hadsync 0.2.3

Home Assistant Dashboard Sync — pull, edit, and push Lovelace dashboards as code

hadsync

Home Assistant Dashboard Sync — pull, edit, and push Lovelace dashboards as code.

HA stores Lovelace dashboard configs in its internal storage layer. There is no supported workflow for editing dashboards locally in a code editor, tracking changes with git, and pushing updates back safely. hadsync bridges that gap via the HA WebSocket API.

Dashboard explorer, entity ID autocomplete, and hadsync sync status — all in VS Code.

Hover any entity ID to see its live value and attributes, courtesy of the HA Config Helper extension.

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Features · Quick Start · Commands · In Action · Conflict Detection · Validation · VS Code Extension · Configuration · Installation

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Features

• Pull any or all Lovelace dashboards from a live HA instance to local YAML
• Push locally edited YAML back to HA — change summary, destructive-change warnings, explicit confirmation
• Three-phase validation (syntax → entity IDs → card schema) run before every push
• Diff local YAML vs live HA state — conflict detection, view-level summary, coloured unified diff
• Entity ID validation against a cached HA entity registry (621 entities on a typical instance)
• Card schema validation — 35 standard Lovelace card types, custom:* always allowed
• Watch mode — validates on every file save; optional auto-push when validation passes
• Status table — last pull/push timestamps and local change detection per dashboard
• VS Code extension — inline diagnostics, command palette, status bar, entity ID autocomplete
• Git-friendly: plain YAML files, one directory per dashboard named by url_path

Installation

pip install hadsync

Requires Python 3.11+.

With uv (recommended — installs globally so hadsync works from any directory):

uv tool install hadsync

After installation, hadsync is available system-wide. Upgrade to a newer release with:

pip install --upgrade hadsync
# or
uv tool upgrade hadsync

Install from source

# editable install — code changes take effect immediately
uv tool install --editable /path/to/hadsync

# or with pip
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Two-Repo Setup (Recommended)

hadsync is designed to keep two things separate:

• hadsync/ — this repo (github.com/gevgev/hadsync), CLI tool source code only
• home-assistant-dashboards/ — a dedicated repo for your dashboard YAML files

This means your dashboard history is independent of the tool version history, and you can share or back up dashboards without exposing tool internals.

Quick Start

# 1. Set your HA long-lived access token
export HA_TOKEN=eyJ...

# 2. Create and enter your dashboards repo
mkdir home-assistant-dashboards && cd home-assistant-dashboards
git init

# 3. Initialize hadsync (creates .hadsync.yaml here, workspace defaults to .)
hadsync init

# 4. List available dashboards on your HA instance
hadsync list

# 5. Pull all dashboards to local YAML
hadsync pull

# 6. Edit in VS Code (or any editor)
code .

# 7. Validate before pushing
hadsync validate

# 8. Push back to HA
hadsync push

Alternatively, keep .hadsync.yaml anywhere and point to the dashboards folder via env var:

export HA_TOKEN=eyJ...
export HADSYNC_WORKSPACE=~/home-assistant-dashboards
hadsync pull   # works from any directory

Configuration

hadsync init creates .hadsync.yaml in the current directory:

ha_url: http://homeassistant.local:8123
ha_token: ${HA_TOKEN}          # env var reference — never store the token literally
workspace: .                   # path to dashboard YAML files; defaults to current directory

pull:
  refresh_entities: true       # refresh entity cache on every pull
  dashboards: all              # or list: [lovelace, battery-status]

push:
  require_validation: true     # block push on validation errors
  confirm: true                # ask for confirmation before each push

validation:
  warn_on_unknown_entities: true        # Phase 2: warn vs error for unknown entity IDs
  entity_cache_max_age_days: 7          # warn if entity cache is older than this
  custom_card_types: []                 # Phase 3: extra type prefixes treated as valid
                                        # e.g. ["my-custom:"] alongside custom:*

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
HA_TOKEN	HA long-lived access token (referenced as ${HA_TOKEN} in config)
HADSYNC_WORKSPACE	Override the workspace directory at runtime — takes priority over config

The token is always referenced via an environment variable. Never embed it in the config file.

