homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp

Breaking change (v7.3.0): ha_config_set_yaml has been moved to beta.

# HA-MCP — Manage Home Assistant with AI

Configure and automate Home Assistant with Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants.

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🚀 Get Started

The recommended way to run ha-mcp is the HA-MCP integration. It installs into Home Assistant through HACS (the built-in Marketplace on Home Assistant 2026.11+), runs the full server in-process, and works on every Home Assistant installation type — Home Assistant OS, Supervised, Container, and Core — with full feature parity. It is the easiest setup in every case: setup asks for an administrator access token and how clients may connect.

Add it to Home Assistant via HACS or, on Home Assistant 2026.11+, the Marketplace (the preferred install):

Quick start:

The setup below is for version 9.0.0 (October 28, 2026) and later; earlier versions show a shorter setup form without the administrator account step.

1. Install the HA-MCP integration (requires Home Assistant 2026.8.0 or newer; see compatibility details). On Home Assistant 2026.8–2026.10, open HACS, search for HA-MCP, then Download. On Home Assistant 2026.11 or newer, open Settings → Marketplace, accept its first-run warning, and search for HA-MCP, then Install. HA-MCP is in the default catalog, so installing it and receiving its updates do not require connecting GitHub or adding a custom repository. The badge above also opens its catalog page. Already installed from the earlier homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp-integration repository? It keeps receiving the same releases. On the Marketplace, keep GitHub connected for its background checks on that custom repository. Older installed releases may still appear as HA-MCP Custom Component; searching for HA-MCP matches both names. 2. Restart Home Assistant. 3. Decide which administrator account the server acts as. Either create a long-lived access token on your own account (your profile → Security → Long-lived access tokens → Create token; it works from anywhere if it leaks, and the server's changes show under your name), or, safer, create an account just for HA-MCP under Settings → People → Add person with Allow login, Local access only and Administrator on. Never use your own login for the second option. 4. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration, search for HA-MCP and choose HA-MCP Server. Paste your token, or enter the user name and password of the account you made for HA-MCP (HA-MCP creates its token), pick how clients may connect — Remote access through Home Assistant (start with Secret URL, the simplest; Home Assistant sign-in adds a login) and/or Network access: Local network — then click Submit. Both start disabled, so a client on another device needs one of them. 5. Copy the connect URL from the entry's Configure screen (Settings → Devices & Services → “HA-MCP — Manage Home Assistant with AI” → HA-MCP Server → Configure). A notification confirms the server started and points you there. 6. Paste that URL into your AI client — done.

Connect URL. The Configure screen gives you a Home Assistant webhook URL for remote clients — https:///api/webhook/ through Nabu Casa or any reverse proxy already pointed at Home Assistant (locally, http://:8123/api/webhook/). For clients on the same network, the server is also reachable directly at http://:9584/private_.

• Replaces other install methods: the in-process server is a complete, standalone ha-mcp install — it takes the place of the app (add-on), Docker, and uvx/PyPI (stdio) methods. Run only one; do not run the in-process server alongside another install.
• Local only? Leave remote access disabled at setup (or turn off Remote access via webhook in the entry options) — no webhook is registered at all, while the direct port and sidebar panel keep working.
• Settings panel: while the server runs, an admin-only HA-MCP panel appears in the Home Assistant sidebar for managing tools, feature flags, backups, and themes.
• Optional authentication: set Authentication mode to ha_auth to require a Home Assistant account sign-in instead of using the secret URL as the credential.
• Manual install (no HACS or Marketplace): copy custom_components/ha_mcp_tools/ from this repository into your Home Assistant config/custom_components/ directory, then restart and add the integration as above.

Full in-process server documentation → · Setup Wizard for client-specific config →

🏠 Home Assistant app (add-on)

Prefer to run ha-mcp as a Home Assistant app (add-on)? On Home Assistant OS and Supervised installs it is a close second — no access token to manage, and it works with Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, ChatGPT, and any other MCP client on your local network or configured for remote access.

1. Add the repository to your Home Assistant instance:

If that opens the App store without an add-repository dialog (a known Home Assistant issue), add it manually: Settings → Apps → Install app → ⋮ → Repositories, then paste https://github.com/homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp.

2. Install "Home Assistant MCP Server" from Settings → Apps → Install app and click Start. (Home Assistant 2026.2 renamed "Add-ons" to "Apps"; on older versions this is the Add-on store.) 3. Open the Logs tab to find your unique MCP URL. 4. Connect your AI client to that URL — no token or credential setup needed.

Full app documentation →

⚠️ Configure exactly one install method per client. The custom component, the app, Docker/PyPI, and local stdio are independent ways to run the same server — pick one and point your AI client at that single URL. Keeping two entries for the same server in one client (for example a local uvx ha-mcp@latest entry with HOMEASSISTANT_URL / HOMEASSISTANT_TOKEN alongside an app or component URL) is a known cause of connection hangs.

Other install methods

These run the server outside Home Assistant — useful for Container / Core installs (which can't run apps) or a separate host. The Setup Wizard generates the exact client-specific config for each.

• Docker (HTTP server): run ghcr.io/homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp in HTTP mode, pointed at your Home Assistant URL and a long-lived token (an administrator's is recommended; non-admin tokens work with limitations), and connect your client to its secret URL. See the Setup Wizard for the full command and per-client config.
• PyPI / uvx (HTTP server): run the published ha-mcp package with uvx ha-mcp@latest (or pip) as a streamable-HTTP server the same way. Details in the Setup Wizard.
• Local stdio (not recommended): runs ha-mcp on your own machine over stdio. The one-command installers in the Demo server section below use this path; the Setup Wizard covers connecting it to your own Home Assistant.
• OIDC authentication: gate remote access behind an external identity provider (Authentik, Keycloak, Auth0, etc.) instead of a secret URL — all authenticated users share the server's Home Assistant credentials. See OIDC Mode.

