Satellite is responding

The Satellite is responding condition passes when a targeted Assist satellite 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] is currently in the responding state, which means that the satellite is actively playing back a text-to-speech response to the user.

Use it when you want an automation to continue only if a satellite is currently speaking. For example, keep the volume of background music lowered as long as the satellite is responding, block a new announcement from overlapping with a response already in progress, or detect satellites that have been stuck in the responding state for too long, that can be a sign of a TTS or network issue that is preventing the pipeline from completing and returning to idle.

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, pick the area the satellite is in, like your living room or kitchen. You can also select a floor, a device, a specific entity, or a label, as described in Targets.
5. From the conditions shown for that target, select Satellite is responding.
6. Under Condition passes if, pick Any or All to control how the check behaves when multiple satellites are targeted, as described in Behavior.
7. Under For at least, set how long the satellite must have been responding 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 assist_satellite.is_responding. A basic example looks like this:

condition: assist_satellite.is_responding
target:
  entity_id: assist_satellite.living_room

This passes when assist_satellite.living_room is currently playing back a response.

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 assist_satellite entity behind that target.

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

• Use the For at least option with a value longer than your longest expected TTS response (for example, 00:00:30) to detect satellites that are stuck. This is a reliable way to build a self-healing automation that force-resets the satellite when it does not recover on its own.
• Prefer local TTS engines such as Piper to minimize response latency and eliminate cloud-dependent failure modes that can cause satellites to get stuck in this state.
• Satellites that have the Unavailable or Unknown state do not count as responding. Home Assistant skips them and evaluates the condition using the remaining targeted satellites.
• To check another pipeline state, use Satellite is idle, Satellite is listening, or Satellite is processing.

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: send a notification if a satellite has been responding for too long

This is a self-healing automation that checks every minute whether any satellite has been stuck in the responding state for more than 30 seconds. If so, it sends a notification. This avoids leaving a satellite in a broken state that silently wastes resources, as the satellite’s speaker might remain active, its pipeline might hold a cloud connection open, and future wake words will not be detected until it returns to idle.

• Trigger: Time pattern: every minute
• Condition: Satellite is responding
  • Target: All Assist satellites (by label)
  • For at least: 00:00:30
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Alert when a satellite is stuck responding"
triggers:
  - trigger: time_pattern
    minutes: "/1"
conditions:
  - condition: assist_satellite.is_responding
    target:
      label_id: assist_satellites
    options:
      for: "00:00:30"
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      title: "Satellite stuck responding"
      message: >
        An Assist satellite has been in the responding state for over
        30 seconds. Check the satellite and its TTS pipeline for errors.

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:

• Satellite is idle: Tests if one or more Assist satellites are idle.

• Satellite is listening: Tests if one or more Assist satellites are listening for a voice command.

• Satellite is processing: Tests if one or more Assist satellites are processing a voice command.