Commands

Command	Description
hadsync init	Interactive setup: URL, token env var, workspace dir
hadsync list	List all storage-mode dashboards on the HA instance
hadsync pull [ID]	Pull one or all dashboards from HA to local YAML; refreshes entity cache
hadsync push [ID]	Push local YAML to HA — validates (P1+P2+P3), shows change summary, confirms
hadsync push [ID] --dry-run	Show what would be sent without pushing
hadsync diff [ID]	Compare local vs HA — conflict detection, pull timestamp, view-level summary
hadsync diff [ID] --show	As above, plus coloured unified diff
hadsync validate [ID]	Run Phase 1+2+3 validation without pushing
hadsync watch [ID]	Watch for file saves and validate automatically
hadsync watch [ID] --auto-push	Watch and push to HA when validation passes
hadsync status	Table: last pull, last push, local change state per dashboard
hadsync entities refresh	Fetch all entity IDs from HA and update local cache
hadsync entities list [filter]	List cached entities, filtered by domain or friendly name
hadsync config show	Print resolved config (token masked, workspace source shown)
hadsync config set KEY VALUE	Set a config value

Global flags: --dry-run, --verbose / -v, --quiet / -q, --yes / -y, --json-output, --config PATH

Validation

hadsync validate (and pre-push validation in hadsync push) runs three phases:

Phase	What it checks
1 — Syntax & structure	YAML parse errors (with line numbers), views key present and a list, no non-mapping view entries
2 — Entity IDs	Every entity: / entities: reference checked against .ha-entities.json cache; warns on unknowns; skipped if cache absent
3 — Card schema	Each card's type is a known standard type; required fields are present; custom:* cards always pass

Phase 2 is silently skipped if the entity cache doesn't exist yet — run hadsync entities refresh to enable it. Phase 3 warns on unknown types rather than blocking, so HACS cards never cause failures.

Conflict Detection

Every hadsync pull stores a hash of the HA config in .hadsync-state.json. hadsync diff uses this to classify divergences:

Situation	HA hash	Local mtime	Verdict
Both changed since pull	changed	> last pull	CONFLICT — explicit next-step options shown
HA changed, local clean	changed	≤ last pull	Suggests hadsync pull <id>
Local changed, HA untouched	same	> last pull	Suggests hadsync push <id>
Never pulled / old state	no hash	—	Diff shown without classification

Example CONFLICT output:

battery-status
  Last pull: 2026-05-10 18:19  (2h ago)
  HA:    1 views, 5 cards  ← changed since pull
  Local: 1 views, 5 cards  ← modified since pull
    ~ Battery Status: content changed

  ✗  CONFLICT — both sides changed since last pull.
       hadsync push battery-status  — overwrite HA with local (discards HA edits)
       hadsync pull battery-status  — overwrite local with HA (discards local edits)

In Action

hadsync validate — issues found

Validation catches two problems before anything reaches HA: an entity ID that no longer exists in the registry, and a sensor card missing its required entity field. Both are reported with exact line numbers.

hadsync validate — all clear

After fixing the two issues the dashboard passes cleanly. The same command validates all dashboards at once when run without an ID argument.

hadsync validate — full suite

All 13 storage-mode dashboards pass in a single run — safe to use in CI pipelines since the command exits non-zero on any error.

hadsync status — sync overview

A quick at-a-glance table showing when each dashboard was last pulled, when it was last pushed, and whether the local file has been modified since the pull. climate-overview shows as modified — a local edit is pending.

hadsync push — safe confirmation

Before pushing, hadsync shows the current HA state alongside what would be sent — 6 views, 32 cards on both sides here — and requires an explicit y to proceed. A --dry-run flag shows this summary without connecting to HA at all.

hadsync diff — conflict summary

Both HA and local changed since the last pull — hadsync detects the conflict, identifies the modified view, and shows the two resolution options with their consequences.

hadsync diff --show — unified diff

The --show flag appends a full coloured unified diff beneath the conflict summary: red lines are what HA currently has, green lines are what your local file contains. Changes are shown at the YAML level so you can see exactly which card fields or view titles were edited on each side.

VS Code — inline diagnostics and Problems panel

hadsync validation runs on every save and surfaces issues as inline squiggles and Problems panel entries with exact line numbers — here flagging an unknown entity ID (sensor.meter_patio_co2_concentration no longer exists in HA) and a sensor card that is missing its required entity field. Both issues are caught before anything is pushed to HA.

