homeassistant_espscreen/README_EXTENDED.md

# ESP Screens: the full reference

The [README](README.md) shows what ESP Screens is and how to install it. This page has the rest:
every card and setting, what an automation can do with a screen, the top bar, the settings page
on the screen itself, and how updates work.

- [What you can configure](#what-you-can-configure)
- [Alert from an automation](#alert-from-an-automation)
- [Wake and sleep from an automation](#wake-and-sleep-from-an-automation)
- [Customizing tiles and colors](#customizing-tiles-and-colors)
- [Top bar](#top-bar)
- [Settings on the screen](#settings-on-the-screen)
- [Updates and keeping your settings](#updates-and-keeping-your-settings)
- [Guides and installation help](#guides-and-installation-help)

## What you can configure

- **Up to 48 tiles**, spread across up to eight fixed pages of six
  tiles each (firmware 0.2.62+; twenty before). Search by entity, device, or room, and drag to reorder.
- **Per-tile settings:** a custom name, click behavior, a small slider where
  supported, or a large value for things like temperature and power usage.
  From firmware 0.2.13, the large value shows a small domain icon next to the
  title; a number that's too long is truncated with an ellipsis, the unit stays visible.
- **Pastel backgrounds per tile:** choose red for an all-off script,
  green for all-on, or any other color. The title and status stay dark and
  readable; in Dark mode the colour turns deep and the text light. The color also
  appears in the screen preview; **Default** restores
  the normal colors. Requires firmware 0.2.10 or newer. **None** drops the card
  entirely: the content then sits at the same size directly on the screen background
  (firmware 0.2.16).
- **Clock:** digital or analog. The analog clock has a mark for every hour (numerals at 12, 3, 6,
  and 9 on the Guition) and a red second hand while the screen is awake. On a single tile it shows
  a calendar block next to the dial (weekday, day and month; the CYD the day and month); double-width
  shows the digital time with the date beside it, and a full-page clock is the dial alone.
- **Light control:** brightness, rainbow color, and white temperature according to
  the light's capabilities. Open the detailed control with a long touch.
- **Effects (firmware 0.2.70+):** a light that offers effects (a WLED, a Hue with
  its candle effect) gets a sparkles key at the top right of its colour card. It
  opens a page with a row per thing the lamp offers, named and ordered as Home
  Assistant lists them: the light's effect and the select entities of its device
  (a WLED's colour palette, preset and playlist), plus a slider per number entity
  (speed, intensity). A row opens a drum picker with every name Home Assistant has
  at that moment; the check at the top right sends the choice. While an effect
  runs, the tile names it instead of the brightness.
- **More cards:** climate, vacuum, fan, cover, media player, sensors,
  select/input_select, number/input_number, switches, scenes, scripts, and
  buttons.
- **Special cards (firmware 0.2.14+):** a **clock** (digital or analog)
  as a built-in tile, a **weather forecast** with five days on a
  double-width card, a **graph** of the sensor history in the tile,
  a **sun path** (`sun.sun`: horizon with the sun between sunrise and
  sunset), a **timer** (`timer.*`, tapping starts or pauses it), and
  **presence** (`person.*`). Pick them in the library like any other tile, or
  drag them straight into the screen mockup; **Double-width** is an option for every tile, and so is
  **Full page** (firmware 0.2.62+; not for a Go to page tile): the tile takes the whole page and is
  one big button, so a screen by the door switches the light when you push anywhere on it. It is white
  or its own pastel like every other tile, and its icon shows the state (firmware 0.2.77+; before that
  the whole tile took its state colour while on).
  Its small slider, direct controls or graph sit at the bottom of the page. A **Go to page** tile
  (`screen.page_1` to `screen.page_8`) opens another page: a full-page light switch on page 1, a menu on page 2.
  Under **Goes to page** the editor offers the pages the screen has and the next, empty one, where a new sub-page
  starts. From firmware 0.2.65 the same page tile may sit on several pages of a screen, such as a tile back to the
  menu on every sub-page; older firmware takes each page tile once.

