Home Assistant Link Binding

jimtng · September 17, 2026, 1:38pm

As we know, Home Assistant has a huge ecosystem of integrations — far more than openHAB currently supports. Many of us quietly run HA alongside openHAB just to fill those gaps.

So I wrote a new binding: Home Assistant Link (HassLink).

I’m looking for people who already use Home Assistant to augment openHAB’s device support and would like to help test this binding, try it with real setups, and report any issues or edge cases.

Plan:
Once this is somewhat stable, I plan to submit it to the openhab project to become an official addon

Status:
Discovery works, updates flow, commands round‑trip, and most entity types are supported.

But I don’t have a lot of devices on my Home Assistant instance, so my testing has been limited. So far I have tested:

Navimow HA integration — the HA integration shows the map image!
Bambulab Integration with P1S — toggle chamber light, see status, see camera
Mammotion Mower integration

I’m specifically looking for people who have more diverse HA setups and can help validate the binding across a wider range of integrations and entity types.

README - Click to expand

Home Assistant Link Binding

The Home Assistant Link binding (hasslink) connects to a Home Assistant instance via its native WebSocket API, exposing Home Assistant devices and entities as native openHAB Things, Channels, and Items with real-time, bi-directional synchronization.

While openHAB offers robust scripting, flexible rule engines, and tailored UIs, Home Assistant’s massive contributor base rapidly adds support for new smart home hardware and niche integrations.
This binding bridges that gap—allowing you to use Home Assistant as an integration backend for hard-to-integrate devices while keeping openHAB as your primary home automation platform.

[[toc]]

Features

Vast Ecosystem Expansion: Instantly extends openHAB compatibility to thousands of Home Assistant-supported integrations and hardware.
Native WebSocket Communication: Connects directly to Home Assistant’s built-in /api/websocket—no extra integrations, add-ons, or Home Assistant-side modifications required.
Automatic Unit Conversion: Maps Home Assistant units of measurement (°C, °F, W, kWh, hPa, etc.) directly to openHAB QuantityType items (Number:Temperature, Number:Power, etc.).
Dynamic Channel Generation: Dynamically creates channels based on entity state attributes upon discovery or configuration.
Unified Channel Naming: Predictable channel structure using domain-entity_name for primary channels and domain-entity_name#attribute for secondary attributes.
Bi-directional Control: Full command mapping for switches, dimmers, colors, climate controls, covers, fans, media players, and more.
Rule Engine Actions: Execute Home Assistant service calls, trigger buttons, run scripts, and activate scenes directly from openHAB automation rules.

Prerequisites & Setup

1. Home Assistant Instance

You need a running Home Assistant instance on your local network. If you do not already have one, it can be run as a lightweight container alongside openHAB.

For full installation options, see the official Home Assistant Installation Guide.

Minimal Docker Compose Example

If running in Docker, a basic setup requires network_mode: host to allow mDNS discovery and local API connectivity:

version: '3.8'

services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: homeassistant
    image: ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
    volumes:
      - /opt/homeassistant/config:/config
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: host

2. Generate a Long-Lived Access Token

openHAB authenticates with Home Assistant using a token:

Open your Home Assistant UI in a web browser.
Click your user profile icon (bottom-left corner).
Select the Security tab at the top of the profile page.
Scroll down to the Long-Lived Access Tokens section.
Select Create Token, enter a name (e.g., openHAB Link), and copy the generated token string.
Store this token securely. You will provide it when configuring the hasslink:server Thing in openHAB.

Discovery

The binding supports automatic discovery for both the Home Assistant server itself and its connected entities.

Server Bridge Discovery (mDNS)

If Home Assistant is running on your local network with mDNS enabled, openHAB will automatically discover the Home Assistant server instance:

Go to Settings → Things → Inbox in openHAB.
Choose the discovered Home Assistant server from the Inbox.
Enter your Long-Lived Access Token in the Bridge configuration and save.

Entity & Device Discovery

Once the server Bridge is online, device discovery runs automatically:

The binding queries the Home Assistant WebSocket API and device/entity registries.
Discovered physical and logical hardware devices appear in your openHAB Inbox as Things (e.g., hasslink:device:XXXXX:XXXXX).
Adding a Thing from the Inbox automatically generates its primary channel and any mapped attribute channels.
Real-Time Additions: Devices added to Home Assistant while openHAB is running are automatically detected and added to the Inbox without requiring a restart.

