Music Assistant

The Music Assistant (MA) integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] allows you to connect Home Assistant to a Music Assistant Server. Once configured, all MA Players show up as Home Assistant media player entities. Media players will allow you to control media playback and see the currently playing item.

There is currently support for the following Home Assistant Platforms:

• Media player

All of the Home Assistant Media Player Control Actions are supported.

The media_content_id payload for media_player.play_media can be any of the following:

• The name of a track, artist, or album. For example, Queen.
• A track or album combined with the artist’s name. For example, Queen - Innuendo.
• A streaming provider URI. For example, spotify://artist/12345.

The media_content_id payload for media_player.browse_media must be a URI of the form library://artist/1, library://album/20, or spotify://album/5zj4Ej0FrlJQaSo0d6cttH. The type of item that the URI refers to must be an album or artist.

These URIs can be obtained from, for example, the output of the get_library or search actions described below or the media_player.browse_media action from Home Assistant.

Configuration

To add the Music Assistant integration to your Home Assistant instance, use this My button:

Music Assistant can be auto-discovered by Home Assistant. If an instance was found, it will be shown as Discovered. You can then set it up right away.

Manual configuration

Under normal circumstances, Home Assistant automatically discovers your running Music Assistant Server. If there is something special about the Home Assistant or MA setup (for example, the MA server is running as a remote Docker container) or discovery is not working, you can manually specify the URL to your Music Assistant server. If the Music Assistant Server is not installed, then follow these installation instructions.

Supported functionality

Media player entities

The Music Assistant integration creates media player entities for all players and groups available in MA, including those imported from Home Assistant. This is needed to provide the full functionality Music Assistant has to offer. This full functionality includes transfer of the playing queue of music from one player to another, automatic pausing of playback during announcements, and richer options for selecting the media for playback. These entities will display media information, playback progress, and playback controls.

Actions

Action music_assistant.play_media

Play media on a Music Assistant player with more fine-grained control options. This action is more powerful than the media_player.play_media action because it allows multiple items to be added to the queue at once, it allows more specific control of the media item to be played (e.g. a track from a specific album can be specified) and Music Assistant’s radio mode (where the queue is filled with similar tracks to that enqueued) can be enabled.

• Data attribute: media_id
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: URI or name of the item to be played. Specify a list if it is desired to play/enqueue multiple items.
  • Example: spotify://playlist/aabbccddeeff
• Data attribute: media_type
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: The type of content to play. Select from artist, album, track, playlist or radio. Will be auto-determined if omitted.
  • Example: playlist
• Data attribute: artist
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When specifying a track or album by name in the Media ID field, you can optionally restrict results by this artist name.
  • Example: Queen
• Data attribute: album
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When specifying a track by name in the Media ID field, you can optionally restrict results by this album name.
  • Example: News of the world
• Data attribute: enqueue
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: If the content should be played now or be added to the queue. Options are:
    • play: Play now
    • replace: Replace the existing queue and play now
    • next: Add to the current queue after the currently playing item
    • replace_next: Replace the current queue after the currently playing item
    • add: Add to the end of the queue
  • Example: replace
• Data attribute: radio_mode
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Enable radio mode to auto-generate a playlist based on the selection.
  • Example: true

Action music_assistant.play_announcement

Play an announcement which is accessible via URL on a Music Assistant player. Home Assistant TTS actions are used for announcements provided as text.

• Data attribute: url
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: URL to the notification sound.
  • Example: https://someremotesite.com/doorbell.mp3
• Data attribute: use_pre_announce
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Use pre-announcement sound. Omit to use the player default.
  • Example: true
• Data attribute: announce_volume
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Use a forced volume level for the announcement. Omit to use the player default.
  • Example: 75

Action music_assistant.transfer_queue

Transfer the player’s queue to another player. This could be combined with presence sensors to allow music to follow you around the house.

• Data attribute: source_player
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: The source media player which has the queue to be transferred. When omitted, the first playing player will be used.
  • Example: media_player.kitchen_speaker
• Data attribute: auto_play
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Start playing the queue on the target player. Omit to use the default behavior.
  • Example: true

Example

In this example, the queue of the first player found playing will be transferred to the kitchen when a motion sensor is triggered in that room.

automation:
  - id: auto_queue_transfer_kitchen
    alias: Automatically Transfer Queue to Kitchen
    trigger:
      platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.kitchen_motion_sensor_occupancy
      to: 'on'
    action:
      service: music_assistant.transfer_queue
      target:
        entity_id: media_player.ma_kitchen_speaker

Action music_assistant.search

Perform a global search on the Music Assistant library and all providers. This allows programmatic access to all of the music provider’s catalogs and could be used to build a HA dashboard where any track could be found for playback.