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-full-light.png" width="32%" alt="A full-page tile on the Guition: one big amber light switch">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-full-menu.png" width="32%" alt="Navigation tiles on the Guition: Heating, Blinds and Weather open their own pages">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-full-fan.png" width="32%" alt="A full-page fan tile with its speed slider along the bottom">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-full-light.png" width="32%" alt="The same full-page light switch on the CYD">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-full-menu.png" width="32%" alt="Navigation tiles on the CYD">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-full-climate.png" width="32%" alt="A full-page heating tile on the CYD with the mode keys at the bottom">
</p>

- **Direct control on double-width tiles** (firmware 0.2.19+), like the rows in
  Home Assistant: temperature − / + or mode buttons (climate), a toggle (switch,
  light, fan), start/stop/dock (vacuum), open/stop/close or a
  position slider (cover), volume with mute or previous/play/next (media),
  − / + or a slider (numbers), previous/next (select), start/pause and
  cancel (timer), and a single button for scenes, scripts, and buttons. Configurable
  per tile; **None** keeps the regular card.
- **On tap** (app 0.2.67 / firmware 0.2.58): **Automatic**, **Open control**, **View only**,
  **On / off** for everything Home Assistant can toggle, covers included, or **Perform action**:
  any action Home Assistant has for the tile's entity, under Home Assistant's own names and with
  its fields, such as Set cover position at 50 %. Holding the tile still opens its card, and the
  tile settings only offer what Home Assistant supports for that entity.
- **Home Assistant's words and icons** (app 0.2.67 / firmware 0.2.58): a blind says Open or
  Closing, a speaker Playing and a door Open or Closed, a sensor shows the decimals Home Assistant
  shows, and a tile without an icon of its own gets the one Home Assistant shows, following its
  state.
- **Home Assistant's colours** (firmware 0.2.71+): a tile turns grey whenever Home Assistant calls
  its entity inactive, by the same rule its own cards use: a light, switch or fan that is off, an
  airco that is off (its tile then says Off), a closed blind, a docked robot, a player in standby,
  a paused timer. Otherwise it takes Home Assistant's colour for the state: an airco per mode, an
  alarm sensor red, a battery green, orange or red by its charge, the weather by its condition.
  Scenes, selects, numbers and sensors keep a colour of their own per kind.
- **Weather card** with current weather, the coming hours and days including chance of
  rain or millimeters; **climate card** with an on/off button, mode, fan, and swing settings.
  The target temperature sits big between − / + keys with one row of mode keys below; the
  Guition shows fan and swing right away on a card of their own, the CYD behind ···.
- **Vacuum card** with the state, battery and charging, start and dock, and how the robot
  cleans: **vacuum, vacuum and mop, or mop only** for robots that offer a cleaning mode in
  Home Assistant (such as Roborock), then suction and water. Only the rows the chosen mode
  uses are shown (app 0.2.46 / firmware 0.2.39).
  Scenes, scripts, and buttons show when they last ran. A tile that waits longer than
  a moment on Home Assistant shows a small spinner over the tile (see below).
- **Cover card** for blinds, curtains, shutters, and garage doors, like Home Assistant's own:
  a tall position slider on which the blind hangs from the top, a tilt slider over slats for
  venetian blinds, open, stop, and close, and the battery of a battery-powered blind
  (such as Motionblinds). A cover shows only what it supports (app 0.2.58 / firmware 0.2.50).
- **Media card** like a phone's "now playing" (app 0.2.77 / firmware 0.2.64): the album cover, the
  title, artist and album, a progress bar with the elapsed and total time, previous, play or pause
  and next, and a volume row with mute. Keys the player doesn't offer are faded, and a player that is
  off shows a power key. A Guition fetches the cover through ESP Screens, like a camera picture
  ([docs/CAMERA.md](docs/CAMERA.md)); the CYD shows the player's icon in its place. A media tile of
  size **Full page** is the same card on the page, with the keys and the volume working on the tile.
- **Cameras** on a Guition (app 0.2.66 / firmware 0.2.57): a `camera.*` entity, or an `image.*` one such
  as a doorbell's last ring, is a tile like any other. A tap opens the picture full screen, refreshed every
  four seconds, with the round back key; standby and **Back to page 1** close it. The same camera can bring its
  picture to an alert ([With a camera picture](#with-a-camera-picture)). The CYD has no memory for pictures and
  the editor doesn't offer it camera tiles. How the picture travels: [docs/CAMERA.md](docs/CAMERA.md).
- **History card** for sensors, numbers, binary sensors, people, and switches, the way Home
  Assistant shows history: a line with an axis in round steps and clock times for numbers,
  with the highest and lowest moment, and a timeline with the time in each state for on/off,
  home and away, and a status. Choose **1 hour**, **24 hours**, or **1 week**; hold a finger on
  the graph to read the value and time of that moment at the top (app 0.2.59 / firmware 0.2.51).
- **Top bar per screen** (firmware 0.2.32+): the name on the left, up to six
  items of your choice on the right: the time, an analog clock, the date, or an
  entity from Home Assistant with an icon, such as temperature, humidity, power usage, a door
  (open/closed), the alarm, who's home, or when something or someone last
  changed ("5 min ago", "Yesterday"). See [Top bar](#top-bar).
- **Screen settings:** standby time, normal and dimmed brightness,
  night hours, **Dark mode** (firmware 0.2.54+), 24- or 12-hour clock, back to page 1 by itself
  and on standby, optional swiping between pages, and **Page buttons** (firmware 0.2.69+): switched
  off, the bar under the tiles goes and the tiles take its room. Change them in ESP Screens, where
  they apply at once, or on the screen itself. With firmware 0.2.49+ the screen keeps them, and every one of them is also an
  entity in Home Assistant, so an automation can switch **Night mode** or **Auto standby**
  (firmware 0.2.41+), for example to keep a screen on while someone is home, turn **Dark mode**
  on at bedtime (firmware 0.2.54+), and
  wake a screen or put it to sleep with its **Wake** and **Sleep** buttons (firmware 0.2.45+).
  See [Wake and sleep](#wake-and-sleep-from-an-automation).
- **Settings on the screen itself** (firmware 0.2.44+): hold the top bar for about a
  second and a half and the screen opens its own settings page — brightness, night,
  the clock, back to page 1, swiping, the page buttons, rotation, and what this screen is
  (name, IP address, firmware, whether Home Assistant is connected, and Restart). Changes show up in ESP Screens
  within a second. See [Settings on the screen](#settings-on-the-screen).
- **Guition rotation:** 0°, 90°, 180°, or 270°, directly from the management page.
  Native LVGL rotation turns the display and touch together. The CYD keeps its fixed
  orientation and its own calibration.
- **Read current data** (the ··· menu of a screen): what Home Assistant reports for every tile right now,
  and how each tile is set. The same menu has **Identify**, which blinks the screen so you know which one
  it is (firmware 0.2.31+), **Copy layout from…** another screen, and **Export** and **Import** of a
  layout as JSON (app 0.2.73); nothing reaches the screen before **Save & send**.
- **Override YAML per screen** (app 0.2.61): your own ESPHome YAML for one screen, such as another
  display controller, kept through updates. See
  [Updates and keeping your settings](#updates-and-keeping-your-settings).

