Can OpenMQTTGateway read ultrasonic sensor data from ESP32 and publish it cleanly?

Hi everyone! I’m experimenting with OpenMQTTGateway and want to feed it simple ultrasonic distance readings from an ESP32 so I can trigger automations or alerts. I followed this tutorial on using an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor with ESP32 to send distance measurements via Wi-Fi, which gave me the basic structure of sensor → payload → publish:

https://www.theengineeringprojects.com/2018/10/introduction-to-hc-sr04-ultrasonic-sensor.html

I’ve also looked at community examples where OpenMQTTGateway ingests BLE and infrared sensors, and a GitHub project showing how to bridge sensor modules via ESPHome to MQTT. Does anyone here have experience sending HC-SR04 data via OpenMQTTGateway and then using it for Home Automation flows or alerts? What configuration tweaks or formatting tips worked best for you?