I have a bunch of presence and motion sensors (like four, but shush) and when people leave rooms I would like to turn the lights off after five minutes, however if someone returns to the room before that five minutes is up, I'd like to start that countdown again. Is there a grateful way to do this that isn't me just doing if no activity for five minutes, turn off the lights, else wait five minutes and then turn off the lights. Because that's ugly, rigid and not very smart at all.
Are you doing all the logic in HA or are you using NodeRED?
I used to have a similar timer reset for my "going to bed" button that I could cancel/snooze before the events started firing. It was done in NodeRED, though, and HA just glued that logic to the UI and buttons.
I've been using HA for about 7 or 8 years (maybe longer?). Everything used to be YAML only, including automations. Now you can set up devices in the GUI, make automations in the GUI, etc., but I learned NodeRED when things weren't as streamlined. I've never bothered to learn HA automations because NodeRED is so great.
How do you feel about the progress that Home Assistant has seen while you've been using it? And looking at the climbing adoption, you must feel like a proud parent?
You say that, but the last update broke my thermostat with their new climate controls and also some of my lights needed switching to the light service from the switch service.
The thermostat backend didn't change, just the card right? It looks different but didn't lose any functionality. Sorry you had trouble with it. I have 4 or 5 different thermostats and they never stopped working.