behavior), pick Any or All to control how the check behaves when multiple alarm panels are targeted.
7. Under For at least, set how long the alarm must have been in this state before the condition passes. Leave it at zero to pass immediately.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this condition 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 condition as alarm_control_panel.is_armed_vacation. A basic example looks like this:

condition: alarm_control_panel.is_armed_vacation
target:
  entity_id: alarm_control_panel.hallway

This passes when the hallway alarm panel is currently armed in vacation mode.

Options in YAML

YAML sometimes provides additional options for more complex use cases that are not available through the UI.

Targets of the condition

This condition requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will check. You can point the condition 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 evaluate every matching alarm_control_panel entity behind that target.

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

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

Behavior with multiple targets

When you target more than one entity (or select an area, floor, or label that contains several), the Condition passes if option controls how the results combine:

• Any (default): the condition passes if at least one of the targeted entities matches. For example, if you check three smoke sensors and only one of them detects smoke, the condition still passes. This is useful for questions like “is there smoke anywhere in the house?”
• All: the condition passes only when every targeted entity matches. For example, if you check the same three smoke sensors, the condition passes only once all three report cleared. This is useful for “is the entire house safe now?” checks, so your automation does not send an all-clear while one room still has a reading.

Good to know

• Alarm panels that are unavailable (unavailable) or have an unknown state (unknown) do not count as armed vacation. With Any behavior, they are skipped. With All behavior, the condition fails if every targeted alarm is unavailable.
• If you want to check whether the alarm is armed in any mode (not just vacation), use Alarm is armed.
• To check the opposite state, use Alarm is disarmed.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, open an automation, and add this condition. Trigger the automation with and without the condition met, and watch whether it continues or stops.

More examples

Real scenarios where this condition gates an automation. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: toggle a lamp in the evening while on vacation

Every evening, toggle the living room lamp on or off to make the house look lived-in, but only while the alarm is armed in vacation mode. When you’re home, the lamp follows your normal routine instead.

Don’t forget to pair it with an automation to turn the lamp off, or you’ll come back from vacation to a high energy bill!

• Trigger: Time: 20:30
• Condition: Alarm is armed vacation
• Target: Hallway alarm panel
• Condition passes if: Any
• Action: Light: Toggle

alias: "Simulate occupancy when on vacation"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "20:30:00"
conditions:
  - condition: alarm_control_panel.is_armed_vacation
    target:
      entity_id: alarm_control_panel.hallway
    options:
      behavior: any
actions:
  - action: light.toggle
    target:
      entity_id: light.living_room_lamp

Automation: skip the morning routine while on vacation

Your morning routine turns on the lights, starts the coffee maker, and bumps the heating. None of that makes sense in an empty house. Add a “not armed vacation” check so the routine only runs when you are actually home.

• Trigger: Time: 06:30 on weekdays
• Condition: Alarm is not armed vacation
• Action: Run the morning routine script

alias: "Skip morning routine on vacation"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "06:30:00"
conditions:
  - condition: not
    conditions:
      - condition: alarm_control_panel.is_armed_vacation
        target:
          entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
        options:
          behavior: any
actions:
  - action: script.morning_routine

Still stuck?

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

Related conditions

These conditions work well alongside this one:

• Alarm is armed: Tests if one or more alarms are armed.

• Alarm is disarmed: Tests if one or more alarms are disarmed.