Dashboards Explained - Home Assistant Guide

Creating Dashboards and Views in Home Assistant (Beginner's Guide)

Home Assistant dashboards are the visual side of your smart home - the place where you see what's happening and control your devices. By default, Home Assistant provides a few built-in dashboards, but you can easily make your own and customize them completely. In this beginner-friendly guide, we'll explain how dashboards and views work, and how to build your own from scratch using the visual editor (no YAML required!).

What is a Dashboard?

A dashboard in Home Assistant is a customizable interface that displays your devices, sensors, and automations. Each dashboard is made up of one or more views (these appear as tabs at the top), and each view contains sections that organize groups of cards (the individual blocks that display data or controls).

In short:

Dashboard: The overall interface (for example, your main smart home control screen).
View: A tab or page within a dashboard (for example, a "Lights" or "Security" tab).
Section: A group of related cards within a view.
Card: A visual element that shows a specific piece of information or control (like a light switch, thermostat, or graph).

Default Dashboards in Home Assistant

Home Assistant comes with several dashboards ready to use, each serving a different purpose. You can find them under Settings → Dashboards in the sidebar.

Overview: The main dashboard showing all your devices and automations.
Energy: Tracks your home's energy generation and usage.
History / Logbook: Show when and how things changed.
Map: Displays device or person locations (if enabled).
To-do lists: Manage your tasks and shopping lists.
Areas: Experimental dashboard grouping entities by room or area.

Some of these dashboards (like History or Map) are managed by Home Assistant itself, while others can be customized freely.

Understanding Views (Tabs)

Each dashboard can contain multiple views, which appear as tabs across the top of the page. You can think of views as individual pages within your dashboard - for example, a "Home" tab, a "Climate" tab, and a "Security" tab.

Views make it easy to separate your smart home by function or location. Each view can have its own layout, background, and visibility rules.

View Layout Types

Sections (default): Modern, responsive layout that automatically arranges cards into sections and columns. Supports full-width cards and smart resizing on mobile devices.
Masonry: The traditional "free-flow" layout where cards stack in columns. Great for simple dashboards but less flexible for complex ones.
Sidebar: Adds a persistent sidebar for navigation or quick access elements, with main content on the right.
Panel: Uses a single, full-width card (for example, a floorplan or camera feed).

When editing a dashboard, you can switch between these layouts under Edit dashboard → Layout.

Why Create Your Own Dashboard?

The default Overview dashboard automatically shows your devices and updates as you add new ones. However, once you start editing it, it stops auto-updating - meaning you have full control over what appears. Creating your own dashboard allows you to:

Design a personalized interface with exactly the cards you want.
Create separate dashboards for different users or devices (for example, a wall tablet view).
Organize entities logically - by room, device type, or function.
Experiment freely without affecting the default Overview dashboard.

How to Create a New Dashboard (UI Method)

Go to Settings → Dashboards.
Click Add dashboard.
In the dialog, you can:
- Start from an existing template (like the Areas dashboard), or
- Choose New dashboard from scratch for a blank canvas.
Enter a name and icon for your dashboard.
Choose whether it's admin-only, and if it should show in the sidebar.
Click Create - your new dashboard is ready!

Adding and Editing Views (Tabs)

Once your dashboard is created, open it and click the Edit (pencil) icon in the top-right corner. You'll see your first view - usually named "Home." You can:

Add Views: Click + View to create new tabs (for example, "Lights" or "Security").
Rename Views: Click the three dots (⋮) on a tab → Edit to change its title, icon, and layout.
Reorder Views: Drag and drop tabs to rearrange them.
Hide Views: You can make a view visible only to certain users or devices - useful for personal or admin-only pages.

Each view acts as a standalone page with its own layout and sections.

Adding Sections and Cards

Inside each view, you'll add sections and cards to display your data.

Click the Edit (pencil) icon → then + Section.
Choose a layout: narrow, wide, or full-width.
Inside the section, click + Add card.
Pick a card type (Button, Entities, Weather, etc.) and configure it.
Click Save to add it to your dashboard.

You can move cards between sections at any time by dragging them, or use visibility conditions to show them only when certain criteria are met (for example, when someone is home or after sunset).

Badges and Quick Info

Badges are small icons that appear at the top of a view, showing compact status information - such as if a door is open, an alarm is armed, or a person is home. You can add them using the Add badge button while editing a view. Badges are great for high-level indicators you always want visible.

Example: Multi-View Dashboard

Here's what a simple dashboard might look like with multiple views:

🏠 Home      💡 Lights      🔒 Security

Each icon above represents a view. Clicking one switches you to that view's contents - for example, your "Lights" tab could show entity cards for all light switches, while "Security" might show your alarm panel and motion sensors.

Key Tips & Next Steps

Don't be afraid to experiment - all changes can be reverted or adjusted.
Use multiple dashboards for different purposes (for example, a "Tablet" dashboard with larger cards).
For advanced customization, YAML mode allows precise control - but the UI editor covers most needs.
Next: Learn about conditional cards, themes, and Mushroom UI to make your dashboards look and feel even better.