Automation is not triggered when its own state changes to 'on'

[dgtal1]

The problem

I've created an automation, which I want to be running in a loop and it has to be triggered once it's enabled in the UI, or after HA started. So in both cases when its state changes to on.

There is a weird behaviour currently. Right after I click the 'Enable' button in the UI Automation Editor - it shows as triggered:

but there is nothing about being triggered in traces (when I report this it's SEPT 6th):

also the entity view shows it as not triggered by this automation change state action:

and something about being triggered in the entity history:

State attribute says it's not being executed:

Some elements show it was triggered, but it wasn't really executed
When I trigger it manually - it works fine, but I can't get it triggered by its status change as per the automation config.

Looks like Automations cannot fully react on its own state changes. At least not on the change to on.

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

core-2023.8.4

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

Automation

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/automation

Diagnostics information

No response

Example YAML snippet

I'm pasting my automation YAML source until the actions section, as I think only the trigger section is relevant here and besides my automation is really big (many IFs, ELSE etc):

alias: "[DOGRZEWACZ] Automatyka sterownika grzałki"
description: Sterowanie sterownikiem grzałki w oparciu o przełączniki trybów w HA
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - automation.dogrzewacz_automatyka_sterownika_grzalki
    to: "on"
condition: []
action:
  - variables:
      min_temp: "22.0"
  - repeat:
      while: []
      sequence:

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

No error in the logs

Additional information

No response

[home-assistant]

Hey there @home-assistant/core, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (automation) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

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[tdejneka]

An automation's triggers are functional only after the automation is turned on. Therefore an automation cannot detect itself being turned on.

[dgtal1]

An automation's triggers are functional only after the automation is turned on. Therefore an automation cannot detect itself being turned on.

So maybe it's time to change this to make it more functional? Or at least make the system behaviour consistent. It partially says it's triggered, but not really executed.

The current behaviour is very misleading. It makes me think that what I'm trying to do is possible, but doesn't work.

[tdejneka]

What you have reported is potentially a UI bug in the Automation Editor, in other words it's not a Core problem but a Frontend problem.

It makes me think that what I'm trying to do is possible, but doesn't work.

The lack of any traces confirms the automation wasn't triggered. I agree with you that the Automation Editor's "Triggered" message is misleading.

[dgtal1]

What you have reported is potentially a UI bug in the Automation Editor, in other words it's not a Core problem but a Frontend problem.

Maybe it is, although I've got some doubts. When I enable the automation from another device or browser window - the first device with the open automation editor and this automation shows it as triggered. So the UI responds to some event which is raised within HA informing about this automation being enabled. And it's responding correctly - only when the trigger definition is met. When I changed the trigger - it was not shown as triggered after enabling it. So part of HA is behaving correctly - it recognizes that trigger and shows it as triggered. Thus I doubt it's just a UI bug.

I think there's some stub code in HA which could enable this use case, but either something is missing or not implemented correctly and it doesn't go through the whole processing chain as with any other automation.

I believe automations have states for a reason - I think they should behave consistently regardless of an entity type which changes its state. I know it may be tricky to react on its own state, but I think it should also be possible for consistency reasons and as already mentioned - it would add some functionality.

I have a strange feeling that a few years ago I defined some test automation which was triggered in the same way - so reacted to its state = 'on' and it worked. Probably something got broken or changed in the mean time and it's not working anymore.

[tdejneka]

I've been using Home Assistant for almost 5 years and don't recall an automation being able to detect itself being turned on.

It would imply an automation that's off is not truly off because its State Trigger needs to continue to be able to detect state-changes, namely its own state-changes. The reality is that an automation that's off is truly off.

I believe the behavior you want (automation that's off still able to detect its own state-changes) constitutes a Feature Request.

[issue-triage-workflows]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates.
Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍
This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgtal1]

Still unresolved

[issue-triage-workflows]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates.
Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍
This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dgtal1]

Unresolved