Filtered Discovery & Manual Scans:

To prevent cluttering your openHAB Inbox with hundreds of virtual helpers, automations, scripts, persons, and system domains that are typically of lower direct interest, auto-discovery focuses exclusively on physical and logical devices by default.
Skipped entities and independent items can still be added manually or configured via discovery filter options on the Bridge.

If you add or rename entities in Home Assistant and want to refresh the Inbox immediately, go to Settings → Things → + (Add), select Home Assistant Link Binding, and trigger a manual scan.

Thing Configuration

Bridge (`server`)

The server Bridge manages the persistent WebSocket connection to Home Assistant Core and controls global Inbox discovery filters. Standard wildcard glob patterns (*, ?) are supported across area, domain, and label filters.

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Description
`host`	Text	N/A	Yes	Hostname or IP address of Home Assistant
`port`	Integer	`8123`	No	WebSocket/HTTP port
`token`	Text	N/A	Yes	Home Assistant Long-Lived Access Token
`secure`	Boolean	`false`	No	Use TLS/SSL (`wss://`)
`ignoreIndependentEntities`	Boolean	`true`	No	Exclude entities without a parent device (helpers, automations, person tracking) from Inbox discovery
`includedAreas`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Whitelist of Home Assistant Area IDs to discover (supports glob patterns, e.g., `bedroom`)
`excludedAreas`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Blacklist of Home Assistant Area IDs to exclude from discovery (supports glob patterns)
`includedDomains`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Whitelist of Home Assistant domains to discover (supports glob patterns, e.g., `light*`)
`excludedDomains`	Text (Multiple)	See desc.	No	Blacklist of Home Assistant domains to exclude from discovery (supports glob patterns). Default: `automation`,`conversation`,`counter`,`media_source`,`persistent_notification`,`stt`,`sun`,`timer`,`tts`,`zone`
`includedLabels`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Whitelist of Home Assistant Labels/Tags to discover (supports glob patterns, e.g., `openhab*`)
`excludedLabels`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Blacklist of Home Assistant Labels/Tags to ignore during discovery (supports glob patterns)

Device / Entity Container (`device`)

The device Thing maps one or more Home Assistant entities to openHAB channels and provides per-Thing channel creation filters. Standard wildcard glob patterns (*, ?) are supported across all filter fields.

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Description
`deviceId`	Text	N/A	No	Home Assistant device registry identifier
`entityIds`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Explicitly defined entity IDs or glob patterns; bypasses all device exclusions and filter rules
`includedDomains`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Whitelist of Home Assistant domains to restrict channels to (supports glob patterns, e.g., `sensor*`)
`excludedDomains`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Blacklist of Home Assistant domains to exclude from creating channels (supports glob patterns, e.g., `update*`)
`includedLabels`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Whitelist of Home Assistant Labels/Tags for child entities (supports glob patterns)
`excludedLabels`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Blacklist of Home Assistant Labels/Tags for child entities (supports glob patterns)
`includedEntities`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Specific Entity IDs or glob patterns (e.g., `sensor.bed`, `*_temperature`) to explicitly allow as channels
`excludedEntities`	Text (Multiple)	`[]`	No	Specific Entity IDs or glob patterns (e.g., `battery`, `*_rssi`) to exclude from channel creation

Note: At least one of deviceId or entityIds must be defined.

For full evaluation semantics and details on composite filtering, see filtering.

::: tip
The device ID can be obtained from Settings → Devices & Services → Devices.
Click on the device you want to use.

The device ID is the final segment of the URL.
For example:

https://homeassistant.local/config/devices/device/5a471c1a7211f02d76869838fe451d68

The device ID is:

5a471c1a7211f02d76869838fe451d68
:::

Supported Entity Domains

The binding includes dedicated mapping logic for over 35 Home Assistant entity domains:

Lighting & Power: light, switch, button, input_button, scene, script
Sensors: sensor, binary_sensor, device_tracker, geolocation, event
Climate & Environment: climate, humidifier, water_heater, weather, fan
Covers & Locks: cover, lock, valve
Media & Remotes: media_player, remote, camera, image
Controls & Inputs: number, input_number, select, input_select, text, input_text, date, time, datetime
Robotics & Vacuum: vacuum, lawn_mower, siren
System & Infrastructure: update, alarm_control_panel, infrared, radio_frequency

Channel Types & Event Handling

The binding utilizes standard openHAB channel types mapped dynamically across entities:

Standard State Channels: color, contact, datetime, dimmer, image, location, number, player, rollershutter, string, switch
Event Channel (event): Used exclusively for the Home Assistant event entity domain.

