Sun trigger: Add Dawn and Dusk events (in addition to Sunrise and Sunset)

[deix]

Describe the feature

Currently, the Sun trigger in Home Assistant supports sunrise and sunset events. I would like to request extending the Sun trigger to also support dawn and dusk as first-class trigger events.

At the moment, users can only trigger automations directly on sunrise and sunset. While offsets can be applied, they are not always a precise or reliable replacement for astronomical dawn and dusk, especially across seasons and different latitudes.

Proposed enhancement:

Add two additional trigger options to the Sun trigger:

• dawn
• dusk

Example (conceptual):

trigger:

• platform: sun
  event: dawn

• platform: sun
  event: dusk

These would map to the same astronomical definitions already available in the sun integration (as exposed in sun-related sensors), but make them directly usable in the automation engine as native trigger events.

This enhancement would extend the automation engine itself by increasing the number of supported solar-based trigger events, without requiring template workarounds.

Use cases

One practical example is more precise lighting control in environments that depend on gradual light transitions.

In my case, I use Home Assistant to control lighting in a chicken coop. Using only sunrise and sunset is too coarse. Dawn and dusk would allow:

• Turning lights on at dawn (when natural light first appears), instead of waiting for sunrise.
• Turning lights off at dusk (when natural light is effectively gone), instead of sunset.
• Creating more natural light cycles that better match real environmental conditions.
• Reducing stress on animals by aligning artificial lighting with gradual changes in daylight.

Other use cases include:

• Garden or greenhouse lighting automation.
• Outdoor pathway lighting that follows true light conditions.
• Gradual scene transitions in smart homes based on early/late twilight instead of geometric sunrise/sunset.

Current workarounds

Currently, this can be approximated by:

• Using time offsets from sunrise/sunset (which are not always accurate across seasons).
• Using template triggers based on sun elevation.
• Creating template sensors that detect dawn/dusk conditions and triggering from those.

However, these approaches are more complex, less intuitive, and increase maintenance overhead compared to having native dawn and dusk trigger events in the automation engine.

Anything else?

The underlying sun integration already calculates dawn and dusk times. Exposing them as native trigger events would improve consistency, reduce the need for templates, and make automations more readable and maintainable.

This would be a small but impactful enhancement for users who rely on precise solar events in their automation logic.

[mkz212]

+1

[hilmar24]

+1

[hilmar24]

in addition civil, nautical and maybe astronomical dawn timing might be considered. This may be used for more detailed lightning automations.

[beren12]

Yeah that would be nice for fine tuning things.

[nielsrowinbik]

In light of (no pun intended) our recent efforts to improve triggers and conditions in Home Assistant (currently a labs feature), we've been thinking about how to improve the sun based triggers and conditions because they're very limiting.

I have added this opportunity to our roadmap and mentioned this feature request in it. Basically, what's suggested here is a no-brainer. I'm shaping it up and getting it ready to be picked up by either ourselves at OHF if we decide to prioritise it, but any community member who feels like contributing is free to do so too!

[deix]

Great @nielsrowinbik, lets then close this ticket and wait for the develompemnt based on the updated RoadMap 👍

[deix]

Added to RoadMap OpenHomeFoundation/roadmap#96