Home Assistant Documentation
Introduction
Home Assistant↗ is open source home automation software that allows for the aggregation of countless home automation devices into one application. It has evolved tremendously over the past couple of years into the most versatile home automation solution for people who value choice and control. Since it is basically just a Linux system running a suite of Docker applications, it has open to it the entire world of Linux software for further integration.
Hardware Choices
Home Assistant runs on a variety of hardware, but all versions of the software are highly curated. The authors of the project prefer to control the entire operating system environment, which means you can’t just install Home Assistant on an existing computer and have all features available. Instead, Home Assistant is the entire computer (or virtual machine).
The main choices for running Home Assistant are:
- Bring your own Raspberry Pi↗
- Buy a Home Assistant Yellow↗ or Home Assistant Green↗
- Install on an old x86-64 system↗
- Install as a virtual machine↗
Further Reading
- MQTT Config - Configuring MQTT in Home Assistant