Event Channel Behavior (`event` Domain)

For Home Assistant event entities, event acts purely as an openHAB Trigger channel:

Rule Triggers: Incoming Home Assistant events fire openHAB channel trigger events directly (e.g., channel "hasslink:..." triggered).
Item Linking: If you wish to post commands or update Item states from incoming events, link the channel to an Item using standard openHAB Profiles or rules.

Weather Forecast Channels (`weather` Domain)

When supported by the underlying integration, forecast channels generated for weather entities update openHAB channels with time-series data.

Channel Naming Conventions

Channels are generated dynamically using the following structure:

Primary Channel: domain-entity_name (e.g., light-living_room_light, sensor-living_room_temperature)
Exposes the primary state of the entity (e.g., ON/OFF, numeric values, or string states).
Domain Attribute Channel: domain-entity_name#attribute_name (e.g., light-living_room_light#color_temp, climate-hallway#target_temperature)
Exposes first-class, strongly typed mapped attributes explicitly handled by specific entity implementations.
Generic Attribute Channel (Sensor Entities): sensor-entity_name#attribute_name (e.g., sensor-weather_station#pressure_trend)
Auto-discovered fallback attributes generated exclusively for sensor entities from the Home Assistant state payload when not mapped as primary channels.
List and map attributes are provided as JSON strings.
Raw JSON Attributes Channel: domain-entity_name#json_attributes
Exposes the entire Home Assistant entity attributes payload as a serialized JSON string.
Note: This channel is not created automatically.
To opt in, you must manually create a custom channel with the following configuration parameters:
- entityId: <entity_id>
- attribute: json_attributes
Once defined, payload serialization is evaluated lazily and only executes when an Item is actively linked to the channel.

Home Assistant to openHAB Conversion Quirks

Cover Entity

Percentage values for cover entities are inverted in openHAB to comply with standard openHAB roller shutter/cover conventions.

Meaning	Home Assistant	openHAB
open	100%	0% (`UpDownType.UP`)
closed	0%	100% (`UpDownType.DOWN`)

Light Entity

The Home Assistant light entity is mapped into openHAB channels based on the light’s supported capabilities.
The primary channel adapts automatically, and additional attribute channels are created only when the device exposes the corresponding features.

Channel	openHAB Item Type	Notes
`Primary`	`Color` / `Dimmer` / `Switch`	`Color` if any color modes are supported; `Dimmer` if brightness is supported; otherwise `Switch`.
`#color_temp`	`Number:Temperature`	Created when the light supports color temperature mode. Always expressed in Kelvin, even if HA reports mireds.
`#color_temp_percent`	`Dimmer`	Normalized color temperature (0–100%), where 0% = Cool and 100% = Warm.
`#effect`	`String`	Created when the light supports effect selection.

Primary Channel Behavior

Color Lights (Color Item):
A single channel controls color, brightness, and power state using HSBType, PercentType, or OnOffType.
The same channel may also be linked to a Dimmer or Switch item if separate controls are desired.
Dimmable Lights (Dimmer Item):
Controls brightness (converted between HA’s 0–255 scale and openHAB’s 0–100%) and power state (OnOffType or PercentType).
May also be linked to a Switch item for independent on/off control.
Binary Lights (Switch Item):
Controls basic on/off state (OnOffType).
Brightness Commands:
Sending a PercentType to the primary channel sets the HA brightness parameter when supported.
Power Commands:
Sending an OnOffType to the primary channel turns the light on or off.
Attribute Channels:
Sending a command to any attribute channel (e.g., #color_temp, #effect) will turn the light on,
except when sending OnOffType.OFF to the primary channel.

MediaPlayer Entity

Home Assistant volume (0.0-1.0) is converted into openHAB PercentType (0-100%).

