Change state text on entity card

[unikitty37]

If I have a Mushroom entity card for sensor.washer_dryer_door_lock it displays "On" or "Off". I can't see a way to simply say " instead of 'Off', display 'Locked'; instead of 'On', display 'Unlocked'".

Currently I have to use a template card, which is a bit verbose:

  - type: custom:mushroom-template-card
    primary: Door Lock
    features_position: bottom
    entity: sensor.washer_dryer_door_lock
    area: utility_room
    secondary: |-
      {% if states('sensor.washer_dryer_door_lock') == "off" %}
        Locked
      {% else %}
        Unlocked
      {% endif %}
    icon: |-
      {% if states('sensor.washer_dryer_door_lock') == "off" -%}
        mdi:lock
      {% else -%}
        mdi:lock-open
      {% endif %}
    color: |-
      {% if states('sensor.washer_dryer_door_lock') == "off" %}
        red
      {% endif %}
    grid_options:
      columns: full

It also displays differently — there is no shaded circle behind the lock icon. I'm sure there's a way to do this, but this is a whole lot of manual setup…

Ideally, a card for a binary sensor would allow me to customise what's displayed for "on" and "off" states right there in the visual editor. (The problem is what to do when it's not a binary sensor, of course!)

Is there a better way of doing this than what I've done? (And how do I get that background circle behind the icon?)

[sambai-dev]

Short answer: the entity card has no option to override the displayed state text - your template card is currently the supported way. But depending on where that entity comes from, there may be a cleaner fix than templating anything.

Why there is no knob: checked the card source, the entity card config schema only accepts entity, name, and icon from the shared entity config; the rendered state text comes straight from Home Assistant's own state formatting (formatEntityState) with no per-card override.

The cleaner path: your entity is a sensor.* showing On/Off, which is why HA prints those raw words. Home Assistant itself already has the vocabulary you want - a binary_sensor with device_class: lock displays "Locked"/"Unlocked" natively (that mapping lives in HA core translations), and the Mushroom entity card would then show exactly the wording you're after with zero templates, including correct icon treatment.

So:

1. If the washer/dryer integration lets you choose the entity type or device_class, switch that door-lock entity to binary_sensor with device_class: lock.
2. If it's fixed as-is by the integration, homeassistant/customize.yaml can set device_class: lock on a binary_sensor, but a plain sensor can't be re-typed this way - in that case your template approach stands.

On the visual difference you noticed: it is real, not your setup. The template card renders its icon through HA's tile styling, while the entity card uses Mushroom's own shape icon component (the shaded circle comes from that component plus its --shape-color). They are two different rendering paths, so a template card will never look pixel-identical to an entity card.

If you want to keep the Mushroom look AND custom text today, one middle ground: keep the entity card and accept the native wording after step 1, or file a feature idea here for a state_display-style template option on the entity card - looking at the config schema, it would be a natural addition next to name.

Caveat stated plainly: verified against the current card source and HA core translation files; did not test against your specific washer integration.

Sources:

• https://github.com/piitaya/lovelace-mushroom/blob/main/src/cards/entity-card/entity-card-config.ts
• https://github.com/piitaya/lovelace-mushroom/blob/main/src/utils/base-card.ts
• https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/master/homeassistant/components/binary_sensor/strings.json

[unikitty37]

It turns out that sensor.washer_dryer_door_lock was provided by an old integration and hadn't been cleaned up — so it was always going to show as locked anyway. The official ThinQ integration doesn't currently provide lock status, so I'll open a feature request there for a binary sensor with device_class: lock.

It would be useful to have the template card be able to render the icon with the shape component, though.

[unikitty37]

Actually, I have a similar question about displaying remaining times: sensor.washer_dryer_remaining_time displays as "In 10 minutes". This doesn't read well when the card title is "Time left" — is there a way I can get it to display "00:10" instead of "In 10 minutes", and "-00:03" instead of "3 minutes ago"?

Preferably while still keeping the shape component 🙂