Manage your screens
The sidebar in Tessera lists every paired screen. The arrow at the right of a screen opens its details: its room, firmware and board, and the things below.
Rename
Rename changes the name Tessera shows, up to 40 characters. The device in Home Assistant keeps its name. Leave the field empty to go back to Home Assistant's name.
The API key
Copy API key gives the screen's encryption key, for when Home Assistant asks for it again. Over plain http the browser can't copy; the key then shows selected in a box, ready for Ctrl+C or Command+C.
Remove a screen
Unplug or erase the screen first. A screen that is still powered announces itself to Home Assistant again.
Remove screen lists what goes, and asks you to confirm:
- Out of Home Assistant: the device with its entities, wherever they are used.
- Out of the ESPHome folder: the screen's file and what it built.
- Out of this app: its tiles, its settings and its update history.
A screen that was installed outside Tessera has no file in the ESPHome folder; nothing there is touched.
Download screen files
A zip with the screen's YAML, its Override YAML and a secrets.yaml holding only the secrets those two name, normally the Wi-Fi. It is what you need to build the screen with ESPHome on your own computer; see Flash a screen yourself. The zip holds your Wi-Fi password and the screen's keys: keep it to yourself.
When a screen is offline
The sidebar marks it. Tiles you save while it is offline are sent as soon as it is back. Its settings can't be changed until then, and an update waits for the next round.
The app sends a changed tile at once, and a small check every two minutes. A screen that hears nothing for about five minutes says Tessera not active on the glass and blocks its tiles until the app is back.
Backups
Your tiles and settings live in the app's data folder, which Home Assistant's backups include when you tick the app. The screens' own files and the Wi-Fi secrets live in the ESPHome folder of your Home Assistant configuration, which the configuration backup covers. On Docker, keep copies yourself.
Feedback
A day after a screen first comes online, its page asks once whether it works as you expect. Answering is optional. What is sent: the board, your answer, the firmware and app versions, and a note if you wrote one. No name, no account, no entities. Screen settings → Feedback shows what you shared, and lets you change or delete it.
Override YAML
For a board that needs a hardware change, such as another display chip or a slower display. See Flash a screen yourself.