Image / Camera Entity

Images and Snapshots are fetched asynchronously through HTTP whenever an image update event was received via WebSocket.
Home Assistant does not send image update events in real-time to conserve processing power and network bandwidth.

However, Image channels accept and process the REFRESH command and will fetch an updated image without waiting for an event from Home Assistant.

Image Entity

Channel	Item Type	Description
Primary	`Image`	Image data as `RawType`

Camera Entity

Channel	Item Type	Description
Primary	`String`	Camera status as a `StringType`
`#image`	`Image`	Camera image snapshots as `RawType`
`#power`	`Switch`	Turns the camera on/off, if the camera entity supports `ON_OFF` feature
`#stream_url`	`String`	The camera stream source URL, if the camera entity supports `STREAM` feature

Rule Actions

The binding exposes actions scoped to the server Bridge (hasslink:server).
Actions can be retrieved in openHAB automation rules using the action identifier "hasslink" and the bridge UID.

Action Summary

Method	Description
callService(`String` domain, `String` service, `String` entityId, `Map`<`String`, `Object`> payload)	Invokes any native Home Assistant service via the WebSocket connection.
pressButton(`String` entityId)	Triggers a Home Assistant button entity (`button` or `input_button`).
runScript(`String` scriptId, `Map`<`String`, `Object`> variables)	Executes a Home Assistant script directly by service name.
activateScene(`String` sceneId)	Activates a Home Assistant scene using the generic `scene.turn_on` service.

Action Details

callService

callService(String domain, String service, String entityId, Map<String, Object> payload)

Invokes any native Home Assistant service via the WebSocket connection.

domain (String, required): The target Home Assistant service domain (e.g. "light", "notify", "climate").
service (String, required): The target service action (e.g. "turn_on", "persistent_notification", "set_temperature").
entityId (String, optional): Fully qualified entity ID ("domain.object_id") or null if the service does not target a specific entity.
payload (Map<String, Object>, optional): Key-value parameters passed to the service payload or null.

pressButton

Syntax: pressButton(String entityId)

Triggers a Home Assistant button entity (button or input_button).

entityId (String, required): The target entity ID. Accepts a fully qualified entity ID (e.g., "button.reboot", "input_button.reset") or a shorthand object ID (e.g., "reboot"), which automatically defaults to the button domain ("button.reboot").

runScript

Syntax: runScript(String scriptId, Map<String, Object> variables)

Executes a Home Assistant script directly by service name.

scriptId (String, required): Fully qualified script ID (e.g., "script.welcome_home") or simple script name (e.g., "welcome_home").
variables (Map<String, Object>, optional): Execution variables passed to the script payload or null.

activateScene

Syntax: activateScene(String sceneId)

Activates a Home Assistant scene using the generic scene.turn_on service.

sceneId (String, required): Fully qualified scene ID (e.g., "scene.movie_night") or simple scene name (e.g., "movie_night").

Rule Examples

:::: tabs

::: tab DSL

rule "Trigger Home Assistant Script & Actions"
when
    Item LivingRoom_SceneSwitch received command ON
then
    val actions = getActions("hasslink", "hasslink:server:homeassistant")
    if (actions === null) {
        logWarn("rules", "HassLink actions not available")
        return;
    }

    // Activate a scene (shorthand or full entity ID)
    actions.activateScene("movie_night")

    // Press a button
    actions.pressButton("button.reboot_router")

    // Run a script with variables
    actions.runScript("welcome_home", Map.of("brightness", 80))

    // Call arbitrary HA service
    actions.callService("notify", "persistent_notification", null, Map.of(
        "title", "openHAB Alert",
        "message", "Motion detected in hallway"
    ))
end

:::

::: tab JS

const actions = actions.get("hasslink", "hasslink:server:homeassistant");

if (actions) {
  // Activate a scene
  actions.activateScene("movie_night");

  // Trigger a button entity
  actions.pressButton("reboot_router");

  // Run script with parameters
  actions.runScript("script.welcome_home", { brightness: 100, color: "red" });

  // Custom service call
  actions.callService("light", "turn_on", "light.living_room", { brightness_pct: 75 });
}

:::

::: tab JRuby

thing = things["hasslink:server:homeassistant"]

