Guarantee entity name from sensor in YAML

[boreal plaza]

filter integration expects entity_id to work with. I have a template sensor that is being filtered. The template sensor is created in YAML and its entity_id can't be defined.

How do I guarantee the entity id for the template sensor won't change in the future since it is not defined?

essentially how does HA link my YAML code with the internal entity_id structure, if I modify the sensor in the future, for example

[shell crater]

in general there is not really any reason it would change. however if you create the sensor in yaml in the config file then you can specify an entity ID with the unique_id tag

[boreal plaza]

but is the "rule" that once you set the sensor name: My Sensor Name I am not supposed to change it anymore in the YAML ?

[shell crater]

heres an example of one i have in my config file

    sensor:
      - name: "Kitchen Alexa Timers Info"
        unique_id: "kitchen_alexa_timers_info"```

this means the sensor will definetly be `sensor.kitchen_alexa_timers_info`as thats the unique id

if it was instead unique_id: "dancing_panda" the sensor would be sensor.dancing_panda

if you dont put in a unique id it autogens which i guess you are worried about changing. so if you manually specify then you wont have that issue

[boreal plaza]

thanks!

so conclusion is to put unique_id everytime

[shell crater]

yeah that should prevent any issues

it would be super rare that stuff would change anyway but for "mission critical" stuff then putting it in nails it down

[boreal plaza]

Yes, that's the one worry, and another one is if HA will always generate same entity_id from the name, in case unique id is not specified.