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Get entities in an area: area_entities

The area_entities template function returns a list of entity IDs that belong to a given areaAn area in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of devices and entities that represents a room or space in your home, such as the living room, kitchen, or garage. [Learn more]. You can specify the area by its name (like “Living Room”) or by its internal ID. It gives you all 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] that have been assigned to that area in Home Assistant.

This is useful when you want to work with all entities in a room at once, without having to list each one by hand. For example, you could turn off every light in the bedroom at bedtime, check if any window in the house is open, or count how many motion sensors are currently active on a floorA floor in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of areas that are meant to match the physical floors in your home. Devices & entities are not assigned to floors but to areas. Floors can be used in automations and scripts as a target for actions. For example, to turn off all the lights on the downstairs floor when you go to bed. [Learn more]. As you add or remove devicesA device is a model representing a physical or logical unit that contains entities. from an area in Home Assistant, the list automatically updates, so your automationsAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more] and templatesA template is an automation definition that can include variables for the action or data from the trigger values. This allows automations to generate dynamic actions. [Learn more] always stay in sync with your actual setup.

Tip

Automation actions can target an entire area through the visual editor, no template needed. Reach for area_entities() when you need to loop over or filter the entities inside a template expression.

Usage

Here’s how to use this template function. Copy any example and adjust it to your setup.

As a function

As a filter

Template

{{ area_entities("Living Room") }}

Result (list)

[
  "light.living_room_ceiling",
  "sensor.living_room_temperature",
  "binary_sensor.living_room_motion",
]

Function signature

The signature is a technical summary of this template function. It shows the name of the function, the values (called parameters) it accepts, and what type of data each parameter expects (for example, a piece of text or a number).

Function parameters that have a = with a value after them are optional. If you leave them out, the default value shown is used automatically.

Function parameters without a = are usually required. A few optional parameters have no default value, so the signature shows them without a = as well. To check whether a parameter is required, look at the parameter list below the signature. Each parameter is marked as Required or Optional.

The most common optional parameter without a default value is default. The default parameter sets the value a function returns when the function can’t produce a result, for example, when float gets text that isn’t a number. If you leave out default, there is no fallback value, so most functions raise an error and the template fails. The parameter list of each function says what happens. If you set default, the function returns your value instead.

How to read a signature

Here is the signature of the round filter as an example:

round(
    value: Any,
    precision: int = 0,
    method: str = "common",
    default: Any,
) -> float | int | Any

round is the name of the function.
Between the parentheses are the parameters. Each parameter has a name, followed by a colon and the type of value the parameter expects. The type only tells you what kind of value to pass. For default: Any, you pass a value of any type, such as 0 or "unknown", not the word Any.
= 0 and = "common" are default values. You can leave out precision and method, and round uses these default values.
default has no =, but the parameter list marks default as optional. If you leave out default and round gets a value that isn’t a number, round raises an error.
-> shows the type of value the function returns.
Inside a signature, | means “or”. This function returns a decimal number, a whole number, or the value you passed as default.

round is a filter, so the first parameter, value, is the value before the |. For example, {{ 3.14159 | round(2) }} returns 3.14.

The types you’ll see most often:

str: text, such as "hello"
int: a whole number, such as 5
float: a decimal number, such as 3.14
bool: true or false
list: a list of values, such as [1, 2, 3]. list[str] is a list of texts.
dict: a set of keys and values, such as {"name": "Kitchen"}
datetime and timedelta: a date and time, and a duration. For details, refer to Dates and times.
None: no value
Any: any type of value

Some signatures use special forms:

*args means you can pass any number of values, separated by commas. For example, average(1, 2, 3).
value | name(...) means the function is a filter. The value before the | is passed to the filter as its first parameter. Some filter signatures, like the round example, show this value as the first parameter between the parentheses instead.

area_entities(
    area_name_or_id: str,
) -> list[str]

Function parameters

The following parameters can be provided to this function.

area_name_or_id string Required

The name or ID of the area. You can find area IDs in Settings > Areas, labels & zones.

Good to know

Returns an empty list when the area has no entities or when the name does not match. It does not raise an error.
Includes both entities assigned directly to the area and entities inherited from devices in that area.
Uppercase and lowercase letters and spaces in area names and aliases don’t matter. "Living Room" and "living room" find the same area. Area IDs must match exactly.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Settings > Tools > Template, paste the example into the Template editor, and watch the result update on the right. Edit the values to see how the function adapts to your own 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 function comes up in automations and templates. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Count the lights that are on in an area

Want to know how many lights are currently on in a room? This combines area_entities with filters to narrow down to lights and count the ones that are on.

Template

{{
  area_entities("Kitchen")
  | select("match", "light.")
  | select("is_state", "on")
  | list
  | count
}}

Result (integer)

Check if any motion sensor is active in an area

This checks whether any motion sensor in the hallway is currently detecting motion. Useful as a conditionConditions check whether something is true at that moment, for example, whether a door is closed. You can use them in automations and scripts. If a condition is not met, the actions that come after it in the same sequence do not run. At the top level of an automation or script, this stops the automation or script. [Learn more] in automations.

Template

{{
  area_entities("Hallway")
  | select("match", "binary_sensor.")
  | select("is_state", "on")
  | list
  | count > 0
}}

Result (boolean)

true

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with your template and expected result, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Tip

AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude can also explain or fix templates when you describe what you want in plain language.

Related template functions

These functions work well alongside this one:

Get all areas: areas - Returns a list of all area IDs in your Home Assistant instance.
Get area ID: area_id - Returns the area ID for a given area name, entity ID, or device ID.
Get area name: area_name - Returns the friendly name of an area from its ID, entity ID, or device ID.
Get devices in an area: area_devices - Returns a list of device IDs associated with a given area.

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