Message Queue for Home Assistant

A HACS custom integration for Home Assistant that displays rotating messages on screens with configurable expiration times. Manage queues through the UI and send messages from a built-in sidebar panel.

• Native HA services - All services visible in Developer Tools > Services with field descriptions
• Config flow UI - Add/remove queues and configure settings through the HA interface
• Sidebar panel - Built-in "Messages" sidebar item for sending messages without YAML
• Multiple independent queues - One sensor entity per queue
• Per-message expiration - Control duration via show_seconds or absolute show_until
• Message IDs - Give a message an optional message_id to replace or remove it later
• Batch messaging - Push to a single queue, multiple queues, or all queues at once
• Persistence - Messages survive Home Assistant restarts
• Strict queue validation - Only configured queues accept messages (no accidental creation)

Or manually:

1. Open HACS in Home Assistant
2. Click the three dots menu > Custom repositories
3. Add this repository URL, category: Integration
4. Search for "Message Queue" and install
5. Restart Home Assistant

1. Copy custom_components/message_queue/ to your HA config/custom_components/ directory
2. Restart Home Assistant

1. Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Add Integration
2. Search for Message Queue
3. Configure defaults:
   • Rotation interval - How often to check for expired messages (default: 5 seconds)
   • Default message duration - How long messages display if no duration specified (default: 3600 seconds)
4. Click Configure on the integration to add queues

Click Configure on the Message Queue integration to:

• Add queue - Enter a queue name (lowercase, numbers, underscores)
• Remove queue - Select a queue to remove
• Settings - Change rotation interval or default duration

Each queue creates a sensor entity: sensor.message_queue_{name}

Click Messages in the sidebar to open the built-in message sender. Select a queue, type a message, choose an expiration, and send.

service: message_queue.push_message
data:
  queue: living_room_screen
  message: "Welcome Home!"
  show_seconds: 300

service: message_queue.push_message_to_multiple
data:
  queues:
    - living_room_screen
    - kitchen_screen
  message: "Everyone home!"
  show_seconds: 300

service: message_queue.push_message_to_all
data:
  message: "System update in 5 minutes"
  show_seconds: 300

service: message_queue.push_message
data:
  queue: living_room_screen
  message: "Meeting at 3 PM"
  show_until: "2024-03-03T15:00:00"

Pushing a message with a message_id that is already in the queue replaces the old message.

service: message_queue.push_message
data:
  queue: living_room_screen
  message: "Washing machine: 10 minutes left"
  message_id: washing_machine

Remove it again by ID. Leave out queue to remove it from all queues.

service: message_queue.remove_message
data:
  message_id: washing_machine
  queue: living_room_screen

service: message_queue.clear_queue
data:
  queue: living_room_screen

service: message_queue.get_queue_status
data:
  queue: living_room_screen

Status is logged and fired as a message_queue_status event.

Each queue creates a sensor: sensor.message_queue_{queue_name}

State: Current message text (empty string when queue is empty)

Attributes:

automation:
  - alias: "Display arrival message"
    trigger:
      platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door
      to: "on"
    action:
      service: message_queue.push_message
      data:
        queue: living_room_screen
        message: "Someone arrived home"
        show_seconds: 30

Messages are stored in Home Assistant's .storage/ directory and survive restarts. Expired messages are cleaned up automatically during the first rotation cycle after startup.

Message queue sensors update frequently and produce a lot of state changes. To avoid bloating your database, exclude them from the recorder:

# configuration.yaml
recorder:
  exclude:
    entity_globs:
      - sensor.message_queue_*

If you also want to hide them from the logbook:

# configuration.yaml
logbook:
  exclude:
    entity_globs:
      - sensor.message_queue_*

After editing configuration.yaml, restart Home Assistant for the changes to take effect.

• Ensure the integration is installed and configured (Settings > Devices & Services)
• Restart Home Assistant after installation

• Verify the queue exists (added via Configure on the integration)
• Pushing to a non-existent queue name is rejected with an error log

• Reload the browser page (Ctrl+Shift+R)
• Verify the integration is loaded in Settings > Devices & Services

MIT