MyCurl

A Home Assistant custom component that creates sensors based on the output of curl commands.

Installation

1. Copy the custom_components/mycurl folder to your Home Assistant custom_components directory.
2. Restart Home Assistant.
3. Configure the integration in your configuration.yaml.

Features

• Create sensors that run curl commands and use their output as sensor values.
• Modern UI config flow with:
  • Preset system for fun public APIs:
    • Random Advice
    • Trivia Question
    • Random Activity
    • Random Dog Picture
    • Random Cat Picture
    • Fox Picture
    • Chuck Norris Joke
    • Kanye West Quote
    • Random Cat Fact
    • Random Useless Fact
    • Random Joke
  • Auto key detection and data type selection for custom endpoints
  • Safe handling of jq filters (no more parse errors from empty or invalid filters)

Usage

UI-based setup (recommended)

1. Install MyCurl via HACS.

2. Go to Home Assistant → Settings → Devices & Services → Integrations.

3. Click "Add Integration" and search for "MyCurl".

4. Choose a preset (for fun public APIs) or select "Custom URL" to enter your own endpoint.

5. For presets, select which sensors you want to create (e.g. advice, joke, image URL, etc).

6. For custom endpoints, enter the URL. The integration will auto-detect available keys and data types, and let you select the value you want to use as a sensor.

7. The integration will preview the data and help you build a valid jq filter automatically. Invalid or empty filters are now handled safely (no more jq parse errors).

8. After setup, you can change options (like data type or scan interval) from the UI at any time.

9. The sensor will be created and managed from the UI—no need to edit configuration.yaml!

10. Advanced: If you want to test a curl command manually, you can use:

    curl -s https://api.adviceslip.com/advice | jq -r .slip.advice
    curl -s https://opentdb.com/api.php?amount=1 | jq -r .results[0].question
    curl -s https://www.boredapi.com/api/activity | jq -r .activity
    curl -s https://dog.ceo/api/breeds/image/random | jq -r .message
    curl -s https://api.thecatapi.com/v1/images/search | jq -r '.[0].url'
    curl -s https://randomfox.ca/floof/ | jq -r .image
    curl -s https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random | jq -r .value
    curl -s https://api.kanye.rest | jq -r .quote
    curl -s https://catfact.ninja/fact | jq -r .fact
    curl -s https://uselessfacts.jsph.pl/api/v2/facts/random?language=en | jq -r .text
    curl -s https://official-joke-api.appspot.com/random_joke | jq -r .setup

    (But the UI flow now helps you build this automatically!)

YAML setup (legacy, still supported)

Add an entry like this to your configuration.yaml:

# Numeric sensor example (for graphs/statistics)
sensor:
	- platform: mycurl
		name: "Bitcoin Price"
		data_type: numeric
		curl_command: "curl -s https://api.coindesk.com/v1/bpi/currentprice/BTC.json | jq -r .bpi.USD.rate_float"
		scan_interval: 300

# Text sensor example (default)
	- platform: mycurl
		name: "Example Text"
		data_type: text
		curl_command: "echo 'Hello from MyCurl'"
		scan_interval: 300

This will create a numeric sensor (for graphs/statistics) and a text sensor (for plain text values).

Notes:

• Use data_type: numeric for sensors you want to graph or use in statistics (output must be a number).
• Use data_type: text (or omit) for sensors that return text.
• Make sure any required tools (like jq) are installed on your Home Assistant system.
• The integration now prevents invalid or empty jq filters from causing errors. If you see a parse error, update to the latest version.

HACS Compatibility

This repository is structured for HACS installation.

License

MIT

Author

@minermartijn