Auto build device images when a new ESPHome version is deployed

[sefininio]

Describe the enhancement

Device image build times takers so long and currently the process is done manually, by the user, in sequence one device after the other and for large setups is very time consuming, to the point that users just don't update unless they have to.

Having a automatic process that builds the device images with the latest ESPHome version, in the background when a new ESPHome version is deployed will save the user a lot of time, the only required action would be to just flash the new image.
Later on, we can even have the user opt-in to auto flash as well, but that is another effort.

I have created PRs for esphome, dashboard and the docs to implement this.

Use cases

New ESPHome version is deployed but the devices do not run the latest firmware. The user has to go over them one by one, trigger a build & flash process to each one and the build takes a long time for each - this can become very time consuming

Visual examples

No response

Anything else?

No response

[sadpixel]

How do you plan to handle YAML snippets (partial files used for packages), which cannot be compiled, but may still be stored in the root directory? 🤔

I’ve personally found this to be a major annoyance with the preëxisting, manual ⋮ > “Update All” option in the dashboard.

Sure, it skips all the package snippets once they fail to compile, but that wastes a lot of time. Ideally, both the existing manual option and your solution would have a mechanism to skip them.

Maybe packages should have a different file extension? Yml for packages, yaml for full files that can be compiled? 🤔💭

[sefininio]

That is a really good point. Unfortunately, it is also outside the scope of this effort, as it is a missing piece that also affects the update all feature.