"Wait for trigger" but for the same device_id that triggered the automation

[manic furnace]

Hello! I'm building one big lights automation that does an additional action on double click.
My triggers are device "toggle" action (cannot use the switch entity because the switches are in detached relay mode).

I have multiple triggers and I'd like to detect whether the same trigger was pressed again within 300ms.

My triggers look like this:

triggers:
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: 7d261e9fcde1fa4dfc4926fb2a6dde67
    type: action
    subtype: toggle
    metadata: {}
    trigger: device
    id: toilette_light
    variables:
      trigger_device_id: 7d261e9fcde1fa4dfc4926fb2a6dde67
      actions_entity_id: light.toilette_light
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: 4f0bf0afa2ab19ce76c5aee10f73ac6f
    type: action
    subtype: toggle
    trigger: device
    id: hallway_lights
    enabled: true
    variables:
      trigger_device_id: 4f0bf0afa2ab19ce76c5aee10f73ac6f
      actions_entity_id: light.hallway_lights

In the actions I'm using

 - wait_for_trigger:
      - domain: mqtt
        device_id: 4f0bf0afa2ab19ce76c5aee10f73ac6f <--- this shouldn't be hard coded
        type: action
        subtype: toggle
        trigger: device
    timeout:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 300
    continue_on_timeout: false

I tried using templates for dynamically setting the device_id in the wait_for_trigger but it's not supported. I'm out of ideas on how to handle this without adding a massive Choose block. What's a good way to handle this? Thanks!

[abstract rivet]

That device trigger corresponds to some entity and you can just use that

Not to clear what detached relay mode has to do with it

I suggest not using any device triggers at all

[manic furnace]

I cannot find any entity that "toggles" only a switch that is either on or off. It needs to be always on tho

[abstract rivet]

Toggle is turning a switch on and off

[manic furnace]

Basically the switch is powering a smart bulb, and it needs to be always on. This is why the switches are in detached relay mode

[abstract rivet]

You just want a trigger on any state change

[manic furnace]

Yeah it doesn't work because of the detached relay

[abstract rivet]

You're triggering on something and that thing is an entity

When a switch is in detached mode, it just stops controlling the load. The switch still operates

[manic furnace]

Let me try again

[abstract rivet]

Your trigger is just referring to the switch entity

[manic furnace]

  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - switch.studio_light_switch
    from: null
    to: null

I also tried from on to off and viceversa, it never triggers

If I toggle the switch from HA the power (relay) turns off

[abstract rivet]

you don't need the from: and to: there

[manic furnace]

It also doesn't show in the logbook when I press the button

[manic furnace]

same, doesn't trigger

[abstract rivet]

if you can't identify which entity is changing state when you manually toggle the switch, I suggest going to -> Events and listening for state_changed to see if you can find the event

[manic furnace]

Nothing logs there

I pressed a bunch of times

[abstract rivet]

That's curious, as if you're actually using HA for things, you should have many state changes all the time

[manic furnace]

I got some logs for Adaptive lightings

But overall 90% of the devices are lights and switches

[abstract rivet]

then listen for * instead

[manic furnace]

nope, still nothing

[abstract rivet]

then there are no events in the system

which is like the twilight zone

[manic furnace]

I can see the events in Zigbee2MQTT but not in HA. The only triggers that works that I know of is the device trigger

It doesn't make this easy haha

[manic furnace]

Ok, I was able to enable experimental events in Zigbee2MQTT and now I can use an entity to trigger the automation

[manic furnace]

@abstract rivet

  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - event.studio_light_switch_action

works as a trigger but

  - trigger: template
    value_template: "{{ state_translated('event.studio_light_switch_action') }}"

doesn't. Any idea why?

{{ states('event.studio_light_switch_action') }} outputs 2025-08-22T21:27:41.777+00:00

[abstract rivet]

Because it's just a string that always evaluates to true

[manic furnace]

So even now that I have an entity I cannot use it to detect a double tap? 🥲

I think I found a solution, it seems to work:
First I save the current trigger state
original_trigger_state: "{{ states('event.studio_light_switch_action') }}"
Then I use the wait for template like this:
wait_template: '{{ states(trigger.to_state.entity_id) != original_trigger_state }}'

Seems to be working consisently. Marking as resolved. Thanks for the pointer to use entities

[abstract rivet]

Yes, that's not a bad solution. I was going to suggest something similar

Event entities are going to be overhauled a bit to address exactly these issues

There are a bunch of things that make them hard to use

You can use a timeout for your wait_template and then check if it completed if you want to differentiate between single and double

Often the events will include an event_type that already tells you if it was a single, double, triple tap and you can just use that

So then you use a state trigger and conditions to check the event_type

[manic furnace]

I'm running the single-click actions regardless to keep the delay as low as possible and it's working great

Thank you very much for your help!

[abstract rivet]

Np, glad you got it working