Gate is closed

The Gate is closed condition passes when one or more targeted gates are currently closed. Use it when an automation should continue only after a gate is shut.

This condition is useful for safety checks and routines that should run only when access is secured, like arming your home or starting irrigation.

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. From the search box, search for and select Gate is closed.
5. Select what you want to check. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your gate is in, like your driveway or courtyard. You can also select a floor, a device, a specific entity, or a label.
6. Under Condition passes if (see Behavior), pick Any or All.
7. Under For at least, enter how long the gate must have stayed closed before the condition passes.
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 gate.is_closed. A basic example looks like this:

condition: gate.is_closed
target:
  entity_id: cover.driveway_gate

This passes when cover.driveway_gate is currently closed.

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 gate entity behind that target.

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

• This condition works only with cover entities that use the gate device class.
• Entities in the unavailable or unknown state are ignored when Home Assistant evaluates the condition.
• With Any, the condition passes if at least one available targeted gate is closed.
• With All, the condition passes only if every available targeted gate is closed. If every targeted gate is unavailable or unknown, All passes and Any fails.

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: arm the house at night only when every gate is closed

At bedtime, this automation arms your home only if the driveway gate and courtyard gate are both closed. That keeps you from arming the house while access is still open.

• Trigger: Time
• Condition: Gate is closed
  • Target: Driveway gate and courtyard gate
  • Condition passes if: All
• Action: Alarm control panel: Arm away

alias: "Arm the house only when all gates are closed"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "23:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: gate.is_closed
    target:
      entity_id:
        - cover.driveway_gate
        - cover.courtyard_gate
    options:
      behavior: all
actions:
  - action: alarm_control_panel.alarm_arm_away
    target:
      entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm

Automation: start irrigation only after the side gate has been closed for 5 minutes

If people often walk through the side gate in the morning, this automation waits until the gate has stayed closed for 5 minutes before it turns on irrigation. That helps avoid spraying someone who is still using the path.

• Trigger: Time
• Condition: Gate is closed
  • Target: Side gate
  • For at least: 00:05:00
• Action: Switch: Turn on

alias: "Start irrigation only after the side gate is closed"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "06:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: gate.is_closed
    target:
      entity_id: cover.side_gate
    options:
      behavior: any
      for: "00:05:00"
actions:
  - action: switch.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: switch.garden_irrigation

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:

• Gate is open: Tests if one or more gates are open.