GUI Recorder

A Home Assistant custom component that adds a sidebar panel to manage your recorder configuration (which entities get recorded) and database maintenance (purge, repack, stats) — without editing configuration.yaml.

SQLite only. MariaDB and PostgreSQL are explicitly rejected during setup with a clear error message.

Warning

Use with care. Purge operations permanently delete recorder history and cannot be undone. The migration flow modifies configuration.yaml directly. Always create a full Home Assistant backup before using maintenance or migration features. The authors take no responsibility for data loss.

Features

• Sidebar panel integrated directly into the Home Assistant navigation bar.
• Per-device and per-entity control: enable or disable recording with a toggle — no YAML editing required.
• Database statistics: total / current / obsolete records, matched exclusions, disk size (sums .db + .db-wal + .db-shm), SQLite file path.
• Maintenance actions:
  • Purge the database (uses global retention setting).
  • Purge excluded entities (full history, ignores retention).
  • Auto-update stats after each purge (optional).
  • Repack after manual purge (optional).
  • Restart Home Assistant.
• Orphan exclusion detection: shows entries in gui_recorder.yaml that no longer match any entity, with a one-click bulk-remove.
• Guided migration: imports your existing recorder configuration from configuration.yaml in 3 steps (import → disable old block → activate !include).
• Cache busting: the panel JS is served with ?v=VERSION to prevent stale versions after updates.

Screenshots

Per-device and per-entity control, with purge actions per row:

Orphan exclusion detection and obsolete record cleanup:

Installation

Via HACS (recommended)

GUI Recorder is part of the default HACS catalog — no custom repository needed.

1. Open HACS → Integrations, search for GUI Recorder, and install it.
2. Restart Home Assistant.
3. Go to Settings → Devices & services → Add integration and choose GUI Recorder.

Manual

1. Copy custom_components/gui_recorder/ into <config>/custom_components/gui_recorder/.
2. Restart Home Assistant.
3. Settings → Devices & services → Add integration → GUI Recorder.

Usage

After installing and configuring the integration, a GUI Recorder panel appears in the sidebar. From there you can:

• Filter entities by entity_id, friendly name, domain, or platform.
• Toggle recording for entire devices or individual entities.
• Run database analysis and purges (global, per-device, or per-entity).
• Import your existing recorder config from configuration.yaml.

The generated configuration is written to gui_recorder.yaml, included from configuration.yaml via:

recorder: !include gui_recorder.yaml

The integration writes that file automatically. If you already had a recorder: block in configuration.yaml, the panel's migration flow guides you through replacing it.

Requirements

• Home Assistant 2024.1.0 or later.
• Recorder database on SQLite (MariaDB and PostgreSQL are not supported).

Support

• Issues: https://github.com/ideaalab/gui-recorder/issues

License

MIT