Occupancy detected

The Occupancy detected trigger fires when one or more occupancy sensors report that a space is now occupied.

Use it to automate actions, such as turning on lights, adjusting climate, or sending notifications, when a room or area becomes occupied. Use a single sensor for a specific room and a group of sensors for larger spaces.

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 Occupancy detected.
5. Select Add target (see Targets) and pick the occupancy sensor that you want to watch. You can also select an area, a floor, a device, or a label.
6. Under Trigger when (see Behavior), pick Each, First, or All to control how the trigger behaves when multiple sensors are targeted.
7. Under For at least, you can set how long the sensor must keep reporting the space as occupied before the trigger fires. Leave it at zero to fire immediately.
8. 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 occupancy.detected. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: occupancy.detected
target:
  entity_id: binary_sensor.occupancy_living_room
options:
  for:
    minutes: 1

This fires 1 minute after the sensor entity binary_sensor.occupancy_living_room reports the room as occupied.

Options in YAML

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

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 occupancy entity behind that target.

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

• Occupancy sensors are useful for rooms where people may be sitting still, such as a living room, office, or bedroom. They typically combine motion with other signals to keep reporting the space as occupied while someone is present, even when there is no movement.
• Add the For at least option to avoid reacting to brief or accidental triggers, like someone passing through a doorway.
• Combine occupancy with light sensors or time conditions to only turn on lights when it is actually dark.

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: turn on the living room lights when the room becomes occupied in the evening

When the living room becomes occupied after sunset, this automation turns on the living room lights.

• Trigger: Occupancy detected
  • Target: Living room occupancy sensor
• Condition: Sun is below the horizon
• Action: Turn on light (in the living room)

alias: "Turn on living room lights when occupied after sunset"
triggers:
  - trigger: occupancy.detected
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.occupancy_living_room
conditions:
  - condition: sun
    after: sunset
actions:
  - action: light.turn_on
    target:
      area_id: living_room

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:

• Occupancy cleared: Triggers after one or more occupancy sensors report that a space is no longer occupied.