New to smartthings, smart lighting apps are lacking

[tater2000 (Jason)]

I want to make a smart light to turn on when front door is opened, i know thats easy, but i dont want it to turn on when someone is already home or other lights are already on. I dont see any kind of options for something like that. Also very simular issue with routines, i would like to see rules like; dont run a routine if someone is already home or a certain item is on. Any info would be great, thanks

[JDRoberts]

There is a very popular free rules engine smartapp created by one of the grandmaster coders in the community. It is called rule machine. I think you’ll find it does everything you want and more.

Or if you have an iOS device and prefer to use a more graphical engine, SmartRules is a very nice $7 app. Also very popular. So the smartrules app doesn’t have as many different options as rule machine does, but it might be a little easier to use if it covers the situations you do want. Many people also use both.

SmartRules installs like any other app from the App Store.

http://smartrulesapp.com

To install Rule Machine, you need to copy the author’s code and “publish” it to your own account.

If you haven’t used custom code yet, you might want to take a quick look at the custom code FAQ just to get oriented. It’s really pretty simple.

[OBSOLETE] FAQ: An Overview of Using Custom Code in SmartThings (SmartThings Classic, Groovy Code)

The original FAQ information in this thread refers to the original smartthings architecture, which was in place through the end of 2022 and a little beyond. Custom code was written in the groovy programming language and ran in the smartthings cloud. As of May 2023, you can no longer add new Groovy DTH‘s or smartapps to your smartthings account. So if you came here because of a link in an old forum thread, or on another site, I’m afraid the Groovy information is no longer usable. All of this was replaced by a new architecture. Cloud to cloud integrations use the smartthings API. Hub connected devices, mostly Zigbee and zwave, now use “Edge Drivers,” written in the LUA programming language. Here’s the official announcement on those: The process for using a custom Edge Driver in the new …

After that you can either go directly to the user guide topic for rule machine, or start with a tutorial that another community member wrote.

Rule Machine User guide topic:

Rule Machine User Guide

[image]Rule Machine Rule Machine User Guide Rule Machine is a powerful automating tool for SmartThings. The Rule Machine User Guide has four sections below: Conditions and Trigger Events Actions Expert Features: Custom Commands Restrictions Conditions and Trigger Events Rules and Triggers respond to events on the selected devices. In the case of a Rule, it evaluates its rule upon any event affecting its Conditions. In the case of a Trigger, it is fired whenever the selected event occurs. Devices with the following capabilities may be Conditions or Trigger Events: [with noted exceptions] Acceleration "active" or "inactive" Battery value Button [Only available as Trigger Event] "number": "pressed"or "held" Contact: "open" or "closed" Certain Time [Only…

First rule Rule Machine tutorial:

Basic Instructions on how to create your first rule in Rule Machine

Before we get into the creation process, we need to talk about the meanings of certain fields, & rules within program. And before I start, I would like to thank Bruce R. & Mike M. for creating this SmartApp. It takes a great deal of time to create/improve an App like this & they do so free of charge. Ok let’s start! There are several different ways to write a rule, trigger, conditional trigger, or action & this by no means is a complete instruction booklet or am I an expert, if you are looking for that please look here. Rule machine - as per the app developer, this app is no longer available for new installs, distribution, or support ** Action **: The primary function of this is to speed up the command creating process by building actions, which you can use across several different …

There’s also a thread where you can ask for help in setting up through machine rules if you get stuck on the logic. (Again, you probably wouldn’t need help for the smartrules app because it’s just much simpler. But Rule Machine is more powerful.)

Rule Machine Peer Assistance:

Rule Machine - Get peer assistance here with setting up rules

I’m creating this thread as a place to find assistance in programming the logic of the Rule Machine App. @bravenel - I see you doing a lot of updates every day and posting them in the [Release] thread, I figure this will help to keep it clean and not get hijacked… as much… I’ll start! I’ve set up some rules for my front porch lights. I haven’t figured out how to do with any less than “4” separate rules. I’d like to simplify this as much as possible. What I want: Lights come on 20 minutes prior to sunset, go off at 11 pm, and be set to 30% When either my wife or I come home between sunset and 11pm, even if the other is already there, the lights go from 30% to 99% for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes they go back to 30%. If it is after 11 pm and before sunrise, I want the lights t…