VS Code — entity autocomplete alongside live diagnostics

Typing a partial entity ID opens a completion list drawn from the hadsync entity cache (621 entities, refreshed on pull). Friendly names appear on the right for quick identification. The Problems panel remains visible below — you can fix the flagged issue and pick the correct entity in the same editor without switching context.

VS Code — command palette

All hadsync operations are available from Cmd+Shift+P. The full set — validate, diff, pull, push, status, list, entity cache refresh, entity search — without leaving VS Code or opening a terminal.

Workspace Layout

home-assistant-dashboards/      # dashboards repo — committed to git
  .hadsync.yaml                 # connection config (workspace: .)
  .gitignore                    # excludes state/cache files
  battery-status/
    lovelace.yaml
  lovelace-cameras/
    lovelace.yaml
  dashboard-security/
    lovelace.yaml
  ...                           # one directory per dashboard (named by url_path)

Files excluded from git (auto-added to .gitignore by hadsync init):

• .hadsync-state.json — last pull/push timestamps per dashboard
• .ha-entities.json — entity ID cache (refreshed on every pull)

Development

# Install globally so hadsync works from any directory
uv tool install --editable /path/to/hadsync

# Install dev dependencies for running tests
uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest tests/

# Run against a real HA instance
export HA_TOKEN=eyJ...
hadsync list

VS Code Extension

The vscode-hadsync/ directory contains a VS Code extension that wraps the CLI.

Installation (one-time)

# 1. Enter the extension directory
cd /path/to/hadsync/vscode-hadsync

# 2. Install Node dependencies and compile TypeScript
npm install
npm run compile        # produces vscode-hadsync/out/

# 3. Package into a .vsix installer file
npx @vscode/vsce package --no-dependencies
# → creates  vscode-hadsync/hadsync-0.1.0.vsix

# 4. Install in VS Code (command line — easiest)
code --install-extension hadsync-0.1.0.vsix

After step 4, restart VS Code. The extension activates automatically in any workspace folder that contains a .hadsync.yaml file.

Alternative (VS Code UI): Cmd+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX... → navigate to vscode-hadsync/hadsync-0.1.0.vsix → Open.

Updating after CLI changes

Re-run steps 2–4 whenever you pull new commits to the hadsync CLI:

cd vscode-hadsync
npm run compile && npx @vscode/vsce package --no-dependencies
code --install-extension hadsync-0.1.0.vsix

Features

• Inline diagnostics — validates every lovelace.yaml on save; errors and warnings appear in the Problems panel (Cmd+Shift+M) and as editor squiggles with line numbers; automatically re-validates when files change externally (e.g. after hadsync pull in the terminal)
• Command palette (Cmd+Shift+P) — pull, push (with VS Code confirmation dialog), validate, diff, status, list, entities refresh/search
• Status bar — bottom-left shows last pull time or count of locally-modified dashboards (based on file mtime, matching hadsync status); click for full status table
• Entity autocomplete — typing entity: triggers completions from .ha-entities.json with friendly name and domain
• Right-click context menu — validate / push / diff available directly in any lovelace.yaml editor

Pair hadsync with the Home Assistant Config Helper extension for a complete live editing experience: hover over any entity ID to see its current state, last-changed timestamp, and attributes pulled directly from your running HA instance — while hadsync validation ensures every referenced entity actually exists.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
hadsync.executablePath	""	Full path to hadsync binary. Leave blank to use PATH.
hadsync.validateOnSave	true	Validate automatically when a lovelace.yaml is saved.
hadsync.autoPushOnSave	false	Push to HA automatically after a clean validation on save.

Implementation Status

Phase	Description	Status
1 — Core CLI	pull / push / validate / diff / status / state tracking	✅ Complete
2 — Entity Validation	entity cache, entity ID existence checks in YAML	✅ Complete
3 — Schema Validation & Watch	card type schema, watch mode, auto-push, enhanced diff	✅ Complete
4 — VS Code Extension	palette commands, inline diagnostics, entity autocomplete	✅ Complete

HA API Notes

Tested against Home Assistant 2026.5. Key WS commands used:

Operation	Command
List dashboards	get_panels (filter component_name=lovelace)
Fetch dashboard config	lovelace/config with url_path
Save dashboard config	lovelace/config/save with url_path
Fetch entity list	GET /api/states (REST)

Note: The design document references lovelace/dashboards and lovelace/save_config — these commands do not exist in HA 2026.5. The correct commands are listed above.

License

MIT