Entered zone

The Entered zone trigger fires when a person or device tracker enters a selected zone. Use it to start an automation when someone arrives home, reaches work, or enters another place that you track with a zone.

When you target more than one person or device tracker, the Trigger when option controls whether the automation runs for each arrival, only the first arrival, or only after all selected targets are in the zone.

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 Entered zone.
5. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target, choose one or more people or device trackers.
6. Under Zone, select the zone to monitor.
7. Under Trigger when (see Behavior), pick Each, First, or All.
8. Under For at least, you can set how long the target must stay in the zone before the trigger fires. Leave it at zero to fire immediately.
9. 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 zone.entered. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: zone.entered
target:
  entity_id: person.nina
options:
  zone: zone.work

This fires when person.nina enters zone.work.

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 person or device tracker that Home Assistant will watch.

• Entity: one specific person or device tracker entity, such as person.nina or device_tracker.phone.
• Device: every matching person or device tracker entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every matching person or device tracker entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every matching person or device tracker entity on a floor.
• Label: every matching person or device tracker entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one trigger.

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 uses the in_zones attribute reported by person and device tracker entities.
• If the selected person or device tracker is unknown or unavailable, Home Assistant does not treat that state as entering the zone.
• To react when a target leaves the same zone, use Left zone.

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: notify when Nina arrives at work

When Nina enters the work zone, this automation sends a notification to your phone.

• Trigger: Entered zone
  • Target: Nina (person.nina)
  • Zone: Work (zone.work)
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Notify when Nina arrives at work"
triggers:
  - trigger: zone.entered
    target:
      entity_id: person.nina
    options:
      zone: zone.work
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      message: "Nina arrived at work."

Automation: turn on the hallway light when anyone gets home

When the first selected person enters the home zone after sunset, this automation turns on the hallway light.

• Trigger: Entered zone
  • Target: Nina and Alex
  • Zone: Home (zone.home)
  • Trigger when: First
• Condition: Sun is below horizon
• Action: Turn on light
  • Target: Hallway light (light.hallway)

alias: "Turn on the hallway light when someone gets home"
triggers:
  - trigger: zone.entered
    target:
      entity_id:
        - person.nina
        - person.alex
    options:
      zone: zone.home
      behavior: first
conditions:
  - condition: sun
    after: sunset
actions:
  - action: light.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: light.hallway

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:

• Left zone: Triggers when one or more people or device trackers leave a zone.

• Zone occupancy detected: Triggers when a zone changes from empty to occupied.