Morph effect

Use this action to start the firmware-based Morph effect on a matrix LIFX light, such as the LIFX Tile or Candle. The effect drifts soft blobs of color across the light, so it works well as ambient lighting for a living room, a home office, or a party.

You choose the colors in one of two ways: pick one of the predefined themes, or supply your own palette of 2 to 16 colors. You can’t use both at once. The Morph effect runs on the light itself, so it keeps going even if Home Assistant restarts. To stop it, use Stop effect.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To start the Morph effect from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the search box, search for and select Morph effect.
6. Select what you want to control. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your LIFX lights are in (like your living room or bedroom). You can also select a floor, a device, a specific entity, or a label.
7. Pick a value in Theme, or fill in Palette with your own colors. Use Speed to control how quickly the colors drift.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this action 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 action as lifx.effect_morph. A basic example looks like this:

action: lifx.effect_morph
target:
  entity_id: light.living_room_tiles
data:
  theme: tropical
  speed: 5

This drifts the colors of the tropical theme across the living room tiles, taking five seconds for one complete cycle.

Options in YAML

Available themes

The Themes section of the LIFX integration page lists every theme by category, along with the renamed and retired themes and their replacements.

Targets of the action

This action requires a target. The target is the object of the action. You can point the action at 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, and Home Assistant will run the action on every matching light entity behind that target.

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

You can also select different target types in one action. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same action to run the action on both of them at once.

Good to know

• Only matrix lights run the Morph effect. That means the LIFX Tile, Candle, Path, Spot, Tube, Luna, Mirror, and Ceiling. If your target also covers other LIFX lights, those lights are skipped and the rest of the action still runs.
• When you target lights by entity and none of them is a LIFX light, the action fails with the message “The targets of action lifx.effect_morph include no LIFX light”. If they include LIFX lights but no matrix light, it fails with “The targets of action lifx.effect_morph include no LIFX matrix light”. When you target an area, floor, device, or label instead, lights the effect cannot run on are left alone and no error is returned.
• Palette and Theme are mutually exclusive. Setting both is rejected. If you set neither, the exciting theme is used.
• Each palette color is a list of four numbers in the order hue, saturation, brightness, Kelvin. A palette needs at least 2 and at most 16 colors. A saturation or brightness of 1 or less is read as a fraction, so 0.5 and 50 both mean 50%, and 1 means 100%, not 1%.
• Power on is on by default, so a light that is off is turned on before the effect starts.
• To stop the animation, use Stop effect.
• You can also start this effect with default options by calling Turn on a light with the effect set to effect_morph.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Settings > Tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens 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] without writing a line of YAML.

More examples

Real scenarios where this action shows up in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup. In the visual editor, select the UI options listed in the example or paste the YAML code.

Automation: ease into the day at sunrise

Start a slow, warm Morph effect on the bedroom tiles at sunrise using your own palette of amber and gold.

• Trigger: Sunrise
• Action: Morph effect
  • Target: Bedroom tiles (light.bedroom_tiles)

alias: "Sunrise morph in the bedroom"
triggers:
  - trigger: sun
    event: sunrise
actions:
  - action: lifx.effect_morph
    target:
      entity_id: light.bedroom_tiles
    data:
      speed: 20
      palette:
        - [40, 80, 60, 3500]
        - [25, 90, 45, 2700]
        - [55, 60, 70, 4000]

Automation: show a color burst when the doorbell rings

When someone rings the doorbell, run a fast, colorful Morph effect on the hallway tiles for 30 seconds, then stop it.

• Trigger: Doorbell is pressed
• Action: Morph effect
  • Target: Hallway tiles (light.hallway_tiles)
• Action: Stop effect
  • Target: Hallway tiles (light.hallway_tiles)

alias: "Doorbell color burst"
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: lifx.effect_morph
    target:
      entity_id: light.hallway_tiles
    data:
      speed: 1
      theme: party
  - delay:
      seconds: 30
  - action: lifx.effect_stop
    target:
      entity_id: light.hallway_tiles

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

Explore related actions:

• Flame effect: Start the firmware-based Flame effect on a matrix LIFX light, such as the LIFX Tile or Candle.

• Sky effect: Start a firmware-based effect that animates a sky scene across a LIFX Ceiling, Luna, Mirror, E26 Candle, or E26 Tube.

• Paint theme: Paints either a provided theme or custom palette across one or more LIFX lights.

• Stop effect: Stop a running effect on LIFX lights.