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Switch

A Switch card is the default on/off card. It controls one Home Assistant entity from the touchscreen and shows whether that entity is currently active.

Use Switch cards for common Home Assistant entities such as lights, switches, fans, and input booleans. The entity needs to support a Home Assistant toggle action to respond when tapped.

For light-only controls, the Lights card gives you a more guided setup with Switch, Brightness, and Colour Temperature options.

Use Action for Home Assistant button entities, Media for media players, Cover for blinds and shutters, and Lock for door locks. Those card types use the matching Home Assistant actions and show more useful controls.

Switch card showing a Heater icon

Setting Up a Switch Card

  1. Select a card and change its type to Switch. New cards use Switch by default.
  2. Enter an Entity - the Home Assistant entity you want to control, for example light.kitchen or switch.garden_lights.
  3. Set a Label if you want custom text on the card. If left blank, the friendly name from Home Assistant is used.
  4. Choose an Off Icon, or leave it as Auto so the panel picks an icon from the entity type.
  5. Choose an On Icon if you want a different icon while the entity is active.
  6. Optionally turn on Active Display if the card should show a live sensor value or text state while active.
  7. Optionally turn on Confirmation Required if turning this device on or off by accident would be a problem.

How It Works on the Panel

  • Tapping a Switch card sends a Home Assistant toggle action for the entity.
  • If Confirmation Required is on, the panel asks before changing the entity in the direction you choose: off, on, or both.
  • The card lights up when Home Assistant reports an active state such as on, open, opening, closing, playing, home, or unlocked.
  • If the entity is changed somewhere else, such as in Home Assistant or by an automation, the card updates to match.

Toggle Confirmation

Use Confirmation Required for important devices such as 3D printers, heaters, pumps, or anything you do not want to change with an accidental tap.

When enabled, the card shows three extra fields:

  • When - choose whether the popup appears when turning the entity off, on, or both.
  • Message - the text shown in the confirmation popup.
  • Confirm Button - the button that allows the change.
  • Cancel Button - the button that leaves the entity unchanged.

The default behavior is still Off, so existing cards keep asking only when Home Assistant currently reports the entity as active.

Active State Display

Switch cards always have separate Off Icon and On Icon settings. The on icon is used while Home Assistant reports the entity as active.

Switch cards can also show an active display while the entity is active:

  • Numeric - show a live sensor value instead of the icon. You can set the sensor entity, unit, and decimal precision.
  • Text - show a live text state instead of the card label, capitalising each word and preserving line breaks.

When the entity is not active, the card goes back to its normal off icon and label.

Requires Home Assistant actions

Switch cards send Home Assistant actions from the panel. If tapping a card does nothing, check Enable Actions.