I used Claude to vibe-code my wildly overcomplicated smart home

I americium not, by immoderate definition, a coder, but erstwhile I started seeing people’s vibe-coded smart location projects each complete my societal feeds this month, I was intrigued. From a “master bid center” built connected a Lutron system to AI controlling a smart oven, group were unleashing AI successful their smart homes, utilizing Claude Code to build devices that would usually return weeks to create by hand. The obstruction betwixt “I wish this existed” and “I made it” abruptly looked remarkably thin. So, what did I wish existed successful my home? A decent smart location dashboard that lets maine power each my devices.

I’ve been reviewing smart location devices for complete a decade, and the changeless switching and swapping of lights, locks, sensors, and much has resulted successful a Frankenstein-ed location that’s wholly unmanageable done a azygous interface aliases app.

I tally 3 platforms regularly — Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home — alongside tinkering pinch Samsung SmartThings, Home Assistant, and Homey. Plus, I person complete a twelve bridges and hubs bringing much devices into play, including Lutron Caseta, Philips Hue, Aqara, Ikea, and Aeotec.

Too fewer of my devices talk to each other, and erstwhile they do, it’s not for long. Network drop-offs and surgery integrations abound, making it an ongoing headache to group up and support automations and sensor-based routines.

I’ve struggled for years to get the lights successful my Minka-Aire ceiling fans (paired via a Bond Bridge) to activity reliably pinch the Philips Hue lights successful my kids’ bedrooms, and I’ve sewage oddities for illustration a Wi-Fi-connected Sleep Number furniture that knows everything astir maine but talks to nothing.

While the smart location modular Matter is starting to reside immoderate of these interoperability issues, it’s mostly grounded to thief pinch existing devices. All of this has near maine pinch a smart location that feels much Mary Shelley than Jetsons.

My office, wherever I trial a batch of gadgets, is the pinnacle of this frustration. All I want is to beryllium capable to move each ray successful location — from six different manufacturers, connected 4 different protocols — connected aliases disconnected pinch 1 command. But astir importantly, I request a azygous interface that lets maine spot and power everything.

Inspired by the nosy that devs look to beryllium having pinch Claude Code’s capabilities, I decided to spot if the AI could tame my monstrous smart home. If I tin vibe-code a solution for a setup arsenic analyzable arsenic excavation pinch Claude, it tin astir apt activity for anyone.

My first measurement was to make judge I was utilizing the correct devices for the job. Along pinch regular Claude and Claude Code, Anthropic precocious launched Cowork. I connected pinch the folks there, who confirmed that Claude Code was the champion solution for what I was trying to do and group maine up pinch a Claude Max account.

Code is disposable pinch the Pro scheme ($20 a month) aliases the Max scheme (starting astatine $100 a month). The main quality is that Max has higher complaint limits.

For my first attempt, I conscionable YOLO’d it and asked Claude to find each the devices connected my Wi-Fi web and vibe-code maine a smart location bid center.

This produced a dashboard that was spectacularly obtuse and wholly unhelpful. The locally hosted web interface it created showed maine astir of my devices, but not all. It offered nary measurement to power them, and complete half of the names were indecipherable.

I asked Claude if it could adhd bridged devices, specified arsenic lights and shades connected to my Lutron Caseta and Philips Hue bridges, but aft respective attempts, thing worked. I past told it to make the dashboard usable by adding recognizable names and immoderate controls. While that produced a mates of toggles to move immoderate Wi-Fi lights connected and off, the consequence was still a mess.

Clearly, I needed much than zero coding knowledge to make this work. So I asked Claude what it suggested I could do to make this messiness do thing useful. It said what astir readers to this constituent person astir apt been shouting: Integrate it pinch Home Assistant.

In each honesty, I went into this effort expecting a Home Assistant dashboard to beryllium the apt outcome. I’ve been readying to move to the smart location level for a while, and it seemed Claude mightiness person the devices to thief maine flooded my biggest hurdle: the clip and effort required to group it up.

For those unfamiliar, Home Assistant is free-to-use, open-source package for controlling your smart location that offers the broadest compatibility and astir integrations of immoderate platform. Its biggest trading constituent is that it runs locally connected your ain hardware — not successful a unreality controlled by Amazon aliases Google, aliases connected hardware tied to immoderate different tech giant’s walled garden.

Home Assistant supports each protocols — Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread, Bluetooth, and much — and integrates pinch awesome sound assistants and platforms, including Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home. It besides has a powerful automation motor that should make speedy activity of the mélange of lights successful my office.

In short, HA offers the astir broad solution for managing a complex, precocious smart location for illustration mine, while still allowing maine to trial and usage the different platforms. But it has a steep learning curve and tin beryllium almost a full-time hobby. Since my full-time occupation is playing pinch smart location gadgets, I’m hesitant to walk my downtime doing the same.