• Data attribute: config_entry_id
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: The Music Assistant instance that the search will be performed upon. Allows for multiple servers to be running. This is obtained from a dropdown in the GUI editor. Users of YAML can use the dev tools action tab and select from the dropdown and then switch to YAML to get the actual value.
  • Example: Music Assistant
• Data attribute: name
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: The name/title to search for.
  • Example: We Are The Champions
• Data attribute: media_type
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: The type(s) of content to search for. Select from artist, album, track, radio, or playlist. All types if omitted.
  • Example: playlist
• Data attribute: artist
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When specifying a track or album in the name field, you can optionally restrict results by this artist name.
  • Example: Queen
• Data attribute: album
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When specifying a track in the name field, you can optionally restrict results by this album name.
  • Example: News of the world
• Data attribute: limit
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Maximum number of items to return (per media type).
  • Example: 10
• Data attribute: library_only
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Only include results that are in the library.
  • Example: true

Action music_assistant.get_library

Perform a local search on the Music Assistant library. This provides programmatic access to concise information about the media item. This information could be used to create a queue of tracks for playback.

• Data attribute: config_entry_id
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: The Music Assistant instance that the search will be performed upon. Allows for multiple servers to be running.
  • Example: Music Assistant
• Data attribute: media_type
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: The type of content to search for. Select from artist, album, track, radio, or playlist.
  • Example: artist
• Data attribute: favorite
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When selected, only items marked as favorites will be returned.
  • Example: false
• Data attribute: limit
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Maximum number of items to return.
  • Example: 25
• Data attribute: offset
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: From what point in the list should results be returned.
  • Example: 10
• Data attribute: search
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: A string that will further filter the results.
  • Example: Home
• Data attribute: order_by
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: Sort the list by this field. View available sorting options in the Developer Tools > Actions > music_assistant.get_library action.
  • Example: year
• Data attribute: album_artists_only
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When artist is the media_type then this option will restrict the result to album artists only.
  • Example: true
• Data attribute: album_type
  • Optional: Yes.
  • Description: When album is the media_type then this option will restrict the result according to the selection of either album, single, compilation, EP or unknown.
  • Example: album

Example

This example will start playback of ten random tracks.

script:
  create_random_queue:
    mode: single
    sequence:
      - service: music_assistant.get_library
        data:
          limit: 10
          media_type: track
          config_entry_id: 01JEXNDHT21V0BHJXM7A5SZANV
          order_by: random
        response_variable: random_tracks
      - action: music_assistant.play_media
        data: 
          media_id: "{{ random_tracks['items'] | map(attribute='uri') | list }}" 
          media_type: track
          enqueue: replace
        target:
          entity_id: media_player.ma_kitchen_speaker

Action music_assistant.get_queue

Get the queue details of a Music Assistant player queue. This provides programmatic access to comprehensive information about the current and next media item in the queue. This information could be used to create a bespoke media dashboard.

• Data attribute: entity_id
  • Optional: No.
  • Description: The entity_id of the player holding the queue to be retrieved.
  • Example: media_player.kitchen_speaker

Example

This example sets the name of the currently playing track in an input_text which could then be used on a dashboard.

script:
  get_now_playing:
    mode: queued
    alias: "Get Now Playing Track Name"
    sequence:
      - action: music_assistant.get_queue
        data:
          entity_id: media_player.ma_kitchen_speaker
        response_variable: queue_info
      - service: input_text.set_value
        data:
          entity_id: input_text.now_playing 
          value: "{{ queue_info['media_player.ma_kitchen_speaker'].current_item.name }}" 

Notes

• Any Home Assistant players added to Music Assistant will appear duplicated as the MA version of the player is created. The original HA player can be hidden if desired.

Known limitations

The data returned by the get_queue action will be partially limited if the item is not in the library (For example, if an item was selected for playback directly from Spotify). Metadata such as favorite status, explicit status, last played, played count, and disc art URL are only available for items that are in the MA library.

Radio mode is only available with certain music providers, and an error will be shown if attempting to enable radio mode on an item that isn’t linked to one of those providers. Review the Music Assistant documentation to identify which providers support this functionality.

Troubleshooting

Can’t find the MA actions

Symptom: No Music Assistant actions are shown in the editor

When trying to set up a script or automation via the GUI, no MA actions can be found.

Description

This means the add-on may have been installed, but the integration has not.

Resolution

Go to the Configuration section and install the integration.

Removing the integration

This integration follows standard integration removal.

To remove an integration instance from Home Assistant

1. Go to Settings > Devices & services and select the integration card.
2. From the list of devices, select the integration instance you want to remove.
3. Next to the entry, select the three-dot menu. Then, select Delete.

After deleting the integration, go to the Settings > Add-ons and remove the Music Assistant add-on from there as well (if installed).