Sun is set

The Sun is set condition passes when the sun is below the horizon at your location. Home Assistant works this out from your home location, so it stays accurate as sunrise and sunset shift through the seasons.

Use it to gate an automation so it only runs after dark, like turning on lights when motion is detected at night, or closing the blinds once the sun has gone down.

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 Sun: Sun is set.
5. Select Save.

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 sun.is_set. It has no options:

condition: sun.is_set

This passes while the sun is below the horizon.

Good to know

• This condition does not use a target. It checks the sun at your configured home location.
• “Set” uses the same horizon definition as sunrise and sunset, so the condition flips at exactly those moments. For the opposite check, use Sun is up.
• The sun is set during the whole period between sunset and sunrise, including twilight and the dead of night. If you specifically want full darkness, use It is night.

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: close the blinds when the sun goes down

When motion is detected in the living room after the sun has set, close the blinds for the evening.

• Trigger: Motion detected in the living room
• Condition: Sun: sun is set
• Action: Close cover
  • Target: Living room blinds

alias: "Close blinds after sunset"
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.living_room_motion
    to: "on"
conditions:
  - condition: sun.is_set
actions:
  - action: cover.close_cover
    target:
      entity_id: cover.living_room_blinds

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:

• Sun is up: Tests if the sun is up.

• It is evening twilight: Tests if it is evening twilight, optionally of a specific type.

• It is night: Tests if it is night.