   MCP Server URL (remote): https://xxxxx.ui.nabu.casa/api/webhook/mcp_xxxxxxxx
   

🧪 Demo server (Windows / macOS / Linux)

Want to try ha-mcp before connecting your own Home Assistant? No paid subscription required. These one-command scripts set up a local stdio connection to a hosted demo environment so you can see it working in a few minutes. Each script's Connect your own Home Assistant link then shows how to point it at your instance.

   curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp/master/scripts/install-macos.sh | sh
   

   curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp/master/scripts/install-linux.sh | sh
   

   curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp/master/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- --claude-code
   

   irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/homeassistant-ai/ha-mcp/master/scripts/install-windows.ps1 | iex
   

🧙 Setup Wizard for 15+ clients

Claude Code, Gemini CLI, ChatGPT, Open WebUI, VSCode, Cursor, and more.

Having issues? Check the FAQ & Troubleshooting

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💬 What Can You Do With It?

Just talk to Claude naturally. Here are some real examples:

| You Say | What Happens | |---------|--------------| | "Create an automation that turns on the porch light at sunset" | Creates the automation with proper triggers and actions | | "Add a weather card to my dashboard" | Updates your Lovelace dashboard with the new card | | "The motion sensor automation isn't working, debug it" | Analyzes execution traces, identifies the issue, suggests fixes | | "Make my morning routine automation also turn on the coffee maker" | Reads the existing automation, adds the new action, updates it | | "Create a script that sets movie mode: dim lights, close blinds, turn on TV" | Creates a reusable script with the sequence of actions |

Spend less time configuring, more time enjoying your smart home.

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✨ Features

| Category | Capabilities | |----------|--------------| | 🔍 Search | Fuzzy entity search, deep config search, system overview | | 🏠 Control | Any service, bulk device control, real-time states | | 🔧 Manage | Automations, scripts, helpers, dashboards, areas, zones, groups, calendars, blueprints | | 📊 Monitor | History, statistics, camera snapshots, automation traces, ZHA devices | | 💾 System | Backup/restore, updates, apps, device registry | | 🔒 Safety | Read Only Mode toggle, per-tool enable/disable, tool security policies (user approval), automatic edit backups |

Template helper edit backups capture persisted options through the HA-MCP custom component, using either its Server entry or File & YAML Tools entry. Helper edits, generic integration options edits, and deletion capture the stable config-entry identity and entity ID/name mapping. Capture refuses degraded secret scrubbing. Restoring an existing helper requires a fresh safety backup, removes optional settings absent from the snapshot, and verifies persisted options.

For Template backup listing and bulk deletion, filter by the config-entry ID returned as entity_id by capture. Capture accepts an entity alias; the history filters use the stable config-entry ID. Recreation reports its replacement config-entry ID and saved entity mapping separately.

If the original entry has been deleted, restore recreates the helper and reports its new config-entry ID. The saved entity ID and custom name are restored when available; an occupied entity ID is refused before creation. Older snapshots without entity metadata cannot preserve renamed entity IDs. If a collision or verification failure occurs after creation, the new helper and source backup are retained and the result reports the new entry for inspection. Other entity/device registry settings are not restored. Helper and integration edits through the same server wait until restore finishes; other Home Assistant clients are outside this coordination. Failed or uncertain restores report their outcome and safe refusal reasons; inspect the current helper before retrying.

Z-Wave configuration values can be read through ha_manage_radio with action="get_config_params" or action="get_config_param", even when their configuration entities are disabled or absent. Reads use the Z-Wave JS cache by default; a single full root parameter can explicitly request a device read. See parameter reads, freshness, and examples.

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🆚 ha-mcp vs. Home Assistant's built-in MCP Server

Home Assistant ships its own MCP Server integration. It is built on the Assist pipeline, so a connected MCP client can read and control the entities you have exposed to Assist and run the intents Assist understands — handy for voice-style control of already-exposed devices.

ha-mcp is a standalone server built for configuring, building, and debugging your smart home, not just controlling it. On top of device control, it adds capabilities the built-in integration does not have:

| Capability | Built-in MCP Server | ha-mcp | |------------|:-------------------:|:------:| | Control exposed devices, query states | Yes | Yes | | Entity scope | Only entities exposed to Assist | Everything in Home Assistant | | Create / edit automations, scripts, scenes | No | Yes | | Build & edit dashboards | No | Yes | | Debug automations from traces, read history & logs | No | Yes | | Manage helpers, areas, zones, labels, groups | No | Yes | | Backups, apps, HACS, device & entity registry | No | Yes |

Rule of thumb: Use the built-in integration for voice-style control of devices you have already exposed; use ha-mcp when you want an AI assistant that can also build and maintain your Home Assistant setup.

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🔌 Custom Component (ha_mcp_tools) — File & YAML Services

The HA-MCP integration also powers a set of privileged tools that standard Home Assistant APIs can't provide: file system access and YAML config editing. (The same component runs the full server in-process — that's the recommended install in the Get Started section at the top.) Its File & YAML services entry (HA-MCP File & YAML Tools) enables the tools below.

**Tools that require the comp