Using Templates

Using Templates

Once a template exists (Defining Templates), you instantiate it with custom:decluttering-card-plus.

type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
template: room_light
variables:
  - light: light.living_room
  - room: Living Room

That is the whole syntax. template: names the template, variables: fills in its holes.

Option	Type	Required	Description
type	string	✅	custom:decluttering-card-plus
template	string	✅	Name of the template to use
variables	list	—	Values to substitute. See Variables.
style	string	—	CSS to inject. See Styling.

variables is a list of single-key mappings, each starting with -:

variables:
  - light: light.kitchen     # ✅
  - room: Kitchen

not

variables:
  light: light.kitchen       # ❌ rejected
  room: Kitchen

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Where it goes

The same custom:decluttering-card-plus type is used everywhere. What matters is that the template's content type suits the place you put it.

Three places, one card type: the badges, the two tiles and the three rows are each custom:decluttering-card-plus pointing at a badge, card and row template.

As a card

Anywhere a card goes — a view, a stack, a grid, a section:

views:
  - title: Home
    cards:
      - type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
        template: room_light
        variables:
          - light: light.living_room
          - room: Living Room

As a badge

In a view's badges: list (sections views):

views:
  - type: sections
    badges:
      - type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
        template: power_badge
        variables:
          - entity: sensor.solar_power
          - name: Solar

As an entity row

In an Entities card's entities: list:

- type: entities
  title: Temperatures
  entities:
    - type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
      template: temperature_row
      variables:
        - entity: sensor.living_room_temperature
        - name: Living Room

As a picture element

In a Picture Elements card's elements: list, where style carries the positioning:

- type: picture-elements
  image: /local/floorplan.png
  elements:
    - type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
      template: room_marker
      variables:
        - light: light.living_room
      style:
        top: 32%
        left: 26%

See Cards, Badges, Rows and Elements for the detail of each.

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Nesting

A template's content can itself contain custom:decluttering-card-plus cards, so templates can build on each other:

decluttering_templates:
  room_light:
    card:
      type: tile
      entity: '[[light]]'
      name: '[[room]]'

  room_pair:
    card:
      type: horizontal-stack
      cards:
        - type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
          template: room_light
          variables:
            - light: '[[light_a]]'
            - room: '[[room_a]]'
        - type: custom:decluttering-card-plus
          template: room_light
          variables:
            - light: '[[light_b]]'
            - room: '[[room_b]]'

Variables pass straight through — '[[light_a]]' is substituted in room_pair, and the result is handed to room_light as its light.

Using a template in a place it was not meant for

Nothing stops you putting a row template into a view as a card, or a card template into an Entities card. It will usually render, but it will not look right — rows expect the layout an Entities card gives them, cards expect to be cards. Match the content type to the place.

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What the card does around your content

Instantiating a template is not just a copy-and-paste. The card wraps your content in Home Assistant's own machinery, so templated content behaves like content written inline:

• visibility conditions work inside the template, and the wrapper collapses when the card hides — see Visibility.
• Grid options are forwarded, so a card that asks for a particular width in a sections view still gets it — see Cards.
• A card that hides itself leaves no gap in the layout.
• Rebuilds are handled, so cards that ask to be recreated are.

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Next

→ Variables — defaults, types, and the rules of substitution