Replace deprecated rgb_order with channel_colors

[TrevorSchirmer]

ESPHome 2026.8.0 replaces rgb_order / is_rgbw / is_wrgb with a single channel_colors key on esp32_rmt_led_strip (esphome#18474).

channel_colors takes each of R, G, B exactly once, optionally with a single W; the value is case-insensitive. No behaviour change — grb and GRB are equivalent, uppercase to match the ESPHome docs.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Improvements
  • Updated AIR-1 firmware metadata to support current OTA update and firmware tracking.
  • Updated AIR-1 ESPHome configurations to require ESPHome 2026.8.0 or newer.
• Bug Fixes
  • Updated RGB LED strip channel settings to preserve accurate color rendering with current ESPHome options.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 4d251afe-92f3-4b97-b4ac-c7430943aaab

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7521859 and b96387e.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• Integrations/ESPHome/AIR-1.yaml
• Integrations/ESPHome/AIR-1_BLE.yaml
• Integrations/ESPHome/AIR-1_Factory.yaml

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 2 included reviews per hour; 1 remains after this review.

---

Walkthrough

The ESPHome AIR-1 configurations update firmware metadata, replace the RGB strip rgb_order option with channel_colors: GRB, and raise the minimum ESPHome version to 2026.8.0.

Changes

ESPHome configuration

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Update ESPHome settings Integrations/ESPHome/Core.yaml, Integrations/ESPHome/AIR-1.yaml, Integrations/ESPHome/AIR-1_BLE.yaml, Integrations/ESPHome/AIR-1_Factory.yaml	The firmware version changes to 26.8.27.1. The RGB strip uses channel_colors: GRB instead of rgb_order: grb. All AIR-1 configurations require ESPHome 2026.8.0.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~2 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to b9638

This PR updates the ESPHome minimum version and replaces the deprecated LED color-order setting without an identified behavior change. No actionable merge-blocking risk remains beyond normal checks and review.

Suggested reviewers: bharvey88, gdt

Poem

A rabbit updates numbers bright
ESPHome versions take new flight
GRB keeps colors true
Old settings hop from view
AIR-1 glows in morning light

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the primary change: replacing deprecated rgb_order with channel_colors for ESPHome 2026.8.0 compatibility.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0 files. (3 skipped: 3 unsupported.)

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch channel-colors-migration

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[bharvey88]

Verified against upstream rather than the description: channel_colors landed in ESPHome 2026.8.0 (esphome#18474), and rgb_order still validates but is marked for removal in 2027.3.0. validate_channel_colors uppercases its input and channel_colors_struct derives the same r/g/b indices, so GRB here is byte-identical to the previous grb. No behaviour change and no change to the compiled binary.

Every esp32_rmt_led_strip block in this repo is covered. I pushed one commit on top bumping min_version to 2026.8.0: devices adopted through the ESPHome dashboard track this repo at HEAD with no pinned ref, so without it an adopter on an older ESPHome would hit Unknown option channel_colors inside a file they never wrote. ESPHome merges remote packages and checks min_version before component schemas load, so the bump surfaces the right error instead.

CI green on stable, beta and dev.