# Activate scene
thing.activate_scene("movie_night")

# Press button
thing.press_button("button.reboot_router")

# Run script with parameters
thing.run_script("welcome_home", { "brightness" => 80 })

# Generic service call
thing.call_service("climate", "set_temperature", "climate.hallway", { "temperature" => 21.5 })

:::

Textual Configuration Examples

`things/homeassistant.things`

Bridge hasslink:server:homeassistant "Home Assistant Core" [
    host="192.168.1.100",
    port=8123,
    token="eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR...",
    secure=false,
    ignoreIndependentEntities=true,
    includedLabels="openhab*"
] {
    // Single entity mapping
    Thing device desk_light "Desk Lamp" [
        entityIds="light.desk_lamp"
    ]

    // Physical device mapping via Home Assistant Device ID with wildcard exclusions for static noise
    Thing device lawn_mower "Lawn Mower" [
        deviceId="3a4b5c6d7e8f90123456789abcdef012",
        excludedEntities="*_version", "*_mac", "*_fw_*"
    ]

    // Grouping multiple standalone entities into one Thing
    Thing device office_environment "Office Environment" [
        entityIds=
            "sensor.office_temperature",
            "sensor.office_humidity",
            "switch.office_fan"
    ]
}

`items/homeassistant.items`

// Light Controls
Switch DeskLamp_Power "Desk Lamp Power" <light> { channel="hasslink:device:homeassistant:desk_light:light-desk_lamp" }
Dimmer DeskLamp_Brightness "Desk Lamp Brightness" <light> { channel="hasslink:device:homeassistant:desk_light:light-desk_lamp#brightness" }

// Environment Sensors (Automated QuantityType)
Number:Temperature Office_Temp "Office Temperature [%.1f %unit%]" <temperature> { channel="hasslink:device:homeassistant:office_environment:sensor-office_temperature" }
Number:Dimensionless Office_Humidity "Office Humidity [%.0f %%]" <humidity> { channel="hasslink:device:homeassistant:office_environment:sensor-office_humidity" }

// Climate Controls
String AC_Mode "AC Mode" <climate> { channel="hasslink:device:homeassistant:living_room_ac:climate-living_room_ac" }
Number:Temperature AC_TargetTemp "Target Temperature [%.1f %unit%]" <temperature> { channel="hasslink:device:homeassistant:living_room_ac:climate-living_room_ac#target_temperature" }

If you’re running HA + openHAB together and want a cleaner, more native way to bridge the two systems, I’d really appreciate your help testing this.

Downloads:

v0.0.15 - 2026-10-03

Allow discovery to include services (non hardware) when they satisfy filter criteria

v0.0.14 - 2026-10-03

Contains fixes up to b48e762

Support glob in config.entityIds
Don’t call listeners if json contains errors
remove setting target_temperature_low|high in WaterHeaterEntity
ensure absolute url matches homeassistant base url
reject mismatched domain/entity id in action methods
add datetime,location,player to extensible channel type list
copy channel’s AutoUpdatePolicy during disambiguation
add ClimateEntity swing_horizontal_mode to parseState
WaterHeaterEntity: handle quantitytype for temperature
make uri replacement from ws → http ipv6 compatible
clear lastKnownStates when receiving entitiesSnapshot
reset all internal states in stopConnection()
remove unsupported input_type, input_select, input_number, input_button, etc from docs
Add GeoLocation and RadioFrequency entities to EntityTypeRegistry

v0.0.13 - 2026-09-27

Exclude entities that are disabled in HA. Its states are never sent so it will forever be in an indeterminate state anyway.
Fix a race condition where an orderly websocket closure could prevent Thing from coming online.
Improve origin check before sending bearer token when fetching images
Add Gson as an explicit dependency

v0.0.12 - 2026-09-25

Exclude disabled entities (disabled in HA)
Fix repeated warnings about missing entities (because they were disabled in HA)
Sensor channels (primary + attributes) are set to have AutoUpdatePolicy.VETO
Removed VETO from the channel config - it was unnecessary
Add readonly stateDescription for sensor channels

v0.0.11 - 2026-09-24

This release primarily revolves around better type inferencing, some minor fixes in attribute names mentioned below.

