What voice commands does Home Assistant understand?

Home Assistant's Assist understands a fixed set of sentences that the project publishes as its starter pack. Examples include "turn on the living room light", "lock all the doors", "set bedroom curtain to 50%", "activate dinner scene" and "add bread to my shopping list". Assist only acts on the devices and areas you have exposed to it ¹. For anything outside that list, you can either add your own sentence as a trigger, or let a language model answer, if you have set one up.

This answer uses the project's own sentence list and documentation, checked on 17 October 2026. Our full guide to Home Assistant voice explains the whole pipeline, from the wake word to the spoken reply.

Built-in sentences cover six groups

The starter pack is organized by what each sentence controls. The table lists one example per group, using wording that appears in the project's list.

The list is not complete, and it is updated for each language. The project's test sentences on GitHub show what each language supports, so check them for yours.

Devices must be exposed, and names must match

Two things stop a command from working, and the project's guidance covers both. The first is that the device or area is not exposed to Assist. The project says that until you expose your devices, you will not be able to control them by voice ¹. The second is a name mismatch. The project's documentation says to use names exactly as they are defined in Home Assistant, or to create an alias.

Speech-to-Phrase, the fast local speech engine, recognizes a smaller set of sentences than Whisper. The project says shopping lists, naming a timer and broadcasts are not usable out of the box with Speech-to-Phrase ². If you rely on lists or named timers, check your speech engine before you check your sentences.

Timers and delayed commands follow their own rules

Timers said to Assist are voice timers. The project says they belong to the device where you started them, and that they do not create timer entities you can use in automations ³. If you need a timer in a dashboard or automation, use a timer helper instead.

Delayed commands work differently again. The example in the project's documentation is "turn off the lights in the living room in 5 minutes". The project says that, unlike regular voice timers, these delayed commands cannot be cancelled or modified ⁴. Think before you use one.

You can add your own sentences as automation triggers

The built-in list does not have to be the limit. Home Assistant lets you add your own sentences to the intent recognizer, either by extending an existing intent or by creating a new one ⁵. One case is a sentence trigger, which starts an automation when Assist hears a phrase.

To create one in the interface, the project's steps are these. Each sentence you enter must be typed without punctuation ⁶.

1. Under Settings > Automations & Scenes, select Create automation.
2. In the Trigger drop-down menu, select Sentence.
3. Enter one or more sentences, without punctuation. Each one triggers the automation.
4. Optionally, select Add action, then Other actions, then Set conversation response, to have Assist reply.
5. Make sure the device you speak to is exposed to Assist, then speak the sentence.

Sentence triggers have one restriction that matters for language models. The OpenAI conversation integration does not integrate with sentence triggers ⁷. If you plan to use that integration, plan your automations around the built-in path.

Requests outside the list go to a language model

Assist handles commands first. The project's default setting sends only questions and commands it cannot understand to the AI you have set up ⁸. That is why a command such as "turn on the kitchen light" stays with Assist, while a request for help can go to a model. Our question on whether Home Assistant can use ChatGPT or a local LLM for voice explains the options and their limits.

What to do when Assist does not understand you

1. Check exposure. Confirm the device or area is exposed to Assist before you test it.
2. Check the name. Use the name exactly as it appears in Home Assistant, or add an alias.
3. Rephrase. Try the wording in the starter list for your language, as the examples above show it.
4. Check the speech engine. If you use Speech-to-Phrase and the sentence is a list or a named timer, switch to Whisper.
5. Add a sentence as a sentence trigger if you need a phrase that the built-in list does not include.

For the hardware that listens to these commands, read what the Voice Preview Edition is. For the speech engine decision, read the best speech to text for Home Assistant. A wake word starts each request, and an intent match decides what the command does. For the wider category, see the glossary entry for voice assistant and our overview of voice assistants compared with dictation.