---
layout: page
title: "Adding devices to Home Assistant"
description: "Steps to help you get your devices in Home Assistant."
date: 2015-09-19 09:40
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
---

Home Assistant will be able to automatically discover many devices and services available on your network if you have [the discovery component]({{site_root}}/components/discovery/) enabled (the default setting).

See the [components overview page](/components/) to find installation instructions for your devices and services. If you can't find support for your favorite device or service, [consider adding support](/developers/add_new_platform/).

Usually every entity needs its own entry in the `configuration.yaml` file. There are two styles for multiple entries:

#### {% linkable_title Style 1: Collect every entity under the "parent" %}

```yaml
sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "home/bedroom/temperature"
    name: "MQTT Sensor 1"
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "home/kitchen/temperature"
    name: "MQTT Sensor 2"
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT

switch:
  - platform: vera
```

#### {% linkable_title Style 2: List each device separately %}

You need to append numbers or strings to differentiate the entries, as in the example below. The appended number or string must be unique.

```yaml
media_player livingroom:
  platform: mpd
  server: IP_ADDRESS

media_player kitchen:
  platform: plex

camera 1:
  platform: generic

camera 2:
  platform: mjpeg
```

### {% linkable_title Grouping devices %}

Once you have several devices set up, it is time to organize them into groups.  
Each group consists of a name and a list of entity IDs. Entity IDs can be retrieved from the web interface by using the Set State page in the Developer Tools (![<>](https://cdn.rawgit.com/Templarian/MaterialDesign/master/icons/svg/code-tags.svg)).

```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry showing two styles
group:
  living_room: light.table_lamp, switch.ac
  bedroom:
    - light.bedroom
    - media_player.nexus_player
```

For more details please check the [Group](https://home-assistant.io/components/group/) page.

### [Next step: Customizing devices and services &raquo;](/getting-started/customizing-devices/)
