Personal & lifeX · @lmedinas
Connect Grok Bot to Home Assistant and your Sonos speakers
He connected his Grok Bot to Home Assistant and to his Sonos audio system through a Sonos MCP server.
$30/mo1 hourIntermediate
How to connect an AI agent to Home Assistant
Short answer: Home Assistant has a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, the standard way AI agents connect to outside tools. Add the Model Context Protocol Server integration, copy your MCP server URL from Settings, System, AI, and paste it into your agent: a custom connector in Claude, a custom MCP server in ChatGPT, or one command in Claude Code or Codex. You sign in with your Home Assistant account and the agent can then see device states and control only the devices you expose to it. Cloud agents such as Claude, ChatGPT and Grok Bot need Home Assistant reachable from the internet, which Home Assistant Link ($6.50 a month) or your own secure tunnel provides.
Real setups where people let Grok Bot, Claude and Claude Code run Home Assistant: a cloud bot driving a Roborock through a Pi, automations that need judgement, and a whole house added in a weekend. 13 matching use cases below, each with a public source.
Looking for something else? Search all 1965 use cases or .
Step by step
- Run Home Assistant somewhere always on. Install Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi, a mini PC, a spare computer or a virtual machine. One builder below put Home Assistant OS on an old Raspberry Pi 4 so his cloud bot could reach his Roborock vacuum; another had Claude Code add every device in his house to Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 5 over a weekend.
- Add the Model Context Protocol Server integration. In Home Assistant go to Settings, Devices and services, Add integration, and choose Model Context Protocol Server (added in Home Assistant 2025.2). Then open Settings, System, AI, turn MCP on if it is off and copy your MCP server URL. By default it exposes all of Home Assistant's AI tools and requires an administrator account; you can narrow both under Configure.
- Choose what the agent can see. The agent can only control entities you expose to Home Assistant's assistant. Start with lights, media players, climate and sensors, and leave locks, alarms and cameras for later. Creating a separate user for the agent makes its actions easy to audit and revoke.
- Make it reachable for cloud agents. Claude (including Claude Desktop), ChatGPT on the web and cloud bots such as Grok Bot connect from the internet, so Home Assistant must be reachable from outside your home. Home Assistant Link from Nabu Casa does this with no router changes; a reverse proxy or a tunnel such as Cloudflare Tunnel also works if its address matches the External URL set in Settings, System, Network. Codex and OpenCode running on your own computer can use the local address, for example homeassistant.local:8123/api/mcp.
- Connect your agent. In Claude, add a custom connector named Home Assistant with your MCP server URL, choose Sign in now and log in to Home Assistant. In ChatGPT, add a custom MCP server with OAuth. In Claude Code, run claude mcp add with the http transport and your URL, then claude mcp login. In Codex, run codex mcp add with your URL. One Grok Bot user below connected Home Assistant alongside a separate MCP server for his Sonos speakers.
- Start with one useful job. Ask for something small and checkable: turn off every light downstairs, tell me which windows are open, or write an automation that dims the lights when a movie starts. One builder routes only the automations that need judgement to his agent and talks to it through an ESP32 voice device. Claude asks before each tool call, so approve actions until you trust them.
Related guides: How to build a smart home and voice assistant with AI agents · How to take your robot vacuum off the cloud with AI · How to self-host AI agents on a Raspberry Pi, Mac mini or homelab · How to build an MCP server for AI agents
What it costs
- Home Assistant: Free and open source. Runs on hardware you may already own, such as a Raspberry Pi or a spare computer.
- MCP Server integration: Free. Built into Home Assistant since version 2025.2.
- Home Assistant Link (formerly Home Assistant Cloud): $6.50 a month or $65 a year, plus tax. Optional. Gives remote access so cloud agents can reach your home; 31-day free trial.
- Your own tunnel or reverse proxy: Free to low cost. An alternative to Home Assistant Link; you manage the domain and security yourself.
- The AI agent: Varies. Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex and Grok Bot have their own plans; check each tool's pricing page.
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Personal & lifeX · @MyPassion_M9T
Let a cloud AI agent run your Roborock through Home Assistant on a Pi
His Grok Bot runs in the cloud and could not reach his Roborock robot vacuum on the home network, so he installed Home Assistant OS on an old Raspberry Pi 4 as a local hub: the bot sends the request, Home Assistant talks to the vacuum locally and data stays at home.
$30/mo1 dayIntermediate
Automation & businessX · @jritsema
Let your agent run smart-home automations
Connect your agent to Home Assistant via MCP and route automations that need judgement through it; talk to it with an ESP32 voice device.
Free to startHalf a dayIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @coustain
Vibe-code Home Assistant automations on a Raspberry Pi with Grok Bot
A homeowner uses Grok Bot to write and set up Home Assistant automations running on his Raspberry Pi.
$30/mo1 hourIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @codewithantonio
Have Claude Code add every smart device in your home to Home Assistant
A weekend project: he had Claude Code add every IoT device in his household to Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi 5, including closed-off devices like his Dyson robot vacuum, and designed the dashboard with Mobbin and the Paper MCP.
$17/mo1 weekendIntermediate
Dev & opsX · @CodedVengeance
Let Claude set up Home Assistant and n8n on your Proxmox homelab overnight
A homelab owner typed one paragraph to Claude before bed. It SSH'd into his 3-node Proxmox cluster, spun up Home Assistant and n8n, built a live dashboard with node stats and set up auto-updates with phone alerts.
