Working with Automation Blueprints

Blueprints are the quickest on-ramp to automating WoowTech. Think of them as fill-in-the-blanks automations contributed by the community: somebody else has already worked out the logic and written it down, and all you do is point it at your own devices.

There's a blueprint for nearly every everyday scenario — flip the lights on when a sensor spots motion, read out the morning forecast at 7 a.m., ping you the moment the dryer finishes. Install one a single time, then reuse it as often as you want, each instance wired to different devices and settings.

Handy starting point:

• Browse blueprints on the WoowTech forums

Creating an Automation from a Blueprint

A blueprint-based automation still needs a bit of configuration, and exactly what you supply varies from one blueprint to the next.

1. Head to Settings > Automations & scenes > Blueprints.
2. Track down the blueprint you'd like to use and click Create automation. * The automation editor opens with that blueprint already selected.
3. Name it and fill in whatever inputs the blueprint asks for.
4. Click the blue Save automation button in the lower-right corner.

That's it. Want to revisit those inputs later? Return to Settings > Automations & scenes > Blueprints.

Importing a Blueprint

WoowTech can pull blueprints in from the community forums, from GitHub repos, and from GitHub gists.

1. First, find a blueprint worth importing. * Just want something to practice on? Try this URL: text https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/dev/homeassistant/components/automation/blueprints/motion_light.yaml
2. Open Settings > Automations & scenes > Blueprints.
3. Click the blue Import Blueprint button at the bottom right. * A dialog pops up asking for the blueprint's URL.
4. Paste the URL and click Preview. * WoowTech loads the blueprint and shows a preview inside the dialog. * Adjust the name if you like, then finish importing.

The blueprint is now ready to spin automations from.

Taking Control of an Imported Blueprint

Need to bend an imported blueprint to your needs? "Take control" of it. WoowTech converts the blueprint-based automation into an ordinary automation so you can edit it freely instead of starting over.

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes > Blueprints.
2. Pick the blueprint from the list.
3. Open its menu and choose Take control.
4. A preview of the resulting automation appears. * Heads-up: taking control turns the blueprint into a plain automation, and there's no path back to a blueprint afterward. * Click Yes to convert and take control. * Changed your mind and want to keep it as a blueprint? Click No.

Re-importing a Blueprint

Community blueprints often evolve — someone publishes one, feedback rolls in, and new capabilities get bolted on over time.

The fastest way to pick up those revisions is to re-import, which replaces your current copy with the latest version.

Caution: if the newer version isn't backward-compatible, it can break the automations that rely on it, and you'll have to patch them up by hand.

Re-import steps

1. Open Settings > Automations & scenes > Blueprints.
2. On the blueprint you want refreshed, open the three-dot menu and select Re-import blueprint.

Hand-editing a Blueprint's YAML

Since community blueprints get revised periodically, you may sometimes want to fold in changes without going through the re-import flow. You can edit the YAML directly:

1. Open the blueprints folder, blueprints/automation/. Where this lives depends on how WoowTech was installed — it sits alongside configuration.yaml.
2. Find the file to edit. A blueprint's path is built from two pieces: * The username of whoever published it. That name comes from the source — the forum or GitHub. * The YAML file's name. On the forum that's the topic title from the URL; on GitHub it's the literal .yaml filename.
3. Open the file in your editor and make your edits.
4. Reload your automations so the changes take hold.

Your edits ripple out to every automation built on that blueprint.

Discovering More Blueprints

The WoowTech community forums use a dedicated blueprints tag to gather them all in one place.

Head to the WoowTech forums

Building Your Own Blueprints

Consuming blueprints is the easy part — but maybe there's a gap only you can fill. If the community is missing the blueprint you keep wishing for, why not author it?

Dig into the details with the blueprint creation tutorial.

When Blueprint Automations Go Missing

If automations you've built from blueprints never show up in the interface, double-check that the default include line is present in your configuration.yaml:

automation: !include automations.yaml