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You can use Home Assistant for a long time without writing YAML by hand. The interface can install integrations, create automations, and configure much of a connected home. Eventually, though, you encounter an example that only makes sense when you open the YAML view, an automation that needs a precise adjustment, or an error message that points to a specific key and line.
This course starts at that exact point. It will not teach you YAML for Docker, Kubernetes, or Ansible, and it is not designed to turn you into a programmer. Its purpose is to teach the YAML you will actually encounter in Home Assistant so you can read it, modify it, organize it, and diagnose problems without making random changes.
The course consists of twelve chapters built around one consistent virtual home. Each new concept depends only on material you have already learned, the examples can be run, and the exercises include explained solutions. You will not have to assemble a course from unrelated snippets or adapt every example to devices you may not own.
What you will be able to do
The goal is not to memorize a catalog of keys. By the end of the final project, you should be able to open an automation or script and reconstruct its structure: identify what starts it, what conditions it checks, what actions it runs, and which entities it uses.
You will also learn to separate problems that are often treated as if they were the same. Incorrect indentation is a YAML issue; a nonexistent action belongs to Home Assistant configuration; a dynamic expression can fail in Jinja; and a perfectly valid automation can still contain a logic error. Knowing which layer you are working in prevents a great deal of trial and error.
Over the course of the series, you will progress from reading small blocks to building automations with conditions, branching, waits, and reusable scripts. You will then add safe templates and variables, organize a growing configuration, and use Home Assistant’s diagnostic tools to determine what actually happened during a run.
A virtual home you can use without buying devices
Every chapter uses the same practice environment. The lab creates a virtual front door, light, motion sensor, temperature sensor, fan, home-presence sensor, and night mode. Internal controls let you change their states from Home Assistant, so you can open the door, simulate motion, or raise the temperature whenever an exercise requires it.
This keeps the results reproducible. If an automation does not work, you will know the example entities exist and can concentrate on the structure or logic. You can use your real devices instead by replacing each entity_id, but owning matching hardware is never a requirement.
The download includes installation instructions in both English and Spanish. Before copying the package, create a backup, do not replace your configuration.yaml, and always validate the configuration before restarting.
How the course is organized
These are not twelve independent articles placed under one label. They form a sequence. The opening chapters teach you how to read YAML; the next group applies that skill to entities, automations, and scripts; Jinja, variables, organization, and diagnosis come later. The final chapter combines everything in a project you must be able to test and explain.
A new chapter will be released every Friday at 5:00 p.m. The course page will be updated to link only to chapters that are already available, so it will never send you to an unpublished page.
Chapter 1 — YAML in Home Assistant: What You Actually Need to Learn
Before studying syntax, you will separate YAML from Home Assistant and Jinja. You will see when the interface is the right tool, when reading YAML becomes useful, and which parts of the broader YAML ecosystem you can safely ignore. You will also install and verify the virtual home used throughout the course.
Available September 4. Go to Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 — Learn to Read YAML Without Memorizing It
You will identify keys, values, lists, and maps while using indentation as a visual representation of the structure. You will work with strings, numbers, booleans, empty values, and comments, then repair a broken block to see why a single space can change the result.
Available September 11.
Chapter 3 — How Home Assistant Understands Your Home
YAML will stop feeling like an abstract structure. You will connect domains, entity_id, states, attributes, and actions to the entities in the virtual home. The objective is to read an unfamiliar example and know which parts must be adapted before you run it.
Available September 18.
Chapter 4 — Your First YAML Automation, Line by Line
You will use the interface to build an automation that turns on a light when the door opens, then read its complete YAML representation. You will see what triggers, conditions, actions, target, mode, and each structural level contribute without reducing the lesson to a list of fields.
Available September 25.
Chapter 5 — Conditions and choose: Let the Automation Decide
The automation will stop responding the same way every time. It will check whether it is night, whether someone is home, and how long a state has already been true. You will then use choose to select different behavior without duplicating entire automations.
Available October 2.
Chapter 6 — Delays, Waits, and Run Modes
You will learn the difference between delaying an action, waiting for a state to change, and limiting that wait with a timeout. You will also trigger overlapping runs to see why single, restart, queued, and parallel can change the result even when the action sequence is identical.
Available October 9.
Chapter 7 — Scripts: Reuse Actions Without Duplicating YAML
You will extract a repeated sequence and turn it into a reusable routine that prepares the living room. You will compare a direct script call with script.turn_on, add input fields, and decide when a script improves the configuration and when it merely fragments it.
Available October 16.
Chapter 8 — YAML and Jinja Are Not the Same Thing
At this point, you will be ready to add dynamic values without confusing the layers. You will recognize {{ }} and {% %}, read states and attributes, test a template, and use a few essential filters. YAML will continue to define the structure while Jinja calculates the value Home Assistant needs.
Available October 23.
Chapter 9 — Variables and Templates That Do Not Break
You will work with unknown and unavailable states, numeric conversions, and default values. You will store one reading and reuse it consistently, control variable scope, and prevent a temperature that has not arrived yet from producing the wrong decision.
Available October 30.
Chapter 10 — Organize Home Assistant Before YAML Becomes Unmanageable
You will open configuration.yaml, automations.yaml, scripts.yaml, the different !include forms, packages, and secrets.yaml with one practical question: what structure does each location expect? You will reorganize the course’s manual configuration without treating file splitting as a goal in itself.
Available November 6.
Chapter 11 — When YAML Does Not Work
You will complete an error clinic designed to separate YAML syntax, Home Assistant schema, references, logic, and fragile templates. You will use configuration validation, traces, logs, states, and the template editor to collect evidence before changing anything.
Available November 13.
Chapter 12 — Final Project: Build and Explain the Complete Home Automation
The course ends with a welcome automation that combines presence, the front door, night mode, temperature, variables, branching, and a reusable script. Making it work is only part of the assignment: you will prepare a test plan and explain why each path runs.
Available November 20.
What you need before you begin
You need a working Home Assistant installation and enough access to create a backup, copy the practice package, and validate the configuration. You do not need programming experience, prior experience editing configuration.yaml, or any of the devices represented in the examples.
We will use the interface and YAML as complementary views. When the interface reduces risk or helps reveal available options, we will begin there. When we need to compare structures, move an example, or diagnose a particular line, we will open YAML.
If you are starting from scratch, begin with Chapter 1 and follow the sequence. If you have already used YAML, the early exercises will reveal whether you can reconstruct its structure or have mostly relied on copying complete blocks.