Home Assistant Control

Control and inspect Home Assistant via REST API for entities, states, services, scenes, scripts, and automations. Use when the user asks to turn devices on/o...

Use Home Assistant REST API with a long-lived access token.

Requirements

For skill users (runtime)

• bash
• curl
• jq
• Home Assistant long-lived token (HA_TOKEN)
• Home Assistant public base URL (HA_URL_PUBLIC)

For skill maintainers (packaging/validation)

• python3
• pyyaml (required by skill-creator validator/packager scripts)

Required environment variables

• HA_TOKEN (required)
• HA_URL_PUBLIC (required; canonical target and fallback)
• Optional URL behavior:
  • if HA_URL_LOCAL is set (and no HA_URL override), local is tried first, then fallback to HA_URL_PUBLIC
  • HA_URL is an explicit override (if set, used directly)

Secrets handling (publish-safe)

• Keep keys/URLs in an external file, not in the skill folder.
• Set HA_ENV_FILE=/absolute/path/to/file.env when you want file-based secret loading.
• If HA_ENV_FILE is not set, scripts only use environment variables already present in the shell.
• scripts/ha_call.sh and scripts/self_check.sh load env file only when HA_ENV_FILE is provided.

Core workflow

1. Parse the user request into target entity/service + desired action.
2. Check references/naming-context.md for manual alias mappings first.
3. Verify entity exists before changing state.
4. Execute service call.
5. Re-check state and report outcome clearly.

Useful endpoints

• List states: GET /api/states
• Single state: GET /api/states/{entity_id}
• Call service: POST /api/services/{domain}/{service}

Headers:

• Authorization: Bearer $HA_TOKEN
• Content-Type: application/json

Scripts

• scripts/ha_env.sh — loads env file only when HA_ENV_FILE is explicitly set, using safe KEY=VALUE parsing (no source/eval).
• scripts/ha_call.sh — generic API caller for Home Assistant.
• scripts/fill_entities_md.sh — generate references/entities.md from GET /api/states.
  • Full map: ./scripts/fill_entities_md.sh
  • Filter domains: ./scripts/fill_entities_md.sh --domains light,switch,climate,sensor
• scripts/save_naming_context.sh — refresh references/naming-context.md for user-specific naming.
  • ./scripts/save_naming_context.sh
• scripts/ha_entity_find.sh — search entities by partial entity id or friendly name.
  • ./scripts/ha_entity_find.sh kitchen
  • ./scripts/ha_entity_find.sh temp --domains sensor,climate --limit 30
• scripts/ha_safe_action.sh — execute service actions with safety checks and risk confirmation.
  • ./scripts/ha_safe_action.sh light turn_on light.kitchen '{"brightness_pct":60}'
  • ./scripts/ha_safe_action.sh lock unlock lock.front_door --dry-run
  • Add --yes to bypass interactive confirmation for risky domains.
• scripts/self_check.sh — verify prerequisites and API connectivity/auth before running actions.
  • ./scripts/self_check.sh

Safety

• Confirm before high-impact actions (locks, alarms, garage/doors, heating shutdown).
• Do not print raw token values.
• If target entity is ambiguous, ask a follow-up question.
• Keep API paths scoped to Home Assistant endpoints only (/api/...).
• Use only HTTP(S) Home Assistant base URLs (HA_URL*), prefer HTTPS for public access.
• Avoid code execution when loading env files: parse key/value pairs, do not use source on untrusted paths.

Reference files

• references/entities.md — entity inventory
• references/naming-context.md — user alias memory for natural names (e.g. "living room light")

Publishing notes

• Keep examples generic (example_* IDs), no personal hostnames/tokens.
• Do not commit .env or any private env file with real tokens.
• Keep the skill focused: API workflow + reusable scripts + entity reference.