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-tiles-controls.png" width="32%" alt="Double-width tiles with direct control: heating mode keys with heat selected, previous, pause and next for the Sonos, and a ceiling fan's speed slider">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-tiles-values.png" width="32%" alt="Power and humidity as large values, a lamp and a fan with a small slider on the tile, and an all-off script and a welcome-home scene with red and green backgrounds and when they last ran">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-tiles-clock.png" width="32%" alt="A digital clock with the date, a pasta timer with pause and cancel, the outside temperature as a large value, and garden lights that are off">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-tiles-controls.png" width="32%" alt="The CYD with heating mode keys, playback keys for the radio and a ceiling fan's speed slider">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-tiles-values.png" width="32%" alt="The CYD with power and humidity as large values, a lamp and a fan with small sliders, and red and green scene tiles">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-tiles-choices.png" width="32%" alt="The CYD with a digital clock, previous and next for the house mode, and start, stop and dock for the robot vacuum">
</p>
<p align="center"><sub>What a tile can do: keys and sliders on double-width tiles, previous and next for a choice, large values, small sliders, pastel colors, a clock and a timer.</sub></p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-weather.png" width="32%" alt="Weather card: current weather, the coming hours and the coming days with chance of rain">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-climate.png" width="32%" alt="Climate card: the target temperature between big minus and plus keys, the mode keys, and fan and swing choices">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-light.png" width="32%" alt="Light control: color, color temperature and brightness">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-vacuum.png" width="32%" alt="Vacuum card: docked and charging, start and dock, the cleaning mode vacuum, vac and mop or mop, suction and water">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-fan.png" width="32%" alt="Fan card: the speed as a tall slider with the fan in it">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-page-3.png" width="32%" alt="Curtains with open, stop and close, a kitchen timer counting down, a scene and the sun path">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-blind.png" width="32%" alt="Cover card for a venetian blind: its battery, the position slider with the blind hanging from the top, the tilt slider over slats, and open, stop and close">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-curtains.png" width="32%" alt="Cover card for curtains: the position slider and the sideways open, stop and close keys">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-garage.png" width="32%" alt="Cover card for a garage door that only opens and closes: its icon and the open, stop and close keys, close disabled while it is closed">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-history.png" width="32%" alt="History card for a temperature: the value now, the highest and lowest moment with their times, a line over 24 hours with an axis in degrees and clock times, and keys for 1 hour, 24 hours and 1 week">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-history-touch.png" width="32%" alt="A finger on the history graph: the top of the card shows the average of that hour and its time, the graph stays as it is">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-history-person.png" width="32%" alt="History card for a person over a week: home, away and the zones they were in, with the time in each">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-vacuum.png" width="32%" alt="The vacuum card on the CYD: state, battery and charging, clean and dock, the cleaning mode, suction and water">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-climate.png" width="32%" alt="The climate card on the CYD: the target temperature with big minus and plus keys and one row of mode keys">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-blind.png" width="32%" alt="The cover card on the CYD: the position and tilt sliders with their values beside them, the battery, and open, stop and close">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-history.png" width="32%" alt="The history card on the CYD: power over 24 hours with its highest and lowest moment, an axis in watts and clock times">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-history-touch.png" width="32%" alt="A finger on the CYD's history graph: the average of that hour and its time at the top">
  <img src="docs/images/cyd-history-door.png" width="32%" alt="The door's history on the CYD: a timeline over 24 hours with the time open and closed">
</p>