Improvements on type inferencing
Add DynamicCommandDescription for some channels that report their status differently than the command
Set up test HA environment and extract demo payload for test harness
Fix incorrect attribute names in Humidifier, Remote, WaterHeater
Fix Date/Time/Datetime parsing and dispatching
Fix DeviceTrackerEntity battery attribute name
Humidifier: Add StateDescription for humidity and mode
MediaPlayer: Add sound_mode, shuffle, repeat
Remove infrared entity - it has no demo payload
Fix Siren state
Fix incorrect Valve entity position attribute
Fix WaterHeater entity’s target_temp_min/max attributes

v0.0.10 - 2026-09-23

Starting work on creating unit tests and finding a few more bugs.

Fix QuantityType parsing ISE on non-standard units
Fetch HA system wide config, including standard units on websocket connection
Fallback to HA-system-wide unit for standard units (temperature, length, area, mass, pressure, volume, windspeed, accumulated precipitation, volume)
Add StateDescription for sensor entity
Fix light entity not inverting color_temp commands
Fix weather entity channels: remove incorrect native_ prefixes.
AlarmControlPanel entity: add trigger option and arm custom bypass
Fix waiting for entity states forever when initializing Thing with a newly added device in HA
Fix StateMapBuilder putString

v0.0.9 - 2026-09-22

Resolved an issue where bridge-level area and label filters (includedLabels, includedAreas) incorrectly excluded valid Home Assistant devices.
Refactored to prevent a leak where references to disposed device handlers were kept, keeping the unregistered handlers alive.
Fix inconsistency in Channel ID and Channel Label generation. The channel ID previous did not consider/strip the current device name prefix. This affects HA devices with inconsistent entityid prefixes.

v0.0.8 - 2026-09-21

Fix configuration update handling. No longer need to disable/enable Thing to apply update.
Add configurable Bridge and Device filtering.
- Bridge filters control what’s discovered in the inbox
- Device filters control what entities are included in the Thing channels.
- Supported filters: include/exclude by label/tag, by domain, entityId. Supports Glob wildcards.

v0.0.7 - 2026-09-21

Suppress “handler is already disposed” warnings.
Infer Binary Sensor entities as Contact items for door, window, garage_door and opening device classes.
Improve numeric state inference.

v0.0.6 - 2026-09-20

Fix repeating inbox removal / additions log messages
Filter out system and helper domains from auto-discovery
Infer datetime attributes based on common datetime naming patterns - for Sensor entities

v0.0.5 - 2026-09-20

Remove the special attr_ prefix on Sensor entity. This makes the attribute channels uniform across all entities. Channels need to be regenerated. The easiest way is to add “X” to the end of the deviceId → save → remove that extra X → save. Then fix the missing links for the sensor items.
Improve channel label inference

v0.0.4 - 2026-09-20

Improve representationProperty so that manually configured Bridges/Things do not show up in Inbox.
Add Bridge Actions (callService, pressButton, runScript, activateScene)

v0.0.3 - 2026-09-19 Fix state parsing for Select,MediaPlayer,Remote and Siren entities.

v0.0.2 - 2026-09-19 LightEntity’s main channel is now Color > Dimmer > Switch. Improved connection and automatic channel building logic

v0.0.1 - 2026-09-17 First release

JustinG · September 17, 2026, 1:50pm

Right now I use the matterbridge HA plug-in and the OH matter binding to link HA entities to OH. A more native and direct approach is exciting. I should have some time to test this in the next week.

I’ll let you know.

jimtng · September 18, 2026, 4:29pm

Posted v0.0.2 (link in the original post).

Updated the README especially the section on Light Entity channel scheme / handling
Improvements on handler initialization, channel creation / delta handling.
Consolidate subscribe/unsubscribe commands

jimtng · September 18, 2026, 4:34pm

Possible future improvements - primarily cosmetic:

Mark some channels advanced
Look into adding unitHint
Review / add Channel and Thing semantic tags as appropriate

kjknauss · September 19, 2026, 1:03pm

I also use Matterbridge, as well as HTTP binding and Webhooks. This binding seems really interesting. HA Integrations tested and working below. Most of these are just reading sensors and status updates, so mostly one way. But tested some switches in Fully Kiosk and they worked fine.

