PIN-Protected Tiles / Buttons for Sensitive Home Assistant Actions

Overview

I'd like the ability to configure a Tessera tile/button to require a 4-digit PIN before executing its associated Home Assistant action.

This would provide a simple way to protect sensitive controls on shared touchscreen dashboards without restricting access to the rest of the dashboard.

Use Case

I have Tessera dashboards installed throughout my home, including areas accessible to my children.

One of my Home Assistant entities is a switch that controls internet access for the kids. I'd like to display this switch as a normal tile showing its current on/off state, but require a PIN before anyone can toggle it.

For example:

1. The tile displays "Kids Internet" with its current on/off state.
2. A user taps the tile.
3. A numeric keypad appears, prompting for a 4-digit PIN.
4. If the PIN is correct, Tessera toggles the Home Assistant switch.
5. If the PIN is incorrect, the action is not executed and an error message is displayed.
6. The user can cancel PIN entry and return to the dashboard without changing anything.

Suggested Functionality

• Optional PIN protection: Add a "Require PIN" option to tile/button configuration.
• 4-digit PIN: Allow the user to configure a numeric PIN, ideally reusable across multiple protected tiles.
• Numeric keypad overlay: Display a simple PIN entry dialog with masked digits, without navigating away from the current page.
• Validate before execution: Do not perform the Home Assistant action unless the correct PIN is entered.
• Protect both state transitions: For switch entities, require the PIN whether turning the switch on or off.
• Cancel and retry: Allow users to cancel PIN entry or retry after an incorrect PIN.
• Preserve existing tile behavior: Continue displaying the entity's current state, icon, and status normally. Only the action should be protected.

Additional Considerations

Ideally, PIN validation should happen on the device or through a protected mechanism, rather than exposing the PIN in the dashboard configuration delivered to the browser.

The PIN dialog should also work consistently with different tile sizes and screen resolutions.

Why This Would Be Useful

Tessera is particularly well suited to shared, wall-mounted Home Assistant dashboards. However, some actions should be available only to authorized users.

Beyond parental internet controls, this could be useful for:

• Alarm system arming/disarming
• Garage door and gate controls
• Door locks
• Parental control switches
• Other sensitive Home Assistant scripts, switches, and actions

A generic PIN-protection option for actionable tiles would make Tessera much more practical for shared family dashboards.