Features depend on the capabilities Home Assistant reports for an entity.
The app must keep running to keep the screens supplied with current data.

A short tap on a switch switches immediately; the off state gets a gray icon. A long press
opens its history card with the toggle at the top right (firmware 0.2.51+).
The tile shows the new state at once and Home Assistant's own report confirms it; a refusal
puts the old state back. A spinner only appears when Home Assistant takes longer than about
0.4 seconds, and no wait lasts longer than three (firmware 0.2.59+). Tiles with a mini-slider
keep their icon; on the CYD, the icon and text block are vertically centered.

## Alert from an automation

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-alert.png" width="41%" alt="An alert on the Guition: someone is at the door, with a Coming button">
  <img src="docs/images/editor-alerts.png" width="53%" alt="The Alerts cheatsheet in ESP Screens: the action name of every screen, ready to copy">
</p>

Every screen has the action **`esphome.<screen>_show_alert`** (firmware 0.2.31+). It places
a card over the entire screen, wakes the screen, and keeps the backlight at normal
brightness until someone taps **OK**. In an automation:

```yaml
action: esphome.kitchen_screen_show_alert
data:
  title: "Someone is at the door"
  subtitle: "Door 3, back"
  icon: doorbell
  color: orange
  button_text: "Coming"
  timeout: 0
  flash: true
```

- **`title`** and **`subtitle`**: a single-line title (truncated with an ellipsis if too long) and an
  explanation that wraps across multiple lines. Empty is allowed; an empty title becomes "Notification".
- **`icon`**: a name from the tile picker, such as `doorbell`, `bell`, `alert-outline`,
  `lock`, `door-open`, `motion-sensor`, `smoke-detector`, `water-alert`, `mailbox`, `car`,
  or `account`. `mdi:doorbell` and the hex codepoint (`F12E6`) also work, as long as the glyph
  is included in the firmware. Unknown falls back to the warning triangle.
- **`color`**: `red`, `orange`, `yellow`, `green`, `mint`, `blue`, `purple`, `pink`, or
  `gray` — the same pastel shades as the tiles. Empty gives the white card.
- **`button_text`**: the text on the button; empty is "OK".
- **`timeout`**: seconds after which the card disappears on its own; `0` means it waits for the button,
  however long that takes. The button always closes the card immediately, even with a timeout. Standby and
  night mode wait as long as the card is showing.
- **`flash`**: `true` makes the backlight blink four times when the alert arrives.

