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📍 Presence Sensing

Magic Areas works by detecting presence within an area and triggering state changes or automations accordingly. It does this by monitoring presence-related events from specific Home Assistant entity types and interpreting their states to determine whether an area is occupied or clear.

🛰️ Supported Presence Sources

Magic Areas currently supports presence sensing from the following Home Assistant platforms:

  • media_player (and remote)
  • binary_sensor
  • device_tracker

This may seem like a limited list, but it's intentional. Magic Areas relies on clear and predictable states and device_class values to automatically detect which entities can be used for presence sensing — with no manual configuration required in most cases.

Presence logic examples:

  • If a media_player is playing in an area → the area is considered occupied.
  • If a device_tracker entity (e.g., your desktop computer) is home → the area is occupied.
  • If a binary_sensor for motion or presence is on → the area is occupied.

🧠 Default Presence States

The following entity states are used by default to infer presence:

  • on
  • home
  • playing

📡 Default binary_sensor Device Classes

Magic Areas automatically uses the following device_class values for binary_sensor entities:

  • motion
  • occupancy
  • presence

These cover most sensors used for room occupancy detection.

You can also extend this list in the UI if you use other sensors that make sense for your setup — for example, using a door sensor on a frequently used door like your garage entry.

⚠️ Known Limitations

Some Home Assistant entities — such as switch or general-purpose sensor — don’t reliably convey presence information by default. However, you can easily work around this using Home Assistant’s flexible templating tools.

💡 Tips for Custom Presence Detection

You can create custom presence logic using these tools:

  • Template Binary Sensors Use them to turn power or status sensors into binary on/off presence indicators.

  • Switch as X Useful for converting smart plugs into presence sensors by modeling them as something else.

✅ Example Use Cases:

  • Detect TV usage by monitoring power draw with a smart plug, then create a template binary sensor to represent presence.
  • Use a door contact sensor (device_class: door) to indicate occupancy when a specific door opens.
  • Combine with external solutions like Bermuda, ESPresence and Room Assistant to use Bluetooth-based room tracking.

With the right combination of sensors and logic, Magic Areas can reliably detect presence in every corner of your home — even in edge cases!