My custom cards don't work

Published on April 13, 2021 - Estimated reading time is 2 minutes
Home Assistant Custom card

When a custom card "does not work," it is often because the user has incorrect expectations. There is no magic; the user must configure it correctly for the card to function.

Common issue: Card chooser

Most custom cards are not selectable in the card chooser. This is a feature that the card developer needs to implement. You can suggest this improvement to the developer of your favorite card.

Note

For example, see the Home Assistant documentation on custom cards.

Since you cannot select it, you need to use the "Manual" card option at the bottom of the list.

Manual card is used for custom cards

Configuration pitfalls

Most configuration examples for custom cards look like this:

- type: "type:some_card"

This will not work. Using the manual card as a list item results in:

- - type: "type:some_card"

This will not work and will produce the following error:

Error showing that the card type is missing

To fix this, remove the - (both the dash and the space) in front of type and adjust the indentation of the rest of the configuration.

Summary

Incorrect configuration

- type: "type:some_card"

Correct configuration

type: "type:some_card"

Consider suggesting to the developer of your favorite card to provide examples that work with the "Manual" card option.