In ESP Screens, **Alerts** in the sidebar opens a cheatsheet with the exact action name for each screen,
a ready-to-paste example, and all fields, icons, and colors. It starts with **Try it** (app 0.2.73): fill in
the same seven fields, choose one screen or all of them, and send a test alert.
Home Assistant asks for all seven fields; leave a field empty (`""`, `0`, `false`) if you
don't use it. A new alert replaces the current one. Every end is reported as the event
**`esphome.screen_alert`** with `action` (`ok`, `timeout`, `replaced`, or `remote`), `title`,
`screen`, and the `device_id` that Home Assistant adds, so an automation can wait for OK.
**`esphome.<screen>_dismiss_alert`** clears the card remotely. With the event for every screen, the
button can also perform a Home Assistant action of your choice (below).

### All screens at once

From app 0.2.45, one event reaches every screen that is online, screens you add later included.
ESP Screen Manager passes it on to each screen's `show_alert` action. The fields are the same;
the ones you leave out stay empty:

```yaml
actions:
  - event: esp_screens_show_alert
    event_data:
      title: "Mail!"
      subtitle: "There is post in the mailbox"
      icon: mailbox
      color: orange
      timeout: 0
      flash: true
```

**`esp_screens_dismiss_alert`** clears the alert on every screen. The app has to be running
for these two events; the per-screen actions work without it.

### With a camera picture

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-alert-camera.png" width="41%" alt="An alert on the Guition with the front door camera's picture across the top: someone is at the door, with a Coming button">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-camera.png" width="41%" alt="The front door camera full screen on the Guition, with the round back key and the camera's name at the top">
</p>

From app 0.2.66, the event takes one more field: **`camera`**, a `camera.*` or `image.*` entity.
A Guition with firmware 0.2.57+ shows that camera's picture of the moment across the top of the
card; a tap on it opens the camera full screen over the alert, and Back returns to the alert.
Other screens show the same alert without the picture. The per-screen actions have no `camera`
field.

```yaml
actions:
  - event: esp_screens_show_alert
    event_data:
      title: "Someone is at the door"
      subtitle: "Front door"
      icon: doorbell
      color: orange
      button_text: "Coming"
      camera: camera.front_door
```

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-camera-tiles.png" width="41%" alt="Cameras as tiles on the Guition: the front door camera, the garden camera live, the doorbell's last ring, next to the door, the porch light and the garage door">
</p>

A camera or image entity also works as a **tile** on a Guition: a tap opens it full screen, refreshed
every four seconds. From app 0.2.91 with firmware 0.2.77 a camera tile can show a **live picture** in
the icon's place: in the tile's settings choose **Display → Live picture** and a pace, every 15 or
30 seconds. The picture is a small square with the tile's rounded corners, the middle of the camera's
view, and it refreshes while that page is on the screen; a tap still opens the camera full screen. The
camera tiles of one page share one download, so six live tiles cost the screen no more than one.
A media player tile can show its **album cover** the same way (app 0.2.92, firmware 0.2.78):
**Display → Album cover** puts the cover of what plays in the icon's place, refreshed when the track
changes, with the tile's controls kept. How the image travels (port 8098 of the app, no token on the
screen) is in [docs/CAMERA.md](docs/CAMERA.md).

### With a button that does something

From app 0.2.91 the event takes an **`action`**: a Home Assistant action the app performs when the
button is pressed, on whichever screen, once per alert. **`data`** gives the action's fields. The
screen itself only reports the press (the `esphome.screen_alert` event it always sent), so this works
with every screen from firmware 0.2.31 and needs no update. A timeout, a new alert over it or
`esp_screens_dismiss_alert` leaves the action unperformed. The per-screen actions have no `action`
field.

```yaml
actions:
  - event: esp_screens_show_alert
    event_data:
      title: "Someone is at the gate"
      subtitle: "Open it?"
      icon: doorbell
      button_text: "Open"
      timeout: 120
      action: script.open_gate
  - event: esp_screens_show_alert
    event_data:
      title: "Lights are still on downstairs"
      button_text: "Turn off"
      action: light.turn_off
      data:
        entity_id: light.downstairs
        transition: 3
```

