Building Your First Dashboard

What a Dashboard Does for You

A Home Assistant dashboard is a customizable web page that shows the status of your devices and lets you control them. Think of it as a command center for your entire home. You can see at a glance which lights are on, whether the front door is locked, what the thermostat is set to, and the current weather. You can control any device with a tap. And you can create different dashboards for different purposes: a wall-mounted tablet showing an overview, a mobile dashboard for quick controls, or a detailed dashboard for monitoring energy usage.

Home Assistant automatically creates a default dashboard that includes every device you have added. This is functional but not pretty and quickly becomes unwieldy as you add more devices. Building a custom dashboard lets you show exactly what you need, arranged exactly how you want it.

Dashboard Basics: Views, Cards, and Layouts

Dashboards in Home Assistant are composed of a few key building blocks:

Views are the tabs across the top of your dashboard. Each view is a separate page. You might have views for Home (overview), Lights, Climate, Security, and Media. Organize views by function or by area, whichever makes more sense for how you use your home.

Cards are the individual elements on each view. There are dozens of card types. Some of the most useful include:

• Entity card: Shows a single entity (like a light or sensor) with its current state and a toggle or control.
• Light card: A visual card specifically for lights that shows a color wheel or brightness slider.
• Thermostat card: A circular dial for controlling your thermostat, similar to a Nest display.
• Glance card: Shows the state of multiple entities in a compact row, perfect for a quick overview.
• Entities card: A list of entities, each with its name, state, and toggle. Great for grouping related devices.
• Area card: Shows all devices in a specific area with a background image.
• Mushroom cards: A popular custom card collection (installed via HACS) that provides modern, minimalist designs.

Sections layout is the newest dashboard layout mode (introduced in 2024) and the one we recommend for new users. It arranges cards in a responsive grid that automatically adapts to your screen size. Sections can be given headings and reordered by dragging.

Building Your First Custom Dashboard

Let us build a practical dashboard step by step:

1. Go to Settings, then Dashboards, then click Add Dashboard. Give it a name like "My Home" and choose "Sections" as the layout type.
2. The dashboard opens in edit mode. You will see an empty view. Click the pencil icon to rename the view to "Home."
3. Add a weather section. Click "Add Section" and title it "Weather." Add a Weather Forecast card and select your weather integration. This gives you current conditions and a forecast at the top of your dashboard.
4. Add a quick controls section. Add another section titled "Quick Controls." Add Tile cards for your most-used devices: the living room lights, thermostat, front door lock, and any other devices you interact with daily. Tile cards are compact and provide a toggle plus the current state.
5. Add a room section. For each major room, add a section with the room name. Use an Entities card to list all devices in that room. This gives you a room-by-room breakdown of your home's status.
6. Add a security section. Group your door sensors, lock status, and motion sensors into a section titled "Security." Use a Glance card for a compact overview of all entry points.
7. Click Done to save your dashboard.

Customizing Cards for Better Usability

The default card settings are functional but can be improved with a few tweaks:

Use meaningful names. Instead of the default entity name "light.living_room_overhead_1," set a friendly name like "Living Room Ceiling." You can rename entities in Settings, then Devices & Services, by clicking the entity and editing its name.

Add icons. Custom icons make it faster to identify devices at a glance. Home Assistant uses Material Design Icons (mdi). Browse the full list at materialdesignicons.com. Common choices include mdi:lightbulb for lights, mdi:thermometer for temperature, mdi:lock for locks, and mdi:door for door sensors.

Use conditional cards. Show a card only when a certain condition is met. For example, show an "Open Windows" card only when at least one window sensor reports open. This keeps your dashboard clean by hiding information that is not relevant.

Add badges. Badges appear at the top of a view and show compact status information. Use them for things you want to see at a glance without taking up card space: outdoor temperature, energy usage, number of lights on, or whether anyone is home.

Mobile Dashboard vs. Wall Tablet Dashboard

If you plan to use Home Assistant on both a phone and a wall-mounted tablet, consider creating separate dashboards optimized for each. A mobile dashboard should be compact with large touch targets and the most frequently used controls front and center. A wall tablet dashboard can be more expansive with a floor plan view, camera feeds, and detailed sensor readings.

For wall-mounted tablets, the Fully Kiosk Browser app (Android) or the Home Assistant kiosk mode are popular choices that lock the tablet to your dashboard and wake the screen when motion is detected.

Keeping Your Dashboard Maintainable

A dashboard that is not maintained becomes a dashboard that is not used. Follow these principles to keep it useful long-term. Only show what you actually look at. If you have not glanced at a card in a month, remove it. Update the dashboard when you add or remove devices. A stale dashboard with entities that no longer exist will show errors. Use sections and views to keep things organized so you do not end up with a single overwhelmingly long page. Periodically ask other household members if the dashboard works for them. Your power-user layout might be confusing for someone who just wants to turn on the lights.