My nascent attempts astatine utilizing HA person been filled pinch proceedings and correction and dozens of Reddit rabbit holes. I knew switching my full strategy would return a while, and I’d already deed respective roadblocks trying to merge devices for illustration my bridged Leviton Wi-Fi switch and my Home Connect Thermador oven. Claude Code was my champion hope.

And it mostly delivered. In 1 afternoon, utilizing the Claude desktop app connected my M4 Mac Mini and HA moving connected my Home Assistant Yellow, I sewage astir 70 percent of my smart location devices transferred complete and group up, and I was fresh to move connected to the existent worth of a smart location level — mounting up automations and scripts. Plus, astir importantly for me, creating a smart location dashboard.

The cardinal was earthy language. I could conscionable type what I wanted to hap into the chatbot — query devices and states, execute services, and negociate automations — and Claude went to work. It became the translator betwixt what I wanted my smart location to do and the method implementation — YAML configs, developer tools, automations — that HA requires.

I started by asking it to find each the connected devices connected my network, thief maine to group up those that weren’t integrated pinch HA yet, and past propose ways I could automate them.

Using Model Context Protocol successful Chrome, which lets Claude link straight to the browser connected my computer, the AI reviewed my Home Assistant setup via its section web relationship and flagged devices I hadn’t added yet.

It suggested respective automations and offered to group them up for me. I gave it the go-ahead for a couple, and it successfully created 1 that closes the shades successful my location erstwhile the AC turns connected to prevention energy, and different to nonstop an alert to my telephone erstwhile my star sheet accumulation drops beneath a definite threshold.

I past asked it to group up the Leviton smart move I’d been struggling with, which required a YAML configuration file.

While not coding per se, YAML is 1 of those HA steps wherever I’ve many times bailed. Claude figured retired the integration, trying a fewer unsuccessful approaches earlier realizing it needed to instal the Visual Studio Code add-on to edit the YAML file. Within an hour, I had the move group up successful HA and an automation configured to move disconnected the very large instrumentality it connects to 30 minutes aft being turned on.

Yes, it took an hour. I noticed instantly that this full process was painfully slow. Claude was fundamentally navigating my Home Assistant web interface measurement by step, the measurement a personification would (reading the page, uncovering buttons, clicking them, waiting for results). Only overmuch slower. And not ever doing it right. There had to beryllium a amended way.

It turns retired location is. After consulting pinch Anthropic, Home Assistant, and Reddit, I discovered that I needed to springiness Claude entree to my Home Assistant server and its config files. This allows it to constitute straight to HA alternatively than going done the web interface.

Paulus Schoutsen, laminitis of Home Assistant, pointed maine to The Unofficial and Awesome Home Assistant MCP Server. This is simply a free community-developed add-on that gives Claude nonstop entree to Home Assistant’s API, allowing it to activity much autonomously than the anterior method.

You don’t request a paid Claude relationship to usage it, arsenic you’re not penning files pinch Claude Code, and MCP integration useful pinch the free tier. However, you’ll deed the complaint limits quickly if you’re doing a afloat setup for illustration mine. I besides recovered utilizing Claude Code to beryllium much productive than Claude. If you don’t want to usage Claude astatine all, ha-mcp besides useful pinch other AI clients.

Currently, installing ha-mcp requires an in-depth setup process that Schoutsen walked maine done (there’s a elaborate guideline here). But he says they’re looking astatine integrating it much seamlessly into HA to make it easier for group to entree the tools.

Once I had ha-mcp running, I conscionable needed to toggle connected Home Assistant successful the Claude app’s connectors to let it entree to my smart home. My first thought was, Maybe this isn’t a bully idea. AI agents controlling beingness devices for illustration thermostats, locks, and ovens — what could spell wrong?

Anthropic says that by default, Claude Code has read-only permissions and can’t make changes connected its own. Any edits, commands it executes, aliases web requests require maine to assistance support first. If Claude does make a alteration I didn’t want, I tin deed Esc doubly to revert immoderate codification changes. Additionally, utilizing the ha-mcp server provides further guardrails. “It’s for illustration an API, it makes judge Claude doesn’t messiness thing up,” says Schoutsen.

Somewhat reassured, I utilized the afloat HA-integrated Claude Code to decorativeness migrating astir of my astir 200 smart location devices. I past had it create a dashboard to power devices pinch a fewer taps, mounting maine up to merge the sensors and automations that make the smart location sing.

The dashboard creation process was my favorite. I conscionable told Claude my priorities: speedy entree to lights, locks, and ambiance controls, and easy views of my cameras and existent star production. It produced a clean, easy-to-read dashboard successful seconds. Compared to the existent default Home Assistant overview, which shows you each entity for each instrumentality you have, this was acold little intimidating and overmuch much usable.

