Vacuum started cleaning

The Vacuum cleaner started cleaning trigger fires when the vacuum begins a new cleaning run. Use it for automations that need to respond when cleaning starts, like announcements, status changes, or notifications.

If you want to mark the house as being cleaned, pause other noisy routines, or let someone know the robot has started, this trigger gives you a reliable starting point.

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 or create an automation.
3. In the When section, select Add trigger.
4. Search for Vacuum: Vacuum cleaner started cleaning.
5. Select targets (area, floor, or vacuums).
6. Pick Trigger when: Each, First, or All as needed.
7. Under For at least, enter how long the vacuum must keep cleaning before the trigger fires.
8. Save the automation.

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 vacuum.started_cleaning. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: vacuum.started_cleaning
target:
  entity_id:
    - vacuum.upstairs
    - vacuum.downstairs
options:
  behavior: first

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 vacuum entity behind that target.

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

• This trigger fires only when cleaning actually starts.
• If a vacuum comes back online from unavailable or unknown, that does not count as starting a cleaning run.

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: mark cleaning as in progress

When the downstairs vacuum starts, turn on a helper that other automations can use to avoid interrupting the cleaning run.

• Trigger: Vacuum started cleaning
• Target: Downstairs vacuum
• Action: Turn on input boolean

alias: "Track active vacuum cleaning"
triggers:
  - trigger: vacuum.started_cleaning
    target:
      entity_id: vacuum.downstairs
actions:
  - action: input_boolean.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.vacuum_cleaning

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:

• Vacuum paused cleaning: Triggers when a vacuum cleaner pauses cleaning.

• Vacuum returned to dock: Triggers when a vacuum cleaner docks.