Home Assistant FAQs

Question 1

What is hass-mcp-server for Home Assistant?

Accepted Answer

hass-mcp-server is a tool that empowers AI agents (like GitHub Copilot or Claude) to programmatically manage and control your Home Assistant smart home instance, allowing for automated configuration and operation.

Question 2

What Home Assistant features can AI agents control?

Accepted Answer

AI agents can perform comprehensive management including creating/updating Lovelace dashboards, secure file transfers via SFTP, full control over automations, scripts, scenes, add-ons (apps), entities, services, and system-level tasks.

Question 3

Is file management secure with hass-mcp-server?

Accepted Answer

Yes, hass-mcp-server facilitates secure file management (upload, read, delete) using SFTP, which requires configuring SSH access on your Home Assistant instance with either an SSH key or password.

Question 4

What are the prerequisites for using hass-mcp-server?

Accepted Answer

You need Home Assistant OS (or Supervisor), a Home Assistant long-lived access token, and Node.js 20+. For file management, the 'Advanced SSH & Web Terminal' add-on for Home Assistant is required.

Question 5

How do I install and configure hass-mcp-server?

Accepted Answer

There's no direct installation needed. Your MCP client (e.g., VS Code, Claude Desktop) automatically runs the server via `npx`. You configure it by setting environment variables like `HA_URL` and `HA_TOKEN` in your client's configuration file.

Home Assistant

Home Assistant

Key Features

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Key Features

Use Cases