Every place (an asset or a device) has a mode. Auto is the default: its rules work. Manual means people have taken the place over by hand: its rules do nothing and no rule sends its devices commands. Use it during maintenance, commissioning or an incident.
Switch to Manual
- On the place’s Rules card, use the Auto / Manual switch.
- The dialog Take over by hand explains: “While place is in Manual its rules do nothing and no rule sends it a command. Alarms keep working.”
- Choose Manual until: Until I switch it back, 30 minutes, 1 hour or 4 hours.
- Optionally write Why (optional) (up to 500 characters).
- Click Switch to Manual.
The card then shows a banner: “Manual since time · by person · until time“. Switching needs Switch a place between Manual and Auto (User by default).
Through the API, Manual can end at any time in the future within one year.
What Manual stops
| While a place is in Manual | |
|---|---|
| Rules whose home is the place or anything under it | Stop. Their status is Stopped: Manual. New triggers do not start them. |
| Runs in progress | Stop at their next step that checks the mode (after each wait and wait-until). |
| Pending “stays so for” waits | Dropped. |
| Commands and settings from any rule to a device in Manual | Skipped, even from rules homed elsewhere. The run log says “skipped: device is in Manual”. |
| Rules marked Also runs in Manual | Keep running. |
| Commands you send from the card’s Commands list or the device page | Still go through (“place is in Manual: commands you send here still go through”). |
| Profile alarm rules | Keep working. Alarms open, clear and notify as usual. |
| Flows | Keep running. Manual applies to the Rules card only. |
Inherited down the tree
A place is in Manual when it, or any asset above it, is in Manual. Switching a site to Manual stops the rules of every building, room and device below it.
A place that follows Manual from above shows “Manual (set on place)” with the hint “This place follows place. Switch that one back to Auto first.” Switch the place where Manual was set.
A device’s place in the tree is the asset it is placed under. See Placing devices.
Also runs in Manual
In a rule’s Options, Also runs in Manual lets the rule keep working while its place is in Manual, “Only for a rule that just tells people or raises alarms.” It is refused for a rule that sends commands, changes settings or switches or starts rules. Use it for safety notices: “tell the admins when the freezer is above −15 °C” should keep working during maintenance.
Back to Auto
- Use the switch again. The dialog Back to Auto? says “The rules of place start working again.”
- It lists These would run now:, the rules whose triggers hold right now (or “No rule holds right now.”).
- Apply the rules now (on by default): “A rule whose trigger holds right now runs once from the current values. Off: the rules wait for the next change.”
- Click Switch to Auto.
Why it matters: a value trigger fires on the edge. If a room became hot while the place was in Manual, the “rises above 28” edge has passed; without Apply the rules now the fan would wait until the temperature drops and rises again.
When Manual until ends
A sweep checks once a minute. When the end time passes:
- the place returns to Auto,
- its rules are woken from the values stored now, as if Apply the rules now had been chosen,
- the person who set Manual gets a notice: “place is back on Auto. The Manual you set on place has ended. Its rules were woken from the values stored now and are running again.”
Audit and webhooks
Every switch to Manual, back to Auto and every expiry is written to the audit log. The webhook event rules.mode_changed is sent for each, so outside systems (a building management system, a ticketing tool) can follow the mode. See Webhooks.
Good practice
- Put Manual on the smallest place that covers the work: a room, not the whole site.
- Prefer Manual until over Until I switch it back, so a forgotten Manual does not leave a site unattended.
- Mark the safety notices of a place Also runs in Manual.
- Manual does not silence alarms. To stop alarm notifications too, mute the device. See Muting a device for maintenance.