Troubleshooting

Common problems encountered while deploying this project, and how to fix them.

Integration error: packages - Integration 'packages' not found

Cause: packages: was added to configuration.yaml as its own top-level key instead of being nested inside the existing homeassistant: block. Home Assistant treats every top-level key in configuration.yaml as an integration domain to load - a stray top-level packages: key makes it try (and fail) to load a non-existent “packages” integration.

Fix: there must be exactly one homeassistant: block in your configuration.yaml, and packages: goes underneath it, alongside whatever is already there (name:, latitude:, unit_system:, etc.):

homeassistant:
  name: Home
  latitude: !secret home_latitude
  longitude: !secret home_longitude
  # ... any other existing keys ...
  packages: !include_dir_named packages

After fixing, run Developer Tools -> YAML -> Check Configuration again before restarting/reloading.

Any Platform error '...' from integration '...' - Integration '...' not found

This class of error means a component/platform name is misspelled somewhere in configuration.yaml (e.g. a tts: platform entry). It is almost always unrelated to this project’s packages - check the referenced integration name for typos in your existing configuration (this project does not define any tts:, notify: platform entries itself; the SMTP notification setup planned for a later phase will be documented here once it exists).

New input_* helpers from a package are missing after editing the file

Adding new helper definitions (a new input_text:/input_number:/etc. entry that did not exist before) inside a package requires a full Home Assistant restart, not just a YAML reload - the helper platforms only read their configuration once at startup. Changing an existing helper’s attributes (e.g. its name or icon) also needs a restart for the change to show up, but the helper’s value can always be changed live without any reload.

Template sensors (sensor.grow_*) show unavailable or unknown

That is expected until the underlying mapping is filled in on Dashboard 1 and the mapped entity actually has a value. Check sensor.grow_core_validation’s report attribute (or the Dashboard 1 “Setup Status” card) for the specific reason.