Allow for more targeting flexibility in automations/blueprints/scripts

[nielsrowinbik]

Problem statement

With our newly introduced target picker in #2, we've vastly improved the way users can target things in their home in automations, blueprints, and scripts - whether that's for triggers, conditions, or actions.

The problem is: not all of our triggers and conditions support the new target picker. An example being is the old but still very powerful entity state trigger. Users have expressed the desire to use the same picker there.

Furthermore, once something is targeted, say, through an area, there is no way of customising that set. If the user wants to trigger on all current and future motion sensors in the living room, with one specific exception, currently, they can't. Similarly, if they want to turn on all current and future lights in the kitchen except two, they can't.

Community signals

• This Discord conversation on the new triggers and condition discusses how great the new target would be to have on the old entity state trigger.
• 6 out of 152 (4%) users who have provided feedback on the purpose-specific triggers and conditions have specifically asked for this feature.
• This feature request specifically asks for the ability to exclude entities from targets.

Scope & Boundaries

In scope

• Extending the new and more flexible target picker to everything that allows targeting entities
• Allowing users to un-select individual target entities within a target

Not in scope

• Introducing a rule-based system to define targets (e.g., no "entities in living room area that do not have the label 'ignored'")

Foreseen solution

The new target picker is available everywhere the user selects a target. Within the tree view of which exact entities are being targeted, the user can choose to exclude some of them by unticking the checkmark by the entity.

This is what it might look like (final design / functionality TBD):

CleanShot.2026-03-27.at.15.56.29.mp4

Risks & open questions

1. How do we balance flexibility with easy of use? We're already placing a rule-based engine out of scope, but complexity could still increase when we start thinking about how to handle with the dynamic nature of some targets. Do we select by default and retain the entities that the user manually excluded? What happens if an exclusion is removed from a target because it was moved out of the area, and is added back in? There are lots of moving parts.

Appetite

1 month / release cycle. We should be able to deliver something meaningful in this relatively short amount of time.

Execution issues

No response

Decision log

Date	Decision	Outcome