LCARdS

Appearance

Configuration ​

LCARdS configuration is managed through the LCARdS Config Panel, a dedicated sidebar entry in Home Assistant that serves as the central control hub for your installation. It provides access to helper management, theme browsing, alert mode customisation, sound configuration, content pack exploration, and device/user management.

The panel is registered automatically when the LCARdS integration is installed.

Accessing the Panel ​

Look for the LCARdS Config entry in the Home Assistant sidebar after installation. If it is not visible:

  1. Go to Settings → Integrations → LCARdS → Configure
  2. Enable Show sidebar panel
  3. The panel appears immediately: no restart needed

You can also customise the sidebar title and icon from the same screen.

Panel Tabs ​

Welcome ​

The first tab when opening the Config Panel:

  • Get Started checklist: step-by-step onboarding: create helpers, configure alert mode, set up sounds
  • Panel Guide: clickable cards for each tab with a short description; clicking navigates directly to that tab
  • Resource links: documentation, GitHub, and community links

Helpers ​

First launch

Open the Helpers tab and click Create All Helpers before using anything else. This creates any missing HA input helper LCARdS uses for alert mode, sounds, and sizing in one step. HA-LCARS theme helpers can also be created here.

Shows all LCARdS HA input helpers, their current values, and creation status:

  • Create all required helpers in one click (Create All Helpers)
  • Inspect or manually set individual helper values
  • Identify missing helpers that may affect card behaviour

Helpers are standard Home Assistant input_* entities and persist across restarts.

→ Persistent Helpers reference

Theme Studio ​

The theme tools, one per tab:

  • LCARdS Alert Mode Lab: customise the colour palette applied per alert level (red_alert, yellow_alert, blue_alert, gray_alert, black_alert). Adjust hue, saturation, lightness, and anchor parameters, preview changes live across your dashboard, then save to helpers.
  • HA-LCARS Theme Lab: build an HA-LCARS theme from the active palette.
  • LCARdS Theme Tokens, LCARS CSS Variables, All CSS Variables: browse the active theme's tokens and the page's CSS variables. Find the exact theme:colors.ui.primary path to use in card config, or which CSS variable controls a colour.
  • Token Overrides: change a token's value globally, per user or per device.

A card editor's Main Engineering > Theme tab lists the tokens that card uses and links here. The link /lcards-config?tab=theme opens this tab directly (other tabs: helpers, connectivity, sounds, users, packs, storage).

→ Alert Mode Lab  ·  Alert Mode  ·  Themes

Connectivity ​

Configure a full-screen overlay displayed when connection to Home Assistant is lost, ideal for kiosk installs where you always want to know when the dashboard is offline.

  • Enable / disable the overlay globally, per user, or per device
  • Simple text: configure stylized messages
  • Custom card: replace the simple text message with any HA card(s)
  • Connection Restored: optional auto-dismissing confirmation shown on reconnect
  • Effect layers: independently configure the canvas animation, colour overlay, and backdrop filter applied behind the message

→ Connectivity

Sounds ​

Configure LCARS-style audio feedback for card interactions and alert events:

  • Enable or disable sound categories (card interactions, UI navigation, alert sounds)
  • Select the active sound scheme
  • Set per-event overrides: change or mute individual sound events
  • Control master volume
  • Per-user / per-device overrides: set different sound preferences for your own browser session without changing global defaults

→ Sounds

Users & Devices ​

Manage devices and users that have stored per-device or per-user setting overrides (introduced in LCARdS v2026.3.0)

  • Current Session (all users): view your device identity, set a display name for this browser
  • Users (admin only): list users with stored overrides; clear overrides for a user
  • Devices (admin only): list registered devices with last-seen times; rename or delete device records

→ Users & Devices

Pack Explorer ​

Browse all installed LCARdS content packs. For each pack you can inspect:

  • Style presets: button and slider preset definitions
  • Animations: available animation presets and their parameters
  • Themes: theme tokens contributed by the pack
  • Sound schemes: audio asset sets registered by the pack

Built-in packs (core, buttons, sliders, effects, themes) are always shown. User-installed packs appear here once loaded.

Storage [advanced] ​

Advanced: use with caution.

This tab exposes the raw key/value store on the backend integration. LCARdS uses this for persistent configuration settings that are not controlled with helpers.

  • Live key list: all keys currently stored
  • Expandable JSON viewer: inspect the value of any key
  • Inline JSON editor: edit a value directly
  • Per-key delete: remove a single key with confirmation
  • Reset All: wipe the entire LCARdS store (requires explicit confirmation)

Typical use cases: debugging unexpected behaviour, recovering from a corrupt config value, or inspecting stored scoped settings.

HA-LCARS Theme Profiles ​

LCARdS ships custom theme profiles designed to extend HA-LCARS. They map the LCARdS colour palette to both the HA-LCARS chrome variables and the core HA colour token scale, so stock HA components, LCARdS cards, and the HA-LCARS chrome all share the same palette, including alert-mode hue rotations.

The profiles are appended to the end of your existing HA-LCARS themes.yaml.

→ HA-LCARS Theme Profiles