### Ask Claude

Use Claude Code in Home Assistant? **Settings → Claude → Install for Claude Code** writes an
ESP Screens skill to `/homeassistant/.claude/skills/esp-screens`, so Claude knows the events, the
tile settings and every field, color and icon. Then ask, for example: "Put the vacuum on the living
room screen", "Give the living room lights a brightness slider and make that tile wide", "Move the
vacuum to page 1" or "Show an alert on all my screens when the mailbox is full." Claude reads what a
screen shows from `sensor.esp_screens_<screen>` and asks before it changes anything. **Download for
claude.ai** gives the same skill as a zip to upload in Claude under Customize → Skills. Nothing is
written until you press the button.

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/editor-settings.png" width="80%" alt="Settings in ESP Screens: New screen and Firmware & USB, the firmware updates, the Alerts cheatsheet, and the Claude skill">
</p>

## Wake and sleep from an automation

Every screen has two buttons in Home Assistant (firmware 0.2.45+). An automation presses them
with the `button.press` action:

- **`button.<screen>_wake`** lights the screen up: a screen in standby goes to its normal brightness
  (the second hand of an analog clock runs again), and the standby time starts counting again. On a
  screen that is already on, only the count starts again. Wake is not a touch: **Back to page 1** keeps
  counting from the last touch, so pressing Wake on every motion doesn't keep an open card or a later
  page up, and a screen whose time ran out during standby lights up on page 1 (firmware 0.2.56+).
- **`button.<screen>_sleep`** puts the screen in standby right away, the same as when the standby
  time runs out, and also works with **Auto standby** off. The screen stays in standby until someone
  taps it, **Wake** is pressed or an alert comes in; switching Auto standby off doesn't end it. An alert
  that is showing closes (reported as `remote`).

Neither button saves anything on the screen, so an automation may press them as often as it likes,
on every motion too. That is the difference with the **Auto standby** switch, which is a setting.
To reach several screens at once, list their buttons:

```yaml
actions:
  - action: button.press
    target:
      entity_id:
        - button.kitchen_screen_sleep
        - button.living_room_screen_sleep
```

Don't target an area or a device with `button.press`: that presses every other button there too,
the Wake and Sleep of the same screen included.

## Customizing tiles and colors

Click a tile in the screen preview and its settings open in a drawer beside it. Under
**Pastel background**, choose a color, such as red or green. Optionally adjust the name, the
size, what a tap does (**On tap**), the small slider, or a large value. Click **Save & send**
to apply the changes.
After the first supporting firmware update, this requires no new flash.

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/editor-tile-settings.png" width="39%" alt="Tile settings of the curtains: double-width with open, stop and close on the tile, and on tap Perform action with Set cover position at 50 %">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-page-3.png" width="57%" alt="The result on the screen: the double-width Curtains tile with open, stop and close, above a kitchen timer, a scene and the sun path">
</p>
<p align="center"><sub>The settings of the Curtains tile, and that tile on the screen: open, stop and close on the tile, and a tap on its name sets the curtains to 50 %.</sub></p>

A color is a fixed choice for that tile: it stays red, for example,
even when you run the all-off script. The entity status and action feedback
stay separately visible.

## Top bar

Tap the top bar of any page in the editor's preview and the drawer shows the screen's **Top bar**:
the name on the left, up to six items on the right. **＋ Add** offers the time, an analog clock,
and the date (which
keep ticking on the screen itself, even without Home Assistant), suggestions from your own
home (temperature and power usage from the screen's room, the weather, how many people are home,
sunrise and sunset), and a search field for any entity, including a phone
(`device_tracker`), a lock, the alarm panel, or `zone.home`. Drag the items
to change their order; tap one to configure it:

- **What to show:** the state as Home Assistant writes it (21.3 °C, 65%,
  1,249 W, Open/Closed, Home/Away, Armed away), or **Last changed**: "Just now",
  "5 min ago", "Yesterday". A timestamp sensor can also count forward ("In 2 hours").
- **Icon:** automatic, matching Home Assistant (an open door gets an open-
  door icon), a custom icon from the list, or no icon.
- **Show:** always, or **only when active**: the item only appears when it's
  on, open, home, or greater than 0. Handy for an open door or a running
  washing machine. Active items are colored like in Home Assistant (open door amber,
  alarm armed green, alarm triggered red).

