Docs / Strand / connectors/home-assistant

Home Assistant Connector

Direction: Read/Write | Type: homeassistant

Control smart home devices, read entity states, fire events, and render templates from your Strand workflows via the Home Assistant REST API.

Prerequisites

Your instance must be reachable from the internet

This is the first thing to sort out, because most Home Assistant installs are on a home network and Strand runs in the cloud. Strand can only connect to addresses that are publicly reachable, so a URL like http://homeassistant.local:8123 or http://192.168.1.50:8123 will not work — even though it works perfectly from your own browser. Private addresses (10.x, 172.16–31.x, 192.168.x, 127.x) and .local mDNS names are all in that category.

Any of these gives Strand a reachable address:

• Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa) — use your *.ui.nabu.casa URL. The

simplest option, and no ports are opened on your router.

• A reverse proxy or tunnel — Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale Funnel, or your

own nginx/Caddy with a real certificate.

• A public hostname with HTTPS pointing at your instance.

Whichever you choose, confirm the URL loads from outside your home network before creating the connector.

Access token

You need a Long-Lived Access Token from your Home Assistant instance:

1. Open your Home Assistant dashboard
2. Click your profile icon (bottom-left)
3. Scroll to Long-Lived Access Tokens
4. Click Create Token, name it (e.g., "Strand"), and copy the token

Tip: Use a dedicated token for your Strand workflows. Tokens can be revoked individually from your HA profile page.

Required Permissions

The access token inherits the permissions of the user who created it. For full access to all operations, use an administrator account.

Connector Setup

Create a Home Assistant connector from the Connectors page.

Configuration Fields

Operations

Call Service

Control any Home Assistant device by calling a service action.

Example: Turn on a light at 50% brightness:

• Domain: light
• Service: turn_on
• Target:

{"entity_id": "light.living_room"}

• Service Data:

{"brightness_pct": 50}

Example: Run a script with variables:

• Domain: script
• Service: {{ payload.script_name }}
• Service Data:

{"message": "{{ payload.alert_message }}"}

Fire Event

Fire a custom event on the Home Assistant event bus to trigger automations.

Example: Fire a notification event:

• Event Type: strand_notification
• Event Data:

{"message": "{{ payload.alert }}", "severity": "warning", "source": "strand"}

Set State

Create or update the state and attributes of an entity.

Example: Update a custom sensor:

• Entity ID: sensor.strand_last_run
• State: {{ payload.status }}
• Attributes:

{"friendly_name": "Last Strand Run", "timestamp": "{{ payload.timestamp }}"}

Get Entity State

Get the current state and attributes of a single entity.

Get All States

Get the current state of every entity in Home Assistant. No fields required.

Note: This can return a large payload depending on the number of entities in your HA instance. Use Get Entity State for targeted lookups.

Get History

Get state change history for entities over a time period.

Example: Get last 24 hours of a sensor:

• Entity ID: sensor.outdoor_temperature
• Minimal Response: Yes

Get Services

List all available service domains and their actions. No fields required.

Useful for discovering what services are available on your HA instance.

Render Template

Render a Home Assistant Jinja2 template on the HA server.

Note: This template is rendered by Home Assistant, not Strand. You can use Strand Jinja templates to inject dynamic values into the HA template.

Example: Get a computed value:

{{ states("sensor.temperature") }} {{ state_attr("sensor.temperature", "unit_of_measurement") }}

Example: Count lights that are on:

{{ states.light | selectattr("state", "eq", "on") | list | count }}

Output

Call Service Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "domain": "light",
    "service": "turn_on",
    "response": []
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "call_service"
}

Fire Event Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "fired",
  "data": {
    "event_type": "strand_notification",
    "message": "Event strand_notification fired."
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "fire_event"
}

Set State Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "entity_id": "sensor.strand_status",
    "state": "active",
    "attributes": {
      "friendly_name": "Strand Status",
      "timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    }
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "set_state"
}

Get Entity State Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "entity_id": "sensor.temperature",
    "state": "22.5",
    "attributes": {
      "unit_of_measurement": "\u00b0C",
      "friendly_name": "Temperature Sensor",
      "device_class": "temperature"
    },
    "last_changed": "2025-01-15T10:30:00+00:00",
    "last_updated": "2025-01-15T10:30:00+00:00"
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "get_state"
}

Key fields for subsequent nodes:

• {{ steps.node_id.output_payload.data.state }}: Entity state value
• {{ steps.node_id.output_payload.data.attributes.friendly_name }}: An attribute
• {{ steps.node_id.output_payload.data.last_changed }}: Last state change time

Get All States Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "entities": [ ... ],
    "count": 156
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "get_states"
}

Get History Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "history": [
      [
        {"state": "21.0", "last_changed": "2025-01-15T08:00:00+00:00"},
        {"state": "22.5", "last_changed": "2025-01-15T10:30:00+00:00"}
      ]
    ],
    "entity_id": "sensor.temperature"
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "get_history"
}

Get Services Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "services": [
      {"domain": "light", "services": {"turn_on": {}, "turn_off": {}, "toggle": {}}},
      {"domain": "switch", "services": {"turn_on": {}, "turn_off": {}, "toggle": {}}}
    ],
    "count": 2
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "get_services"
}

Render Template Output

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "template": "{{ states('sensor.temperature') }}",
    "rendered": "22.5"
  },
  "service": "homeassistant",
  "operation": "render_template"
}

Key field: {{ steps.node_id.output_payload.data.rendered }}: The rendered template result

Errors

Example Workflow

1. Get Entity State: Check a temperature sensor: entity_id sensor.outdoor_temperature
2. Logic node: Evaluate if temperature > 30
3. Call Service: Turn on the AC: domain climate, service set_temperature, target {"entity_id": "climate.living_room"}, service data {"temperature": 24}
4. Fire Event: Log the action: event_type strand_ac_activated, event data {"temperature": "{{ steps.step1.output_payload.data.state }}"}

Limitations

• WebSocket API: Only the REST API is supported. WebSocket-based subscriptions and real-time event streams are not available.
• Media: Media upload/download and camera proxy endpoints are not supported.
• Config entries: Managing HA integrations and config entries via API is not supported.
• Large history queries: History queries for many entities over long periods may timeout. Use the entity_id filter and minimal_response option for large datasets.
• Rate limiting: Home Assistant does not enforce rate limits by default, but rapid-fire requests may slow down the instance.

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