Home Assistant (HASS.IO) Integration with Apprise

This guide explains how to integrate Apprise with Home Assistant using the built-in Apprise notification platform. This approach allows you to centralize all notification logic in a single configuration file (or Apprise API source) while letting Home Assistant focus purely on automation logic.

Why Use Apprise with Home Assistant

Using Apprise provides several benefits:

A single configuration file for all notification services
Support for dozens of providers (email, Telegram, ntfy, Kodi, and more)
Tag-based routing for flexible notification targeting
No vendor lock-in at the automation level

Home Assistant remains unaware of provider details. It simply sends messages to Apprise and lets Apprise do the rest.

1. Installation

Apprise is built into Home Assistant Core. You do not need to install a custom component or add-on. It is available immediately via the notify platform.

2. Configuration

Choose the configuration method that best fits your needs.

This method is best if you only have a single notification service or want to get up and running quickly without creating extra files.

Edit configuration.yaml

Add the following entry to your configuration file. Replace the URL with your specific service URL.

notify:
  - name: apprise_quick
    platform: apprise
    # Define the Apprise URL directly here
    url: tgram://123456789:ABCDefghIJKLmnOPqrstUVwxyz

This method is the standard for managing multiple notification services, complex groups, and tagging logic.

Apprise is smart enough to detect your file type. You can use YAML (structured) or TEXT (simple list) files.

Step A: Edit configuration.yaml

Point to your preferred configuration file.

notify:
  - name: apprise
    platform: apprise
    # You can reference a YAML file...
    config: /config/apprise.yaml

    # ...OR a simple text file
    # config: /config/apprise.conf

Step B: Create your config file

Option A: YAML (Structured)
Option B: TEXT (Simple)

Create /config/apprise.yaml. Best for complex setups.

urls:
  - tgram://123456789:ABCDefghIJKLmnOPqrstUVwxyz:
      tag: telegram
  - mailtos://user:pass@smtp.gmail.com:
      tag: mail

You can also use the include directive inside your local file to pull in remote configurations while keeping some local!

# Point to an Apprise API Instance:
include http://apprise.host/get/my-profile-key

urls:
  # Plus local overrides
  - mailtos://local-user@example.com

Create /config/apprise.conf. Best for simple lists of URLs.

# Tag defined by comma prefix
telegram=tgram://123456789:ABCDefghIJKLmnOPqrstUVwxyz

# Multiple tags defined by comma
mail,devops=mailtos://user:pass@smtp.gmail.com

You can also use the include directive inside your local file to pull in remote configurations while keeping some local!

# Point to an Apprise API Instance:
include http://apprise.host/get/my-profile-key

# Plus local overrides
mailtos://local-user@example.com

This method is ideal for Roaming Configurations. If you run multiple Home Assistant instances or other services, you can centralize all your notification logic in a self-hosted Apprise API instance.

Edit configuration.yaml

Instead of pointing to a local file, point the config parameter directly to your API endpoint.

notify:
  - name: apprise_api
    platform: apprise
    # Apprise will fetch the configuration from this URL
    config: https://apprise.host/get/my-profile-key

3. Usage in Automations

Once configured and Home Assistant is restarted, you can send notifications using the notify service.

Example: Using Method 1 (Inline)

If you used Method 1, your service is likely named notify.apprise_quick. You do not need to provide a target because the destination is hardcoded in your configuration.

- alias: "[Interactive] - Sunset Notice"
  trigger:
    platform: sun
    event: sunset

  action:
    # Matches the 'name' you gave in configuration.yaml
    service: notify.apprise_quick
    data:
      title: "Good evening"
      message: "The sun is setting."

Example: Using Methods 2 & 3 (Config Based)

If you used Method 2 or Method 3, you can control exactly who gets notified by using the target field to match the tags defined in your YAML file (or API configuration).

- alias: "[Interactive] - Sunset Notice"
  trigger:
    platform: sun
    event: sunset

  action:
    service: notify.apprise
    data:
      # This 'target' matches the 'tag' in your config
      target: email
      title: "Good evening"
      message: "The sun is setting."

Advanced Tagging Logic

You can combine tags in your target field to create powerful notification groups on the fly.

Target Value	Logic	Description
`target: devops`	Simple	Notifies everything tagged `devops`.
`target: [devops, alarm]`	OR	Notifies everything tagged `devops` OR `alarm`.
`target: "devops alarm"`	AND	Notifies only services that have BOTH tags.

4. Debugging & Logging

If your notifications aren’t sending, you can enable debug logging specifically for the Apprise component in Home Assistant. Add this to your configuration.yaml:

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    homeassistant.components.apprise: debug

After restarting, check your Home Assistant logs. You will see Apprise attempting to load your configuration and dispatch messages, which will help identify invalid URLs or network issues.