Fully Kiosk Browser
GE Home (SmartHQ) - HACS
Ecowitt
SleepIQ
Internet Printing Protocol (IPP)
Tesla Custom Integration - HACS

jimtng · September 20, 2026, 5:18am

v0.0.4 is available

Improve representationProperty so that manually configured Bridges/Things do not show up in Inbox.
Add Bridge Actions (callService, pressButton, runScript, activateScene)
See the updated README

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 8:04am

I have OH (5.2.1) and HA (2026.9.2) both running in containers and your binding loaded.

WOW, 208 entries newly discovered…

What type of specific feedback would you need?

jimtng · September 20, 2026, 9:41am

Whether everything “works” as expected
Any questions / suggestions / comments on any aspect

Right now I am contemplating changing the channel name for the sensor attributes. At the moment they are all prefixed with #attr_XXXX - I want to remove the attr_ prefix.

The channel naming change will be a “breaking” change, hopefully not much of an inconvenience.

This is your Inbox entries? Nice! I only have < 20.

Is it discovering anything that shouldn’t be discovered?

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 9:54am

I see…

on first glance it also brings in all HA automations. I don’t think it should.

It also fills in OH log with the discovered entities on every update, for example, on each weather update in HA. I don’t think its necessary… I did not try to see what if I ignore the weather entities, will it re-discover them…

jimtng · September 20, 2026, 9:56am

v 0.0.5 is now available.

Better channel label inference. Getting this done right is important in getting the automatic “Add Points” to generate nice item names.
Removed attr_ prefix previously set on sensor attributes. After further consideration, adding the prefix is unnecessary and only serves as added noise.

jimtng · September 20, 2026, 9:58am

Can you provide more details on what “HA automations” are and what the entity ids are?

Please also provide more details on this. Could you paste the relevant logs?

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 10:06am

automation example discovered entity:

Thing hasslink:device:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf:automation_led_strip_test (hasslink:server:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf) [entityIds="automation.led_strip_test"]

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 10:09am

For the “rediscovered” entities, what kind of log, all entities are being re-discovered and show up in the log again with the same: Discovery Result UID

first they all get removed:

openhab.event.InboxRemovedEvent

then added again:

openhab.event.InboxAddedEvent

discovery.internal.PersistentInbox

jimtng · September 20, 2026, 10:29am

Thanks! I wasn’t aware of this entity type, so they are currently supported under “GenericType”, I’m curious to see the channels (thing YAML Definition) of this Thing.

I think they should be included and can be quite useful. It would allow openhab to trigger them manually, and also get notifications (channel trigger) in openhab when the HA automations run.

How many of such automation entities / Things are discovered on your system?

Thanks, I will fix this.

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 10:48am

version: 1
things:
  hasslink:device:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf:automation_led_strip_test:
    bridge: hasslink:server:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf
    label: Leds Boiler Temperature start
    config:
      entityIds:
        - automation.led_strip_test
    channels:
      automation-led_strip_test:
        type: switch
        label: (Automation)
        config:
          entityId: automation.led_strip_test
          autoCreated: true
      automation-led_strip_test#attr_mode:
        type: string
        label: Attr Mode
        config:
          entityId: automation.led_strip_test
          attribute: attr_mode
          autoCreated: true
      automation-led_strip_test#attr_last_triggered:
        type: string
        label: Attr Last Triggered
        config:
          entityId: automation.led_strip_test
          attribute: attr_last_triggered
          autoCreated: true
      automation-led_strip_test#attr_current:
        type: number
        label: Attr Current
        config:
          entityId: automation.led_strip_test
          attribute: attr_current
          autoCreated: true
      automation-led_strip_test#attr_id:
        type: string
        label: Attr Id
        config:
          entityId: automation.led_strip_test
          attribute: attr_id
          autoCreated: true

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 11:25am

How many of such automation entities / Things are discovered on your system?

All my automations from HA are discovered.

Also discovered are all:

HA Groups of devices

HA Scrips

Thing hasslink:device:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf:script_basement_tv_power (hasslink:server:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf) [entityIds="script.basement_tv_power"]

HA Helpers (like device types changes and input types)

and Persons

Thing hasslink:device:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf:person_my_name (hasslink:server:95310226105346e69d65d653f1ccc4cf) [entityIds="person.my_name"]

jimtng · September 20, 2026, 12:38pm

@Gargam3L0 thanks for your feedback, they’ve been very useful.