Free tierOvernightIntermediate
Vibe coding & appsX · @TheObiLeonard
Control your whole smart home from the Mac menu bar with a vibe-coded app
A designer vibe coded Hearth over a weekend with help from Claude and Codex, using SwiftUI, Python and JavaScript. It sits in the Mac menu bar and connects to hundreds of Home Assistant integrations: energy use, cameras, speakers, lights, plugs, air conditioners and supported cars.
Free tier1 weekendIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @Lumesssss
Make your PS5 less annoying with Claude Code and a home DNS blocker
The PS5 has no developer mode, so instead of touching the console he had Claude Code build everything around it: a DNS blocker on an always-on Raspberry Pi or mini PC that blocks promo and tracking domains for the whole house, wake-from-phone, streaming to a laptop, and Home Assistant showing the console status and putting it to sleep at 1am.
$17/mo1 eveningIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @dmoney_ds
Turn a home cinema into a dumb-screen setup with one remote
In one evening with Claude Code he made his LG OLED a plain monitor that boots straight to an NVIDIA Shield, debloated the Shield over ADB with an ad-free launcher and put Home Assistant in charge of the whole setup.
$17/mo1 eveningIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @M3PUnleashed
Have a Grok Bot audit your UniFi Wi-Fi and move smart devices to an IoT network
Signals, a Grok Bot on the marketplace for people who run UniFi and Home Assistant, checks home network security and Wi-Fi read-only, backs up the UniFi config weekly off the box and helps move smart devices onto an isolated IoT network.
$30/mo1 hourIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @0xProbabillity
Put your apartment's controls in the Mac menu bar and let Opus make the demo video
A builder moved his apartment's smart home controls into the Mac menu bar, then asked Opus 5.5 to make a video about it. The model filmed, edited, voiced and scored the demo itself.
$4 in / $20 out per 1M tokens1 weekendIntermediate
Personal & lifeX · @Voxyz_ai
Turn your air conditioner's app into a switch in the Mac menu bar
A builder shared a Claude Code prompt that has Opus 5.5 check for an official API or Home Assistant integration first, and only if none exists analyze how the AC's own phone app talks to the unit, then build a power and temperature switch for the Mac menu bar. It warns to only do this with devices you own and to check the vendor's terms.
$17/mo1 hourAdvanced
Personal & lifeX · @anml_litecoin
Move your robot vacuum off the cloud and onto local Home Assistant
Grok Bot helped him move control of his Eufy robot vacuum from the Eufy app to his local Home Assistant and cut the vacuum off from the internet and Eufy's servers entirely.
$30/mo1 hourIntermediate
Common questions
- How do you connect an AI agent to Home Assistant?
- Home Assistant has a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, the standard way AI agents connect to outside tools. Add the Model Context Protocol Server integration, copy your MCP server URL from Settings, System, AI, and paste it into your agent: a custom connector in Claude, a custom MCP server in ChatGPT, or one command in Claude Code or Codex. You sign in with your Home Assistant account and the agent can then see device states and control only the devices you expose to it. Cloud agents such as Claude, ChatGPT and Grok Bot need Home Assistant reachable from the internet, which Home Assistant Link ($6.50 a month) or your own secure tunnel provides.
- Does Home Assistant have an MCP server?
- Yes. The Model Context Protocol Server integration has been built in since Home Assistant 2025.2. It lets agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code and Codex see the state of your home and control the devices you expose, and it signs agents in with your Home Assistant account.
- Can ChatGPT or Claude control my smart home?
- Yes, through Home Assistant's MCP server. Add it as a custom connector in Claude or a custom MCP server in ChatGPT, log in to Home Assistant, and they can turn devices on and off, read sensors and answer questions about your home. Both connect from the cloud, so Home Assistant must be reachable from the internet.
- Do I need Home Assistant Link (Nabu Casa)?
- Not always. Cloud agents need a way in from the internet, and Home Assistant Link is the easiest, at $6.50 a month. A reverse proxy or tunnel you run yourself also works. Agents on your own computer, such as Codex, can use your local address with no remote access at all.
- Is it safe to let an AI agent control Home Assistant?
- Limit what it can reach. Expose only the devices you are comfortable with, give the agent its own user, keep locks and alarms off at first and approve actions until it behaves. You can remove the integration or the user at any time to cut access.
- Why can't my cloud bot reach my devices?
- A bot running in the cloud cannot see your home network directly. One builder below hit exactly this with his Roborock vacuum and solved it by running Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi as a local hub: the bot sends the request and Home Assistant talks to the device inside the house.
- Which AI tools do people use to connect an AI agent to Home Assistant?
- Across the 13 sourced use cases in this guide, the most used tools are Home Assistant, Grok Bot, Claude Code, macOS, Claude.
- How much does it cost to get started?
- 3 of the 13 use cases can start on a free plan. The most common paid starting price is $30/mo (5 use cases). Prices come from each tool's official pricing page.
- How long does setup take?
- 5 of the 13 use cases list a setup time of an hour or less. Each card shows the setup time the builder reported.
- Are these real examples?
- Yes. Every use case links to its public source (an X post, a Hacker News thread or a GitHub repo) with the author and date, so you can check it yourself.
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