homebuddy 0.3.0

See what your devices did

A web page for Home Assistant. It reads the history of your sensors and finds the events of your devices: a charge of a car, a run of a pump, a program of a washing machine.

Why homebuddy

Home Assistant shows the power of your house as one line. The line does not tell you which device ran, when it ran, and how much energy it used. Most devices have no sensor of their own.

homebuddy has detectors. A detector reads the history of a sensor and finds one type of event. You give the values of your device in a configuration file. The page then shows each event on the chart of the day and in a table.

homebuddy only reads from Home Assistant. It does not write to it. It has no database: each load of the page reads the history from Home Assistant.

Quick start

1. Install homebuddy:

   uv tool install homebuddy
   

2. Make a token in Home Assistant: Profile > Security > Long-lived access tokens > Create token. Put it in a file with the name .env:

   HA_TOKEN=your-long-lived-access-token
   

3. In the same folder, write the file homebuddy.yml with your sensors:

   home_assistant:
     url: http://homeassistant.local:8123
   
   tabs:
     power:
       sensors: [sensor.grid_power]
   
   detectors:
     heater:
       type: threshold
       sensor: sensor.heater_plug_power
       min_w: 10
   

4. Start the page:

   homebuddy
   

   The browser opens http://127.0.0.1:8080.

To try homebuddy without installing it, use uvx homebuddy.

Installation

Use one of these commands:

homebuddy[desktop] also installs the desktop window: uv tool install "homebuddy[desktop]", then homebuddy --native.

To upgrade, use uv tool upgrade homebuddy or pipx upgrade homebuddy.

homebuddy must run on a computer that can connect to Home Assistant.

Docker

docker run --rm -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 --env-file .env \
    -v ./homebuddy.yml:/home/homebuddy/homebuddy.yml:ro ghcr.io/ratoaq2/homebuddy

See docs/docker.md for Docker Compose and for a reverse proxy with a login and HTTPS.

Configuration

homebuddy reads the token from the HA_TOKEN environment variable or from .env. It reads all other settings from one YAML file: homebuddy.yml in the current folder, or the file of --config.

The file has the tabs of the page and the detectors:

home_assistant:
  url: http://homeassistant.local:8123

tabs:
  power:
    sensors: [sensor.grid_power, sensor.solar_power]    # one line for each sensor
    hidden_detectors: [heater]      # the events table hides these rows when the page opens

detectors:
  car:
    type: level
    sensor: sensor.grid_power
    levels_w: [4140, 6900, 11040]   # the power of the charger at 6 A, 10 A and 16 A
  well_pump:
    type: pulse
    name: Well pump
    sensor: sensor.grid_power
    step_w: [900, 1100]             # the step up or the step down, in watts
    duration: [30, 90]              # the duration of a run, in seconds
    max_step_difference_w: 50
  heater:
    type: threshold
    sensor: sensor.heater_plug_power
    min_w: 10

When the file has errors, the page shows each error, with the path of its key:

2 errors in homebuddy.yml:
detectors.well_pump.step_w: the low value must be first
detectors.well_pump.max_riple_w: Extra inputs are not permitted

Change a value, click "Load again" on the page, and see the result.

The page

homebuddy                       # opens http://127.0.0.1:8080 in the browser
homebuddy --native              # opens a desktop window (needs the "desktop" extra)
homebuddy --host 0.0.0.0        # other devices on your network can connect
homebuddy --config my.yml       # use this configuration file

The page opens on today. For each tab of the configuration file, it shows:

• The chart of the sensor for the day, with one line for each sensor of the tab.
• One lane below the chart for each detector. Each event is a bar in the lane.
• The events table: detector, start, end, duration, label, power and energy. Click a row to zoom the chart to that event.
• A copy button on each row. It copies the values of the row for a spreadsheet.

"Show debug data" in the settings shows why a detector accepted or refused each candidate. Use it to set the values of a detector.

See docs/page.md for the details.

Security

• The token stays on the server. It does not go to the browser. Make the token for a user of Home Assistant that is not an administrator.
• The page has no login. Anyone who can open the page can see the data. The power data of a house shows when people are at home.
• The default address is 127.0.0.1: only your computer can open the page. Use --host 0.0.0.0 only on a network you trust. For a different network, put homebuddy behind a reverse proxy.

FAQ

Does homebuddy change something in Home Assistant? No. homebuddy only reads the history and the attributes of the sensors that you name.

Is homebuddy an integration or an add-on of Home Assistant? No. It is a separate program. It connects to Home Assistant with a token.

Why does an old day show "No data"? Home Assistant keeps the detailed history for about 10 days by default. homebuddy has no store of its own.

Which sensor is a power sensor? A sensor with the device class power in Home Assistant. Its unit can be W or kW.

Two detectors find the same event. What can I do? Tell homebuddy which detector wins, with overrides. See Conflicts between detectors.

Can I add a detector type for my device? Yes. A detector type is one Python class. A different package can add it. See docs/detector-types.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. The design is in docs/architecture.md.

homebuddy is developed with AI assistants. AGENTS.md has the rules of the project. An assistant loads it in each session.

License

MIT