Event received

The Event received trigger runs an automation when a physical event entity — such as a doorbell, a remote control button, or a motion sensor — detects a specific type of event. Use it when you want to react to a particular event type, like a doorbell ring or a double press, rather than any state change on the entity.

Using this trigger from the user interface

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

To use this trigger in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the When section, select Add trigger.
4. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target (see Targets), select the area, floor, device, label, or entity you want to monitor.
5. From the triggers shown for that target, select Event received.
6. Under Event type, select one or more event types you want to match.
7. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this trigger 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 trigger as event.received. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: event.received
target:
  entity_id: event.front_door_doorbell
options:
  event_type:
    - ring

This fires every time event.front_door_doorbell receives a ring event.

Options in YAML

YAML uses an options mapping for trigger-specific settings.

Targets of the trigger

This trigger requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will watch. You can select 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 as a target, and Home Assistant will watch every matching event entity behind that target.

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

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

Good to know

• This trigger fires only when the entity receives one of the specified event types. Changes to unavailable or unknown do not fire the trigger.
• The available event types depend on the entity. For example, a doorbell might support ring, while a remote control might support short_release and long_release.
• You can select multiple event types in a single trigger to react to any of them.
• To trigger on any event type from an entity, use the State trigger instead.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, create a new automation, and add this trigger. Save the automation, then change the state of the targeted entity to watch the trigger fire 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].

More examples

Real scenarios where this trigger fires in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: send a notification when the doorbell rings

Use this automation to get a message on your phone whenever someone presses your doorbell.

• Trigger: Event received
  • Target: Front door doorbell (event.front_door_doorbell)
  • Event type: Ring
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

- alias: "Notify me when the doorbell rings"
  triggers:
    - trigger: event.received
      target:
        entity_id: event.front_door_doorbell
      options:
        event_type:
          - ring
  actions:
    - action: notify.send_message
      target:
        entity_id: notify.my_device
      data:
        message: "Someone is at the front door."

Automation: turn on a scene when the remote is double-pressed

Use this automation to activate a scene when a remote control button is pressed twice.

• Trigger: Event received
  • Target: Living room remote (event.living_room_remote_on_button)
  • Event type: Double press
• Action: Activate scene

- alias: "Activate movie scene on remote double press"
  triggers:
    - trigger: event.received
      target:
        entity_id: event.living_room_remote_on_button
      options:
        event_type:
          - double_short_release
  actions:
    - action: scene.turn_on
      target:
        entity_id: scene.living_room_movie

Still stuck?

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

Related triggers

These triggers work well alongside this one:

• Manual event received: Triggers when an event is fired on the Home Assistant event bus.

• State: Triggers when the state or an attribute changes.