Left zone

The Left zone trigger fires when a person or device tracker leaves a selected zone. Use it to start an automation when someone leaves home, leaves work, or moves out of another zone you track.

When you target more than one person or device tracker, the Trigger when option controls whether the automation runs for each departure, only the first departure, or only after all selected targets have left 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 Left 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 outside 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.left. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: zone.left
target:
  entity_id: person.nina
options:
  zone: zone.home

This fires when person.nina leaves zone.home.

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 leaving the zone.
• To react when a target enters the same zone, use Entered 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: lock the front door when everyone leaves home

When all selected people have left the home zone for 5 minutes, this automation locks the front door.

• Trigger: Left zone
  • Target: Nina and Alex
  • Zone: Home (zone.home)
  • Trigger when: All
  • For at least: 5 minutes
• Action: Lock lock
  • Target: Front door (lock.front_door)

alias: "Lock the front door when everyone leaves"
triggers:
  - trigger: zone.left
    target:
      entity_id:
        - person.nina
        - person.alex
    options:
      zone: zone.home
      behavior: all
      for: "00:05:00"
actions:
  - action: lock.lock
    target:
      entity_id: lock.front_door

Automation: notify when a phone leaves school

When a tracked phone leaves the school zone, this automation sends a notification.

• Trigger: Left zone
  • Target: Phone (device_tracker.phone)
  • Zone: School (zone.school)
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Notify when a phone leaves school"
triggers:
  - trigger: zone.left
    target:
      entity_id: device_tracker.phone
    options:
      zone: zone.school
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      message: "The tracked phone left school."

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:

• Entered zone: Triggers when one or more people or device trackers enter a zone.

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