Entity Change Triggers

The on_entity_change trigger fires an animation whenever a watched entity's state (or attribute) changes. This page covers the full set of options available for entity-based triggering.

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Basic Usage

animations:
  - trigger: on_entity_change
    entity: binary_sensor.motion
    preset: pulse
    to_state: "on"

If entity is omitted, the card's own entity is watched.

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State Gates (from_state / to_state)

These are fire-and-forget gates — they filter when the animation starts but do not stop a looping animation once it has begun.

# Only fires when transitioning from "off" → "on"
- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: light.kitchen
  from_state: "off"
  to_state: "on"
  preset: bounce

Use to_state alone when you only care about the destination. Use from_state alone when you only care about the origin. Combine both for exact transition matching.

To stop a loop when the entity state changes, use while instead.

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Lifecycle Conditions (while)

while turns an animation into a lifecycle-managed loop — it starts when the condition becomes true and stops automatically when it becomes false. Requires loop: true.

# Pulse while the light is on; stop when it turns off
- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: light.kitchen
  preset: pulse
  loop: true
  while:
    state: 'on'
  check_on_load: true

while condition keys

state/not_state are used alone. The 4 numeric bound keys AND-combine when more than one is present, so a range condition is expressed by combining two of them:

Key	Meaning
state	entity value equals this string
not_state	entity value does NOT equal this string
above	numeric value strictly greater than threshold
at_least	numeric value greater than or equal to threshold
below	numeric value strictly less than threshold
at_most	numeric value less than or equal to threshold

# Inclusive range: play while 20 <= value <= 80
while:
  at_least: 20
  at_most: 80

# Exclusive range: play while 20 < value < 80
while:
  above: 20
  below: 80

The animation editor's "Play while..." dropdown offers these as ready-made "Between (inclusive)" / "Between (exclusive)" options.

check_on_load

Value	Behaviour
true (default)	Evaluate the condition immediately when the card loads. If already met, start the animation straight away.
false	Only react to state transitions that occur after load.

Set check_on_load: false when you want the animation to appear reactive (responding to changes) rather than presenting its current state on page load.

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Attributes

Use attribute to watch a specific entity attribute instead of the main state:

- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: light.living_room
  attribute: brightness_pct   # 0–100, computed from raw 0–255 brightness
  while:
    above: 50
  preset: glow
  loop: true

brightness_pct is a special computed attribute that converts the raw HA brightness value (0–255) to a 0–100 percentage for easier threshold comparisons.

The animation editor's Attribute field is a searchable dropdown listing the selected entity's actual attributes (with brightness_pct injected right after brightness), not just a free-text box — pick an entity first to populate it.

attribute applies to from_state, to_state, and while alike.

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map_range with on_entity_change

Entity values can be mapped to animation parameters dynamically:

- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: sensor.wind_speed
  preset: rotate
  loop: true
  params:
    speed:
      map_range:
        entity: sensor.wind_speed
        input: [0, 50]
        output: [2000, 200]   # faster rotation when windier
        clamp: true

See the Animations overview for the full map_range reference.

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Examples

Alert strobe while above threshold

- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: sensor.cpu_temp
  while:
    above: 80
  preset: strobe
  loop: true
  check_on_load: true

Entrance on state change, fade on return

- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: binary_sensor.front_door
  to_state: "on"
  preset: slide
  params:
    from: left
    duration: 400

- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: binary_sensor.front_door
  to_state: "off"
  preset: fade
  params:
    from: 1
    to: 0.6
  duration: 300
  loop: 1
  alternate: true

Brightness-driven speed

- trigger: on_entity_change
  entity: light.desk
  attribute: brightness_pct
  preset: pulse
  loop: true
  while:
    above: 0
  params:
    max_scale:
      map_range:
        entity: light.desk
        attribute: brightness_pct
        input: [0, 100]
        output: [1.02, 1.2]
        clamp: true

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See Also

• Animations overview — structure, options, easing
• Preset Reference — all available presets
• Rule-based Animations — entity conditions across multiple cards via the Rules Engine