Oref Red Alert Automation System for Home Assistant

March 22, 2026 · View on GitHub

A comprehensive Home Assistant automation system for Israel's Pikud HaOref (Home Front Command) rocket alert system. Provides multi-sensory alerts through PA announcements with pre-recorded audio, RGB light color changes, light flickering, and siren activation.

These automations have been tested in production during real alert events.

What This Does

When a red alert is triggered via the Oref Alert integration, these automations:

  1. Pause any currently playing media on your PA/announcement system, disable repeat mode, and clear the playlist to prevent unwanted audio resumption
  2. Play an airport-style chime followed by a pre-recorded voice announcement
  3. Change all RGB lights to the alert color (red, orange, or green)
  4. Flicker lights and activate sirens for the duration of the alert phase
  5. Hold the alert color for 3 minutes so you know the alert state at a glance
  6. Restore all lights to their pre-alert state using scene snapshots
  7. Resume media playback on the PA system

Automations

Real Alerts (4 automations)

FileTriggerColorSirensDuration
red_alert_early_warning.yamlOref "next few minutes" preemptive warningOrangeYes30s flicker, 3 min hold
red_alert_active.yamlbinary_sensor.oref_alert turns onRedYes30s flicker, 3 min hold
red_alert_all_clear.yamlbinary_sensor.oref_alert turns offGreenNo3 min hold
red_alert_100_plus.yaml100+ simultaneous alerts across IsraelN/ANoPA announcement only

Test Automations (3 automations)

FileColorSirensDuration
test_early_warning.yamlOrangeYes15s countdown, 10s flicker, immediate restore
test_active_red_alert.yamlRedYes15s countdown, 10s flicker, immediate restore
test_all_clear.yamlGreenNo15s countdown, 10s hold, immediate restore

Test automations have no trigger -- run them manually from the Home Assistant UI to verify your setup works without waiting for a real alert.

How the Oref Alert Entity Works

The Oref Alert integration provides several entities. The key ones used by these automations:

EntityStatesDescription
binary_sensor.oref_alerton / offSafety binary sensor; on = active alert for your area

The binary_sensor.oref_alert also has:

  • A country_active_alerts attribute containing all currently active alerts across Israel (used by the mass alert automation)
  • A selected_areas_updates attribute containing preemptive warnings with "בדקות הקרובות" (Hebrew for "in the coming minutes")

Alert Lifecycle

Normal → Pre-warning → Active Alert → All Clear
                │                        ▲
                └────────────────────────┘  (if alert doesn't reach your area)

Requirements

  • Oref Alert integration -- provides binary_sensor.oref_alert and area-specific alert data
  • Multi-room audio system -- tested with Snapcast via Music Assistant, but any media_player entities that support announce: true should work
  • RGB-capable smart lights -- grouped into a single light group for color changes
  • Smart sirens (optional) -- Zigbee/Z-Wave sirens for audible alerts
  • Pre-recorded audio files -- included in the audio/ directory

Audio Files

All PA announcement audio files are in audio/pa-messages/. These were generated using OpenAI TTS with the onyx voice.

The airport chime sound effect (pa_chime_2.mp3) is not included in this repository. The original chime used is by Gustavo Rezende and can be found on Pixabay -- search for "airport call" or use a similar chime sound. Place it in your Home Assistant media directory at the path referenced in the automations.

Audio file list

FileUsed InDescription
pa_early_warning.mp3Early warningPreemptive warning announcement
pa_active_alert.mp3Active alertActive red alert announcement
pa_all_clear.mp3All clearAlert over announcement
pa_mass_alert.mp3100+ alertsMass alert announcement
pa_test_early_warning_countdown.mp3Test early warning15-second countdown before test
pa_test_early_warning_alert.mp3Test early warningTest alert announcement
pa_test_early_warning_concluded.mp3Test early warningTest concluded announcement
pa_test_active_alert_countdown.mp3Test active alert15-second countdown before test
pa_test_active_alert_alert.mp3Test active alertTest alert announcement
pa_test_active_alert_concluded.mp3Test active alertTest concluded announcement
pa_test_all_clear_countdown.mp3Test all clear15-second countdown before test
pa_test_all_clear_alert.mp3Test all clearTest alert announcement
pa_test_all_clear_concluded.mp3Test all clearTest concluded announcement

How to Customize

Every automation file includes # CUSTOMIZE comments at the points where you need to update entity IDs.

Entity IDs to Replace

  1. Light entities -- Replace light.living_room, light.bedroom, etc. with your actual light entity IDs in:

    • Scene snapshot lists (all lights you want to save/restore)
    • Flicker target lists (lights that turn on/off rapidly during alerts)

  2. Light group -- Replace light.rgb_lights_group with your own light group containing all RGB-capable lights

  3. Media player entities -- Replace media_player.speaker_1_snapcast, media_player.pa_system, etc. with your actual media player entities

  4. Siren entities -- Replace siren.siren_1, siren.siren_2, siren.siren_3 with your actual siren entity IDs (or remove siren actions if you don't have smart sirens)

Media Paths

The automations reference audio files at:

  • Chime: media-source://media_source/local/audio/soundfx/pa_chime_2.mp3
  • Messages: media-source://media_source/local/audio/pa-messages/pa_*.mp3

Upload the audio files from this repo's audio/pa-messages/ directory to your Home Assistant's media directory, then update the paths in the automations if your directory structure differs.

Optional Integrations

The real alert automations include # TODO comments where you can add:

  • MQTT publishing for alert state tracking on other systems
  • REST commands / webhooks for external notifications (e.g., push notifications, logging)
  • Custom scripts (e.g., a dramatic siren ramp-up script)

About the Mass Alert Threshold (100+)

The mass alert automation triggers at 100+ simultaneous alerts across Israel. This threshold has been validated through real-world observation: from experience watching alert patterns, 100 is a reliable yardstick for a ballistic missile attack, even if it's not happening in your immediate area. Fewer than 50 simultaneous alerts tends to indicate a localized event (e.g., Hezbollah rockets targeting a specific region), whereas 100+ almost always indicates a ballistic missile strike (e.g., from Iran or Yemen). This distinction matters because ballistic missiles have a wider threat radius and longer flight time, giving you more reason to take shelter even if the alert isn't for your specific area.

To adjust this threshold, edit the template trigger in red_alert_100_plus.yaml:

value_template: "{{ state_attr('binary_sensor.oref_alert', 'country_active_alerts') | length > 50 }}"

Installation

  1. Copy the YAML files from automations/ into your Home Assistant automations directory (or paste them into the automation editor in YAML mode)
  2. Upload the audio files from audio/pa-messages/ to your Home Assistant media directory
  3. Source an airport chime sound and place it at the chime path referenced in the automations
  4. Update all # CUSTOMIZE entity IDs to match your setup
  5. Reload automations in Home Assistant (Developer Tools > YAML > Reload Automations)
  6. Run each test automation manually to verify everything works

How It Works in Practice

During an alert cycle, the automations fire in sequence:

  1. Pre-warning fires first -- lights turn orange, chime + PA announcement plays, sirens activate, lights flicker for 30 seconds
  2. If the alert reaches your area -- lights turn red, chime + PA announcement plays, sirens activate, lights flicker for 30 seconds
  3. When the alert ends -- lights turn green, chime + PA announcement plays, green holds for 3 minutes
  4. After 3 minutes -- all lights restore to their pre-alert state, media playback resumes

The active alert and early warning automations use mode: restart, so if a new alert arrives while the 3-minute hold timer is running, it resets.

License

MIT

Credits