You have to inject $scope in your controller, then you’ll be able to access the config with e.g. $scope.config.item
angular
.module(...)
.controller('mycontroller', ['$scope', function($scope) {
// $scope will also include the scope of the containing widget,
// so all these work:
//
// var itemName = $scope.config.item;
// var state = $scope.itemState($scope.config.item);
// var lights = $scope.itemsInGroup('Lights'); // returns an array
// $scope.sendCmd($scope.config.item, 'ON');
}]);