Home Assistant Manager

Home Assistant Manager

Operate a remote Home Assistant instance precisely: make a change, get it live, prove it worked. Optimize for the fewest safe round-trips.

Assumptions

• The repo you're editing is the HA /config dir, git-connected to the instance

(typically root@homeassistant.local). Edits aren't live until pulled on the instance.

• Access via one or more of: hass-cli (REST), SSH ha, or an MCP server (see below).
• Only edit .yaml/.yml/.md. Never read/write .env or secrets.yaml; use !secret.

Remote access — pick the right tool

• SSH ha — always works, needs no local env. Use for ha core check|restart|logs|info.
• hass-cli (REST) — state/service calls, but needs HASS_SERVER/HASS_TOKEN in the

shell before the session starts. If they're unset, hass-cli falls back to the wrong host (localhost) and errors — don't retry, check [ -n "$HASS_TOKEN" ] once, then use SSH or MCP instead.

• MCP (preferred when available) — first-class tools for live state/control, no env

juggling. Official mcp_server integration (HA core ≥2025.2) or community ha-mcp (richer, 80+ tools). Use it instead of shelling out when present.

The deploy pipeline (the one canonical flow)

Changes are not live until step 4.

1. Edit YAML locally.
2. Validate: ssh root@homeassistant.local "ha core check" (slow, ~30-60s — see "when to

skip" below).

1. Commit + push: git add … && git commit -m "…" && git push.
2. Make it live: ssh root@homeassistant.local "cd /config && git pull".
3. Apply: reload if possible, else restart (table below).
4. Verify (next section).

Rapid iteration: skip git and scp straight to the instance, then reload — good for dashboards and tight test loops. Commit to git only once stable. scp automations.yaml root@homeassistant.local:/config/ → reload.

When to skip ha core check: it parses the whole config and is slow. For an isolated YAML edit you're confident in, a domain reload surfaces errors faster and the logs tell you immediately. Always run it before a restart or for configuration.yaml changes.

Reload vs restart

| Change | Action | |--------|--------| | automations, scripts, scenes, groups, template entities, themes | reload the domain (hass-cli service call automation.reload, etc.) | | configuration.yaml core, new integrations, platform sensors (min/max), MQTT sensor/binary_sensor platforms, dashboard registry (lovelace_dashboards) | restart (ssh … "ha core restart", ~30s) |

Prefer reload. Never restart without a passing ha core check.

Verify — don't assume it worked

1. Reload/restart the right domain.
2. For automations, trigger manually for instant feedback:

hass-cli service call automation.trigger --arguments entity_id=automation. (or call the service via MCP).

1. Read the logs filtered to your change:

ssh root@homeassistant.local "ha core logs | grep -iE '|error' | tail -20". Good: Running automation actions, Executing step …. Bad: Invalid data for call_service, TypeError, Template variable warning, Error executing script.

1. Confirm the real outcome: device/sensor state (hass-cli state get ), or ask

the user for notification-type actions.

1. On error: fix → re-pull/scp → reload → re-check. Loop until clean.

Templates — the precision rules

• Always coerce types before comparing: states('sensor.x') | int(0) /dev/null. After deploying, **validate the UI

visually in the browser** (see the reference) — logs/state won't catch a broken card or a mis-sorted popup.

Full dashboard reference (view types, card catalog, template cards, tablet layout, pitfalls, debugging) → read [reference/dashboards.md](reference/dashboards.md) when doing UI work. Modern HA: native sections view (drag-drop grid, badges, heading cards) and feature-rich tile cards now cover most needs without custom cards; reach for Mushroom only when you want its specific look.

Quick reference

# Validate / apply
ssh root@homeassistant.local "ha core check"
ssh root@homeassistant.local "ha core restart"
ssh root@homeassistant.local "cd /config && git pull"     # make pushed changes live

# Logs
ssh root@homeassistant.local "ha core logs | grep -iE 'error|' | tail -20"

# State / services (needs env loaded, or use MCP)
hass-cli state get 
hass-cli service call .reload
hass-cli service call automation.trigger --arguments entity_id=automation.

# Rapid deploy
scp .yaml root@homeassistant.local:/config/ && hass-cli service call automation.reload

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: komal-SkyNET
• Source: komal-SkyNET/claude-skill-homeassistant
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.