Clean selected rooms with a robot vacuum

Beginner Home Assistant 2026.3+

“Clean the kitchen” should not require a vendor’s internal room number. From Home Assistant 2026.3, compatible robot vacuums can use the Clean area action. The vacuum’s own map segments are linked to the areas you already use in Home Assistant.

Once mapped, you can choose Kitchen or Living room in an ordinary action or automation. Support launched with Matter, Ecovacs, and Roborock, and more integrations may follow. The reliable check is whether your vacuum exposes Map vacuum segments to areas.

The floor plan still comes from the vacuum

Home Assistant does not draw the rooms. Create and name them in the manufacturer’s app first if your model requires it. Home Assistant then links those segments to its own areas.

Before you begin

Check four things:

• The vacuum is added through an integration that supports area cleaning.
• Its map is complete and saved in the manufacturer’s app.
• Matching areas exist in Home Assistant.
• The floor is safe to test: no loose cables, liquid, small toys, or open stairs without reliable protection.

Use clear area names. Kitchen in both systems is easier to maintain than Room 3 in one and East open-plan room in the other.

Map the rooms to Home Assistant

1. Open the vacuum entity

   Go to Settings → Devices & services → Entities and select the vacuum entity.

2. Open entity settings

   Select the cogwheel in the entity dialog.

3. Choose segment mapping

   Open Map vacuum segments to areas. If the option is absent, the current integration or device does not support the action.

4. Map each segment

   Select the Home Assistant area corresponding to each room from the vacuum map. Leave unknown or unused segments alone until you know what they are.

5. Save

   Review the mapping once more, especially when two rooms have similar names.

If the vacuum-room list is empty, open the manufacturer’s app and save or confirm its rooms again. Then reload the integration or wait for the device’s next update.

Test one safe room

Before building a schedule, make the action work on its own.

1. Go to Settings → Developer tools → Actions.
2. Select Clean area with vacuum cleaner.
3. Choose the vacuum entity.
4. Choose one small, clear area.
5. Perform the action.
6. Physically confirm that the vacuum enters the intended room.
7. Wait for it to finish or return to the dock.

A changed status in Home Assistant is useful, but it is not by itself proof that the intended floor area was cleaned.

Never make the first test unattended

Robot vacuums can pull cables, spread liquid, or become stuck. Inspect the area physically before the first remote or automated run.

Build a simple weekday automation

A calm first example could be:

At 10 AM on weekdays, if nobody is home and the vacuum is docked, clean the kitchen and entrance hall.

Build it in the automation editor:

1. Choose a time

   Use a normal time trigger on the relevant weekdays.

2. Check presence

   Add a condition that the home is empty. Use the person or zone setup you have already tested.

3. Check the vacuum

   Add the purpose-specific docked condition if the integration provides it.

4. Add Clean area

   Select the vacuum and the Kitchen and Entrance hall areas.

5. Give it a specific name

   Use something such as Vacuum kitchen and hall on weekdays.

6. Test the action, then the full flow

   First run only the cleaning action. Later, test a natural run that also includes the trigger and conditions.

Keep the first automation simple. Do not add weather, calendar, doors, guests, battery level, and retries at the same time. Once a week runs reliably, add one necessary condition at a time.

Useful conditions

Choose only conditions that solve a real problem:

Problem	Possible condition
Noise while the household is home	No people at home
Starting with too little charge	Vacuum is docked or has adequate battery
A closed door blocks a room	Select only normally accessible areas
Cleaning during quiet hours	Limit to daytime
Guests or working from home	Calendar helper or a manual pause toggle

A helper called Pause cleaning may be better than a complicated calendar rule. Everyone in the household can understand and use it.

When the floor plan changes

If you divide a room, redraw the map, or reset the vacuum, its segments may receive new identifiers. Open entity settings and review the mapping before the next automatic run.

Describe the intended areas in the automation description. That makes the post-map-change check explicit.

Common problems

The segment-mapping option is missing

Your current vacuum and integration combination does not support vacuum.clean_area. Use documented vendor actions or wait for integration support—do not guess internal room numbers.

No rooms appear on the left

Open the manufacturer’s app, finish the map, name the rooms, and save them again.

The vacuum enters the wrong room

Stop it safely and review the segment mapping. Segments may have changed after a new mapping run.

Run actions works, but the automation never starts

The button skips triggers and conditions. Open the automation trace after a natural run and find the first condition that did not pass.

Robot vacuums

Review choices and differences in smart cleaning.

Understand the run

Troubleshoot it with Activity and Traces.

Official sources

• Home Assistant 2026.3: Send your vacuum to clean specific areas
• Vacuum integration and Clean area