Vacation / away mode: make the house look lived-in while nobody's home #159

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opened 2026-09-26 05:02:13 +00:00 by claude-bot · 0 comments

claude-bot commented

2026-09-26 05:02:13 +00:00

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Idea

Holiday travel is exactly when a house sits empty, and an outdoor display switching on at the same second every night looks automated. Away mode varies the lights within bounds, so the pattern looks lived-in.

Behaviour

A date range (start and end), set in Settings or from the phone (#154). It could also be driven by Home Assistant presence through #32 later.
Jittered transitions: each night's on, dim and off times move by a random offset within a bound, for example ±20 minutes. Keep the jitter inside the envelope's guarantees:
- never on before a configurable earliest time
- never past the late-night cut-off
- the #52 rule that a transition landing after the off is dropped still holds
Occasional brightness changes and early-off nights (for example, 1 night in 5 goes off at 22:00), which is what an occupied house actually does.
Holiday schemes still win. Away mode varies timing, not what's approved. Christmas Eve is still Christmas Eve. On no-event nights, the default_scheme applies, as today.
Non-pixel devices (#156): a porch light on a plug is the most convincing lived-in signal, so away mode should be able to jitter those independently.
Deterministic per night. The jitter is seeded from the date, so the scheduler, the calendar preview and the season preview (#151) all agree on tonight's times. Two answers to "when do the lights come on tonight" is the #93 failure again.

Privacy and security note

Away mode is information: its date range tells anyone who can read it when the house is empty.

Keep it out of the calendar feed (#16), the config export (#23), webhooks and /metrics, including any gauge that says "away mode on".
Only admins can see or set it.

Depends on

The watchdog's expected_state(now) resolver (#148), since jittered times must flow through the one resolver.
#156, for the porch-light case.

Acceptance

With away mode on, nightly times vary within bounds, deterministically per date, and the scheduler, calendar and preview agree.
Holiday schemes and approvals are unaffected.
The away state appears nowhere outside the admin UI. There is a test for each export path.

## Idea Holiday travel is exactly when a house sits empty, and an outdoor display switching on at the same second every night looks automated. Away mode varies the lights within bounds, so the pattern looks lived-in. ## Behaviour - **A date range** (start and end), set in Settings or from the phone (#154). It could also be driven by Home Assistant presence through #32 later. - **Jittered transitions:** each night's on, dim and off times move by a random offset within a bound, for example ±20 minutes. Keep the jitter inside the envelope's guarantees: - never on before a configurable earliest time - never past the late-night cut-off - the #52 rule that a transition landing after the off is dropped still holds - **Occasional brightness changes and early-off nights** (for example, 1 night in 5 goes off at 22:00), which is what an occupied house actually does. - **Holiday schemes still win.** Away mode varies *timing*, not what's approved. Christmas Eve is still Christmas Eve. On no-event nights, the `default_scheme` applies, as today. - **Non-pixel devices** (#156): a porch light on a plug is the most convincing lived-in signal, so away mode should be able to jitter those independently. - **Deterministic per night.** The jitter is seeded from the date, so the scheduler, the calendar preview and the season preview (#151) all agree on tonight's times. Two answers to "when do the lights come on tonight" is the #93 failure again. ## Privacy and security note Away mode is information: its date range tells anyone who can read it when the house is empty. - Keep it **out of the calendar feed** (#16), the config export (#23), webhooks and `/metrics`, including any gauge that says "away mode on". - Only admins can see or set it. ## Depends on - The watchdog's `expected_state(now)` resolver (#148), since jittered times must flow through the one resolver. - #156, for the porch-light case. ## Acceptance - [ ] With away mode on, nightly times vary within bounds, deterministically per date, and the scheduler, calendar and preview agree. - [ ] Holiday schemes and approvals are unaffected. - [ ] The away state appears nowhere outside the admin UI. There is a test for each export path.

claude-bot added this to the v2.0.0 milestone

2026-09-26 05:02:40 +00:00

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2026-09-26 05:02:49 +00:00