I’ve uploaded v0.0.6 which addressed the following:

Fix repeating inbox removal / additions log messages
Filter out system and helper domains from auto-discovery
Infer datetime attributes based on common datetime naming patterns - for Sensor entities

The download link is at the bottom of the original post.

You might have to delete all inbox entries to clean it up.

Gargam3L0 · September 20, 2026, 2:34pm

Thank you.

I updated to v0.0.6 and will provide additional feedback if something looks odd.

JustinG · September 20, 2026, 4:43pm

I’ve just done some very basic install and config so far, but already this is an excellent binding and I’m going to swap out several of the devices I have connected through matterbridge because it has a significant advantage over the matter connection: it is not limited by matter endpoint types.

Quick thoughts after initial testing:

I’ve got three devices in HA with door sensors. These currently come up as switch channels but would be more accurate as contact channels.

image332×118 3.3 KB

Yes, it’s a pretty simple matter to link a contact to a switch channel (although since 5.0, I think, that has required a transform profile) but it’s not quite as beginner friendly.
One of the features of the matterbridge HA plugin that is most brilliant, as far as I’m concerned, is robust filtering of all the HA bits, especially the ability to set up import whitelists based on HA labels (tags). This works at the device and entity level. For example, I don’t need all 70+ entities from my 3D printer to become channels, so I can just add an OH label to the 6 entities I need and my printer thing only has those 6 channels.

JustinG · September 20, 2026, 6:16pm

Here’s an issue I’ve uncovered:

My 3D printer has at least a few channels that do not update properly. I’ve got a print running right now. Trace logs show that OH is properly receiving the updates to various print related channels:

2026-09-20 11:02:21.247 [TRACE] [nal.api.HomeAssistantWebSocketClient] - RECV | {"type":"event","event":{"c":{"sensor.flashforge_print_progress":{"+":{"s":"25.4","lc":1789927341.2429461,"c":"01M2ZZQF5TYRFFCN2M7DPN8SNT"}}}},"id":25}
2026-09-20 11:02:21.248 [TRACE] [nal.api.HomeAssistantWebSocketClient] - RECV | {"type":"event","event":{"c":{"sensor.flashforge_print_duration":{"+":{"s":"344","lc":1789927341.2430065,"c":"01M2ZZQF5V7JC2VQZ0BT1S8YGB"}}}},"id":25}

Progress should be a percentage value, and duration a time (s) value. Both those channels came up as string type in the thing, so I OH auto-link string Items to these channels, but the items are not updating with the incoming HA data:

Other actual string channels, such as status codes seem to be updating correctly.

2026-09-20 11:15:27.939 [TRACE] [nal.api.HomeAssistantWebSocketClient] - RECV | {"type":"event","event":{"c":{"sensor.flashforge_status":{"+":{"s":"completed","lc":1789928127.9369256,"c":"01M300FFE05MSVHHXSJ6KF95AJ"}}}},"id":25}
2026-09-20 11:15:27.943 [INFO ] [openhab.event.ItemStateChangedEvent ] - Item 'Printer_FlashForge_Status' changed from printing to completed (source: org.openhab.core.thing$hasslink:device:72b812d5b6:b566d1ec3ee1352b760eda8dda316bec:sensor-status)

Home Assistant Link Binding

Home Assistant Link Binding

Features

Prerequisites & Setup

1. Home Assistant Instance

Minimal Docker Compose Example

2. Generate a Long-Lived Access Token

Discovery

Server Bridge Discovery (mDNS)

Entity & Device Discovery

Thing Configuration

Bridge (server)

Device / Entity Container (device)

Supported Entity Domains

Channel Types & Event Handling

Event Channel Behavior (event Domain)

Weather Forecast Channels (weather Domain)

Channel Naming Conventions

Home Assistant to openHAB Conversion Quirks

Cover Entity

Light Entity

Primary Channel Behavior

MediaPlayer Entity

Image / Camera Entity

Image Entity

Camera Entity

Rule Actions

Action Summary

Action Details

callService

pressButton

runScript

activateScene

Rule Examples

Textual Configuration Examples

things/homeassistant.things

items/homeassistant.items

Downloads:

Bridge (`server`)

Device / Entity Container (`device`)

Event Channel Behavior (`event` Domain)

Weather Forecast Channels (`weather` Domain)

`things/homeassistant.things`

`items/homeassistant.items`