PyTado -- Pythonize your central heating

PyTado is a Python module implementing an interface to the Tado web API. It allows a user to interact with their Tado heating system for the purposes of monitoring or controlling their heating system, beyond what Tado themselves currently offer.

It is hoped that this module might be used by those who wish to tweak their Tado systems, and further optimize their heating setups.

Original author: Chris Jewell chrism0dwk@gmail.com

License: GPL v3

Copyright: Chris Jewell 2016-2018

Disclaimer

Besides owning a Tado system, I have no connection with the Tado company themselves. PyTado was created for my own use, and for others who may wish to experiment with personal Internet of Things systems. I receive no help (financial or otherwise) from Tado, and have no business interest with them. This software is provided without warranty, according to the GNU Public License version 3, and should therefore not be used where it may endanger life, financial stakes, or cause discomfort and inconvenience to others.

Usage

As of the 15th of March 2025, Tado has updated their OAuth2 authentication flow. It will now use the device flow, instead of a username/password flow. This means that the user will have to authenticate the device using a browser, and then enter the code that is displayed on the browser into the terminal.

PyTado handles this as following:

1. The _login_device_flow() will be invoked at the initialization of a PyTado object. This will start the device flow and will return a URL and a code that the user will have to enter in the browser. The URL can be obtained via the method device_verification_url(). Or, when in debug mode, the URL will be printed. Alternatively, you can use the device_activation_status() method to check if the device has been activated. It returns three statuses: NOT_STARTED, PENDING, and COMPLETED. Wait to invoke the device_activation() method until the status is PENDING.

2. Once the URL is obtained, the user will have to enter the code that is displayed on the browser into the terminal. By default, the URL has the user_code attached, for the ease of going trough the flow. At this point, run the method device_activation(). It will poll every five seconds to see if the flow has been completed. If the flow has been completed, the method will return a token that will be used for all further requests. It will timeout after five minutes.

3. Once the token has been obtained, the user can use the PyTado object to interact with the Tado API. The token will be stored in the Tado object, and will be used for all further requests. The token will be refreshed automatically when it expires. The device_verification_url() will be reset to None and the device_activation_status() will return COMPLETED.

Screenshots of the device flow

How to not authenticate the device again

It is possible to save the refresh token and reuse to skip the next login.

The following code will use the refresh_token file to save the refresh-token after login, and load the refresh-token if you create the Tado interface class again.

If the file doesn't exists, the web browser is started and the device authentication url is automatically opened. You can activate the device in the browser. When you restart the program, the refresh-token is reused and no web browser will be opened.

import webbrowser   # only needed for direct web browser access

from PyTado.interface.interface import Tado

tado = Tado(token_file_path="/var/tado/refresh_token")

status = tado.device_activation_status()

if status == "PENDING":
    url = tado.device_verification_url()

    webbrowser.open_new_tab(url)

    tado.device_activation()

    status = tado.device_activation_status()

if status == "COMPLETED":
    print("Login successful")
else:
    print(f"Login status is {status}")

Example code

"""Example client for PyTado"""

from PyTado.interface.interface import Tado


def main() -> None:
    """Retrieve all zones, once successfully logged in"""
    tado = Tado()

    print("Device activation status: ", tado.device_activation_status())
    print("Device verification URL: ", tado.device_verification_url())

    print("Starting device activation")
    tado.device_activation()

    print("Device activation status: ", tado.device_activation_status())

    zones = tado.get_zones()
    print(zones)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Note: For developers, there is an example.py script in examples/ which is configured to fetch data from your account. You can then invoke python examples/example.py.

Contributing

We are very open to the community's contributions - be it a quick fix of a typo, or a completely new feature!

You don't need to be a Python expert to provide meaningful improvements. To learn how to get started, check out our Contributor Guidelines first, and ask for help in GitHub Discussions if you have questions.

Development

We welcome external contributions, even though the project was initially intended for personal use. If you think some parts could be exposed with a more generic interface, please open a GitHub issue to discuss your suggestion.

Setting up a devcontainer

The easiest way to start, is by opening a CodeSpace here on GitHub, or by using the Dev Container feature of Visual Studio Code.

Dev Environment

To contribute to this repository, you should first clone your fork and then setup your development environment. Clone your repository as follows (replace yourusername with your GitHub account name):

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/PyTado.git
cd PyTado

Then, to create your development environment and install the project with its dependencies, execute the ./scripts/bootstrap script.

Coding Guidelines

To maintain a consistent codebase, we utilize black. Consistency is crucial as it helps readability, reduces errors, and facilitates collaboration among developers.

To ensure that every commit adheres to our coding standards, we've integrated pre-commit hooks. These hooks automatically run black before each commit, ensuring that all code changes are automatically checked and formatted.

For details on how to set up your development environment to make use of these hooks, please refer to the Development section of our documentation.

Testing

Ensuring the robustness and reliability of our code is paramount. Therefore, all contributions must include at least one test to verify the intended behavior.

To run tests locally, execute the test suite using pytest with the following command:

pytest tests/ --cov --cov-branch -vv

A message from the original author:

This software is at a purely experimental stage. If you're interested and can write Python, clone the Github repo, drop me a line, and get involved!

Best wishes and a warm winter to all!

Chris Jewell