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/editor-top-bar.png" width="31%" alt="Add to the top bar: the time, an analog clock, the date and suggestions from your own home">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-home.png" width="49%" alt="The top bar on the screen: outdoor temperature, people at home and the time">
</p>

The screen preview draws the bar with the same letters and rules as the screen:
all values on one line with the name, icons aligned to digit height, equal spacing.
If not everything fits next to the name, the name gets an ellipsis and the screen drops the
leading items; the editor marks those with dashes. Until updated, older firmware shows
only the name and the time (if that's in the bar).

## Settings on the screen

Everything you would want to change while standing in front of the panel is on the screen
itself (firmware 0.2.44+). Tiles, the top bar and the pages stay in ESP Screens, where you
have a mouse.

**Opening it:** hold the top bar — the strip with the screen's name and the clock — until the
blue line along the top edge is full, about a second and a half. Letting go early cancels.
Rather have a button? Put the built-in **Settings** card on a page like any other tile. From
Home Assistant, `esphome.<screen>_open_settings` opens it too (`page` 0 menu, 1 Brightness,
2 Night, 3 Screen, 4 This screen, -1 closes it).

| Group | What is on it |
|---|---|
| Brightness | Brightness, Dark mode, Auto standby, Standby after, Standby brightness |
| Night | Night mode, Starts, Ends, Night brightness |
| Screen | Back to page 1 by itself and after how long, also on standby, swiping between pages, page buttons, rotation (boards that turn) |
| This screen | Name, IP address, firmware version, Home Assistant connected, Restart |

The language, the 12 or 24-hour clock and how numbers are written are the same on every screen: Settings → Language &
region in ESP Screens (app 0.2.90, firmware 0.2.76). They follow Home Assistant's language unless you choose otherwise.
ESP Screens writes the language into each screen's YAML (`LANGUAGE: "nl"` under `substitutions:`), and the screen shows
it after its next firmware update. A screen whose YAML ESP Screens can't reach, such as one you build with ESPHome on
another machine, gets that line from you: a code from [`screen_manager/translations`](screen_manager/translations);
English is the default. [Translating ESP Screens](docs/TRANSLATING.md) says how to add or check a language.

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-settings-menu.png" width="32%" alt="The settings menu on the Guition: Brightness, Night, Screen and This screen">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-settings.png" width="32%" alt="The Brightness page: the brightness with minus and plus, Dark mode off, Auto standby on, standby after 10 minutes and the standby brightness">
  <img src="docs/images/guition-settings-night.png" width="32%" alt="The Night page: Night mode on, starting at 22:00 and ending at 07:00, and the night brightness">
</p>

Tap a toggle to flip it, `-` and `+` to change a number or a time — hold them and a time walks
whole hours — and tap a chip like the clock to cycle it. Every change is saved on the screen,
takes effect at once, and appears in ESP Screens within a second, so both sides always show
the same value. The **Screen settings** cards in ESP Screens have the same rows.

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/editor-screen-settings.png" width="98%" alt="Screen settings in ESP Screens: Brightness with Dark mode and standby, Night with its hours and brightness, and Screen with back to page 1, swiping, the page buttons and the rotation">
</p>

**In Home Assistant** (firmware 0.2.49+), every setting is an entity on the screen's device, under
*Configuration*: `number.<screen>_normal_brightness`, `switch.<screen>_night_mode`,
`time.<screen>_night_starts`, `switch.<screen>_dark_mode`, `select.<screen>_rotation` on a
Guition, and the rest. An automation, the settings page and ESP Screens all change the same value,
and setting a value the screen already has costs nothing. The full list is in
[docs/SETTINGS.md](docs/SETTINGS.md#who-owns-a-setting).

