Garage door closed

The Garage door closed trigger fires when a targeted garage door changes to closed. Use it when you want an automation to wait for the garage door to finish closing before it continues.

This trigger is useful for turning lights off after you park, resuming a security routine after the garage is shut, and confirming that a close cycle has finished.

Labs

Requires the Purpose-specific triggers and conditions Labs preview feature. Enable it at Settings > System > Labs.

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. From the search box, search for and select Garage door closed.
  5. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your garage door is in, like your garage or driveway. You can also select a floor, a device, a specific entity, or a label.
  6. Under Trigger when (see Behavior), pick Each, First, or All.
  7. Under For at least, enter how long the garage door must stay closed before the trigger fires. Leave it at zero to fire right away.
  8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Trigger when

When multiple garage doors are targeted, controls when the trigger fires. Pick Each to fire every time any targeted garage door closes, First to fire only when the first targeted garage door closes, or All to fire only after every targeted garage door is closed.

For at least

How long the garage door must stay closed before the trigger fires. Set it to zero to fire immediately.

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 garage_door.closed. A basic example looks like this:

TriggerA trigger is a set of values or conditions of a platform that are defined to cause an automation to run. [Learn more]
trigger: garage_door.closed
target:
  entity_id: cover.garage_door

This fires when cover.garage_door closes.

Options in YAML

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

behavior string

When multiple garage doors are targeted, controls when the trigger fires. Accepts any, first, or last.

for string

How long the garage door must stay closed before the trigger fires. Accepts a duration like 00:00:10 for 10 seconds.

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 garage_door entity behind that target.

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

Behavior with multiple targets

When you target more than one entity (or select an area, floor, or label that contains several), the Trigger when option controls how the trigger responds:

  • Each (any in YAML, default): the trigger fires every time any one of the targeted entities transitions. For example, if you monitor three motion sensors in the living room and someone walks past sensor 1, the automation fires. When they walk past sensor 2 a moment later, it fires again. Every individual event counts.
  • First (first in YAML): the trigger fires only on the first transition in the targeted group, then waits until all targeted entities have reset before it fires again. For example, if you monitor the same three motion sensors, the automation fires when the first one picks up movement (someone entered the room). The other two firing afterward are ignored, so you get one notification per “someone walked in” event instead of three.
  • All (last in YAML): the trigger fires only after the last targeted entity in the group has fired, meaning all of them are now in the expected state. For example, if you monitor the lights in the living room, bedroom, and hallway, the automation fires only once all three have turned off. This is useful for scenarios like “start the robot vacuum only after every light on the floor is off,” so you know the room is truly empty.

Good to know

  • This trigger works with garage door contact sensors that use the garage_door device class and garage door covers that use the garage device class.
  • If an entity comes back from unavailable or unknown, that recovery does not count as the garage door closing.
  • The for option only fires the automation if the garage door stays closed for the entire time you set.

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.

Tip

You don’t need to edit YAML to use these examples. Copy a YAML snippet from this page, open the automation editor in Home Assistant, and press Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V on Mac). Home Assistant automatically converts the pasted YAML into the visual editor format, whether it’s a full automation, a single trigger, a condition, or an action.

Automation: turn off the garage lights after the garage door has been closed for 2 minutes

After you finish unloading the car, this automation gives you a little time to walk inside before it turns off the garage lights.

  • Trigger: Garage door closed
    • Target: Garage door
    • For at least: 00:02:00
  • Action: Turn off light
YAML example for turning off the garage lights
AutomationAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more]
alias: "Turn off the garage lights after the garage door has been closed for 2 minutes"
triggers:
  - trigger: garage_door.closed
    target:
      entity_id: cover.garage_door
    options:
      for: "00:02:00"
actions:
  - action: light.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id: light.garage_lights

Automation: close the interior entry lock after the garage door closes

If you use the garage as your main entrance, this automation can lock the interior entry door after the garage door finishes closing.

  • Trigger: Garage door closed
    • Target: Garage door
  • Action: Lock lock
YAML example for locking the interior entry door
AutomationAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more]
alias: "Lock the interior entry door after the garage door closes"
triggers:
  - trigger: garage_door.closed
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.garage_door_contact
actions:
  - action: lock.lock
    target:
      entity_id: lock.garage_entry_door

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.

Tip

AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude can also explain triggers or suggest the right one when you describe what you want in plain language.

Related triggers

These triggers work well alongside this one: