In this article
Home Assistant splits its home-information guidance across three official pages. One covers changes in the interface, another documents general settings in configuration.yaml, and a third explains the YAML syntax that file uses.
The key practical point is simple: defining some home settings in YAML can make their corresponding interface controls unavailable. Knowing which page answers which question makes the documentation much easier to navigate.
A three-page documentation map
| If you need to… | Official page | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Change the home name, location, radius, or regional settings | Home information | Controls under Settings > System > Home information |
| Define general settings in YAML | Home Assistant Core integration | General settings in the homeassistant: section of configuration.yaml |
| Check YAML formatting | YAML syntax | Mappings, collections, nesting, indentation, comments, and common syntax problems |
This division is a practical navigation aid, not an official Home Assistant taxonomy. The connection between the first two pages is explicit, however: the Home information documentation directs readers to the Core integration reference for general settings in YAML (Home information).
What belongs under Home information
The documented interface path is:
Settings > System > Home information
Home Assistant says these settings are initially defined during onboarding and can be changed later. The documentation now calls them “home information”; they were formerly called general settings (Home information).
The page describes three main groups of controls.
Home name
Under Home name, you can enter a new name and select Save. This is the name of the home, not a person’s display name or username. For those personal account details, the page points readers to the separate user-configuration documentation (Home information).
Location, radius, and zones
Under Location, selecting Edit opens the home-zone editor. Home Assistant documents adjusting the location and radius on the map and says those changes are saved automatically.
The same section describes creating a zone and editing an existing zone. The named editable properties include its name, icon, and radius, among other settings (Home information).
During default onboarding, Home Assistant can detect a location through IP-address geolocation. It uses that location to select a unit system and time zone automatically, although both can be adjusted later (Home information).
Regional settings
Under Region, the documentation lists:
- Time zone
- Elevation above sea level
- Unit system
- Currency
- Country
- Language
The documented unit-system choices are Metric and US customary. After changing regional settings, select Save (Home information).
These are the settings explicitly named on the Home information page. The list is not an exhaustive matrix of every Home Assistant setting, and it does not establish which controls appeared in earlier releases.
Network configuration lives elsewhere
Network-related settings have a different interface location:
Settings > System > Network
Home Assistant gives the network name, Home Assistant URL, and HTTP server settings as examples of configuration found there (Home information).
That creates a useful boundary: the documented home name, location, radius, and regional controls belong under Home information, while the named network-related options belong under Network. The network examples are not presented as a complete inventory.
Where the YAML settings are documented
The Home Assistant Core integration manages the general home-information settings. Its integration page documents defining general settings in configuration.yaml under the homeassistant: mapping (Home information; Home Assistant Core integration).
Use that reference rather than attempting to convert interface labels into YAML keys by guesswork. It also supplies requirements for particular values. For example, a configured language should use an RFC 5646 language tag and must be a language into which Home Assistant is translated. A configured country should use an ISO 3166.1 alpha-2 code (Home Assistant Core integration).
YAML is not the default requirement for Home Assistant configuration generally. The official syntax guide says most things can be set up through the interface without touching a YAML file, although a small number of features and a few integrations still require configuration.yaml entries (YAML syntax).
Why a setting may be grayed out
Home Assistant documents a qualified rule for choosing which source controls editing: some general settings cannot be edited in the interface when they are defined in YAML. Their controls may be grayed out or otherwise inaccessible (Home Assistant Core integration).
If you prefer to edit those settings in the interface, the Home information page says to delete the relevant entries from configuration.yaml (Home information).
A grayed-out Home information control is therefore a reason to inspect that file. The cited pages do not provide a complete affected-setting matrix, so the rule should not be extended to every home-information setting without checking its documentation. This article explains the documented behavior only; no interface navigation or configuration change was independently tested.
YAML rules to check before editing
Home Assistant’s high-level YAML guide identifies several rules that are especially relevant when editing configuration.yaml:
- Mappings use the form
key: value. - Items in a collection begin with
-. - Indentation defines how values are nested.
- The convention is two spaces for each indentation level.
- Tabs are not allowed for indentation.
- Text following
#is treated as a comment. - If a key is duplicated, the last value is used.
An accidental tab can produce the error found character '\t' that cannot start any token (YAML syntax).
The guide also warns about boolean values. YAML interprets values such as Y, true, Yes, and ON as true, while values including n, FALSE, No, and off are interpreted as false. When the intended value is the literal state string on or off, it must be quoted—for example, 'on' (YAML syntax).
Documentation retrieved September 30, 2026. The pages supplied no release version or update dates.
No comments yet