Z-Wave event

The Z-Wave event trigger fires on Z-Wave JS controller, driver, or node events. Use it to react to events that the Z-Wave JS layer reports but that Home Assistant does not surface as a regular state change.

This trigger is useful when:

• You want to react to controller or driver lifecycle events, like inclusion or interview progress.
• You want to react to a node event that is not exposed as an entity state.
• You need to match a specific event by name and, optionally, by event data.

There is strict validation in place based on all known event types. If you come across an event type that is not supported, open a GitHub issue in the home-assistant/core repository.

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 zwave_js.event. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: zwave_js.event
device_id: 45d7d3230dbb7441473ec883dab294d4
event_source: node
event: "interview failed"

This fires when the interview failed event is reported for the targeted device.

Options in YAML

For node events, at least one of device_id or entity_id must be set. For controller and driver events, config_entry_id must be set instead.

Good to know

• Event names and the structure of event data come from Z-Wave JS. The set of available fields depends on the event.
• When an event includes nested fields (for example, an args mapping inside event_data), use partial_dict_match: true if you only want to match a subset of those fields.
• This trigger does not appear in the automation editor in the UI. You can add it by editing the automation in YAML mode.

Available trigger data

In addition to the standard automation trigger data, this trigger exposes the following template variables:

• trigger.device_id: Device ID for the device in the device registry. Only included for node events.
• trigger.node_id: Z-Wave node ID. Only included for node events.
• trigger.event_source: Source of the event (node, controller, or driver).
• trigger.event: Name of the event.
• trigger.event_data: Any data included in the event.

More examples

Real scenarios where this trigger fires in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: notify when a node interview fails

This automation fires when the interview failed event is reported for one of the listed devices, and only when the failure is final.

• Trigger: Z-Wave event
  • Device: Garage door lock
  • Entities: lock.front_lock, lock.back_door
  • Event source: node
  • Event: interview failed
  • Event data: args.isFinal: true with Partial dict match enabled
• Action: Send a notification

alias: "Notify on Z-Wave interview failure"
triggers:
  - trigger: zwave_js.event
    device_id: 45d7d3230dbb7441473ec883dab294d4
    entity_id:
      - lock.front_lock
      - lock.back_door
    event_source: node
    event: "interview failed"
    event_data:
      args:
        isFinal: true
    partial_dict_match: true
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      message: "A Z-Wave node failed its interview."

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:

• Z-Wave value updated: Triggers when a Z-Wave value updates, including values that are not exposed as Home Assistant entities.

• Manual event received: Triggers when an event is received.