Open-Source ha-mcp Gives AI Agents 87 Tools to Run Your Smart Home
ha-mcp is an unofficial Home Assistant MCP server exposing 87 tools for AI assistants. Unlike HA's built-in MCP, it covers full config: automations, dashboards, traces, registries, backups, HACS. Recommended install is an in-process custom component via HACS, working on all HA install types.
Takeaways
- ha-mcp is an unofficial Home Assistant MCP server exposing 87 tools for AI assistants.
- Unlike HA's built-in MCP, it covers full config: automations, dashboards, traces, registries, backups, HACS.
- Recommended install is an in-process custom component via HACS, working on all HA install types.
- Also ships as Docker image, PyPI package (
uvx ha-mcp@latest), and local stdio for demos. - Optional BM25 tool search mode for small-context models like Haiku, Gemini, or local Ollama runtimes.
- Safety features include Read Only Mode, per-tool approval policies, automatic edit backups, and
/readonlyURL suffix.
Home Assistant's built-in MCP integration lets AI clients read and control devices exposed to Assist. The open-source ha-mcp project broadens that connection to automation authoring, dashboard editing, trace analysis, registry management, and selected system operations. Its GitHub repository has 5.4k stars. The broader API lets an agent carry a task from diagnosis through an approved configuration change.
Inside the 87-tool surface
Model Context Protocol, or MCP, lets an AI client discover and invoke tools described by machine-readable schemas. ha-mcp sits between the client and a Home Assistant instance, exposing 87 tools across search, control, management, monitoring, system, and safety categories. The catalog covers:
- Building: automations, scripts, scenes, blueprints, helpers, and dashboards.
- Organizing: areas, zones, labels, calendars, and the device and entity registries.
- Diagnosing: logs, execution traces, history, camera snapshots, and backups.
- Administering: HACS, Z-Wave radios, Matter fabrics, and selected configuration files.
Home Assistant's built-in server routes requests through the Assist pipeline, which limits clients to exposed entities and supported intents. ha-mcp adds administrative workflows governed by its enabled tools, credentials, connection mode, and security policies.
| Capability | Built-in MCP | ha-mcp |
|---|---|---|
| Entity scope | Entities exposed to Assist | Entities and APIs covered by enabled tools |
| Typical work | Read state, run intents, control devices | Create, inspect, debug, and manage configuration |
| Permission boundary | Assist exposure settings | Read-only mode, tool policies, approvals, and feature flags |
Four routes to a running server
The maintainers recommend the HA-MCP Custom Component for access to the complete tool set. It installs through HACS, runs inside Home Assistant, and supports Home Assistant OS, Supervised, Container, and Core installations.
Reporting is indexed from AlphaSignal. Rights remain with the original publisher and cited sources.
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