## Updates and keeping your settings

| Change | Action |
| --- | --- |
| Tiles, names, colors, or order | Save in ESP Screens; no firmware flash |
| Screen settings | Change them in ESP Screens (they apply at once), on the screen, or on their entities in Home Assistant |
| New version of the management page | Update ESP Screen Manager in the HA App store |
| New feature on the physical screen | The **Update** button on the screen (badge *Update x.y.z*), or **Update automatically every night** under Settings |
| Your own YAML for one screen | **Override YAML** in ESP Screens; kept through updates (app 0.2.61) |

Every app version belongs to one firmware version. After an app update, the list
shows per screen whether newer firmware is available. **Update** builds that screen's own profile
with the built-in CLI, installs it wirelessly, and waits until the screen is back.
With the checkbox enabled, that happens automatically at night, one screen at a time; a
failure stops the round and posts a notification in Home Assistant. Firmware
0.2.17+ reports its own device name and IP address for this; an older screen asks
for the IP address once. You can still do it manually via **Firmware & USB** in the sidebar → **Wi-Fi / OTA**.

The device's own YAML and Wi-Fi/API/OTA settings stay in the ESPHome config folder.
Tile layouts and options live in the app's persistent data. CYD calibration and
screen preferences stay stored on the device. Updates don't replace this
user data. Do still make normal Home Assistant backups and keep your
device profiles; removing an app or wiping flash memory is not an update.

**Your own YAML for one screen (app 0.2.61).** **Override YAML** in ESP Screens edits a small
`<screen>.local.yaml` beside the screen's profile, for hardware-specific changes such as another
display controller. It is loaded after the shared board package and stays in place when the app or
the firmware package updates. The screen's name, Wi-Fi, API, OTA, packages, external components and
captive portal stay managed and are refused there. **Save & check** runs ESPHome's full validation
of the complete profile, and a build never starts from an invalid one.

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/editor-override-yaml.png" width="60%" alt="Override YAML for the living room screen: a small file of its own, loaded after the shared package, here with the example that changes the display controller">
</p>

**Efficient, even with many screens (0.2.39 / firmware 0.2.33).** The app sends a
screen only the tile that changed, as a single action
(`esphome.<device_name>_screen_message`) instead of chunks in a text field.
Every two minutes, a small ping follows with the layout revision; if the
screen reports that it doesn't match (after a restart, for example), everything is resent.
Firmware 0.2.49+ answers that ping, and a new layout, directly, so a screen that still
lacks a tile gets it again after 30 seconds instead of two minutes.
Graphs on sensor tiles come from Home Assistant's statistics, in one
query for all screens. Older firmware still works via the text field and the
full resend every two minutes. The diagnostic sensor `Uptime` has been
replaced by the `Last boot` timestamp.

See the [release history](screen_manager/CHANGELOG.md) and
[releases and protocol compatibility](docs/RELEASING.md).

**If you publish your own fork:** every push to GitHub is a release. Always also
bump the add-on version in `screen_manager/config.yaml` and log the change in
the CHANGELOG, otherwise the HA App store won't offer an update. A change to the
screen also gets a new `SCREEN_FIRMWARE_VERSION` in `packages/core.yaml`, the one place both boards
take it from, and the same `FIRMWARE_VERSION` in `screen_manager/app/core.py`.

## Guides and installation help

- [Complete installation from ESP Screens](docs/EASY_SETUP.md)
- [ESP Screens with Home Assistant Container (Docker)](docs/DOCKER.md)
- [Guition hardware, mounting, and rotation](docs/GUITION.md)
- [Elecrow CrowPanel 7.0" hardware, touch and flash](docs/ELECROW.md)
- [CYD calibration and USB diagnostics](docs/CALIBRATING.md)
- [Camera images and album covers](docs/CAMERA.md)
- [Troubleshooting](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md)
- [Instructions for developers and LLMs](AGENTS.md), with [how a screen's YAML is put together](docs/PROFILES.md),
  [settings](docs/SETTINGS.md), [colours and Dark mode](docs/THEME.md) and [releases](docs/RELEASING.md)

Give a developer or LLM a clean copy of this repository and, for example:

> Read AGENTS.md, README.md, and docs/EASY_SETUP.md. Help me install this CYD or
> Guition screen via USB on my Home Assistant. Identify
> the board and use my existing profile if one already exists. Guide me through
> calibration, HA pairing, tile selection, and physical tests. Keep keys local,
> and state which checks were actually carried out.

A successful build doesn't prove the physical touch or panel image is correct. The owner
must check the display and perform the requested taps.