I could besides travel up pinch prompts to tweak the look, specified arsenic “move the cameras to the correct and put the agency lighting power astatine the top.” I moreover had Claude download an HA add-on to springiness my dashboard the much modern “Mushroom” creation and told it to usage the newer Sections layout. The vanished merchandise mightiness not look for illustration thing an Apple Home package designer would beryllium proud of, but I’d for illustration to deliberation it’s not acold off.

For comparison, I had Claude create a robot vacuum dashboard to show the existent states of the 3 Roborock vacuums successful my house, and past tried mounting up that aforesaid dashboard myself. Fifteen minutes in, I gave up. Yes, HA has the devices to do each this yourself, but I was correct each along: I do not person the clip aliases patience to woody pinch them.

With the dashboard set, I told Claude to springiness maine a azygous toggle to power each the lights successful my agency — including the ray successful my Minka-Aire ceiling fan, the Nanoleaf Blocks connected my wall, the Lifx Luna lamp successful my dollhouse, 3 Hue bulbs successful lamps, and an Elgato Key Light supra my desk. It took a spot of troubleshooting — the instrumentality ray kept turning disconnected erstwhile everything other turned connected — but aft a fewer much prompts, it was perfect.

This is not to opportunity the full process was smooth. Claude did what each AI does: get things wrong. Once aliases twice, it deleted full sections from my dashboard erstwhile I asked it to rearrange something; it besides grabbed the incorrect instrumentality successful a mates of automations, and it kept insisting it had each my lights successful my daughter’s room group erstwhile it only had the Hue lights. It astir decidedly requires supervision.

And that supervision is built successful — I had to manually o.k. astir of Claude’s actions during the process. This did mean that, for amended aliases worse, I couldn’t conscionable springiness Claude instructions, time off it unsocial for 2 hours, and travel backmost to a cleanable smart home.

But what it did for maine was worthy the clip I spent. Along pinch getting decently group up successful Home Assistant, Claude besides solved an rumor that had been vexing maine for ages successful nether an hour. While my agency ray setup is comparatively minor, it points to the bigger picture. AI — successful this case, Claude Code — made mounting up a analyzable level elemental and fast. It made Home Assistant’s powerful devices easier to usage and helped maine study really to usage them going forward.

For example, the automation to move the bath instrumentality disconnected 30 minutes aft it’s turned on, which I mentioned earlier. This is amazingly difficult to execute connected astir smart location platforms. I tried doing it myself successful HA and sewage mislaid successful Home Assistant’s galore menus. I had Claude do it for me, past looked astatine the results truthful I cognize really to do it successful the future. Editing an automation is overmuch easier than creating 1 from scratch.

In total, aft the first missteps, I spent astir 4 hours vibe-coding pinch Claude to get my Home Assistant setup into a usable state. There are still things I request to do, immoderate of which Claude can’t thief pinch (mostly astir HomeKit devices). I besides scheme to support tinkering pinch the dashboard to make it fresh my needs seamlessly — it’s moving good truthful far, but I tin already spot ways to amended it.

The champion portion astir having a usable, cardinal encephalon for my smart location is the expertise to get much imaginative pinch automations and sensors. I scheme to play pinch a caller Home Assistant add-on that uses Claude to analyze each your manual actions and propose automations. With AI successful the smart home, it seems the nosy ne'er ends.

Today, adding Claude aliases immoderate different AI administrator to Home Assistant isn’t supported natively; Home Assistant presently only integrates AI sound control. However, Schoutsen told maine that, successful summation to creating a much streamlined integration pinch ha-mcp, the squad is exploring integrating an AI-powered chatbot.

“We spot existent benefits here,” he says. “AI is peculiarly bully astatine troubleshooting; it tin publication logs and understand them.” He besides points to its creativity. “People often get stuck figuring retired really to usage their smart home. AI tin propose automations, create dashboards, and besides capable successful the gaps erstwhile you deed a wall,” he says. “Today, utilizing Home Assistant is achromatic and white; you tin do something, aliases you can’t. AI tin capable successful that grey area, fine-tune things, thief make it each conscionable work.”

This is wherever each smart location institution sees the imaginable of AI. Many large names person integrated AI chatbots into their apps, from Philips Hue to Aqara and Govee. But my acquisition pinch these — and pinch the generative-AI-powered Alexa Plus — is that they aren’t powerful enough.

Yes, setting up a Routine via voice successful Alexa is simply a immense improvement, and the AI is much smarter than its predecessor. But inquire Alexa to show maine why my Nanoleaf ray sheet isn’t connecting to my smart location aliases to thief maine group up a instrumentality and get it configured, and it’s crickets.

I tin understand why bigger companies are moving slow here, but since I unleashed Claude successful my smart location via Home Assistant, I tin yet spot a early wherever everything conscionable works, and I want that early now. The existent committedness of AI successful the smart location is making complexity disappear, truthful my location useful for me, not the different measurement around.

Screenshots by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge