HAven

A lightweight Home Assistant dashboard for screens that Lovelace left behind

An old iPad gathering dust... That sluggish Android tablet mounted on the kitchen wall... The Fire HD you picked up for $30... HAven gives them a second life as always-on Home Assistant displays. No addons, no server-side code, no install. Just static files dropped into your HA www/ folder and a browser that can open a URL.

Most dashboards flex and reflow to fit whatever screen they land on. HAven takes the opposite approach: a fixed canvas, absolute widget placement, and every element exactly where you put it. Design once at a specific resolution and HAven scales it to fill any screen. No responsive breakpoints, no layout surprises. Just a purpose-built display that looks exactly how you intended.

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Note

HAven is actively developed and should be considered a work in progress. Bugs are expected, and refactoring between releases may occasionally introduce breaking changes to config files or widget properties. Check the release notes before updating.

Documentation is also a work in progress. Individual widget reference pages are not yet complete for all widget types.

Feature requests: use Discussions Bugs and questions: use Issues

Feedback and contributions are very welcome.

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Features

• Zero server-side install: copy files into HA's www/ folder, done
• Fixed canvas, pixel-perfect layouts: design at any resolution, HAven scales to fit any screen
• Config-driven: everything defined in JSON, no code changes needed to build dashboards
• Live HA data: WebSocket connection with surgical DOM updates; only widgets bound to a changed entity update
• 15 widget types: label, button, switch, slider, bar, arc, rectangle, image, camera, clock, scene, history chart, agenda, task, line
• Conditional overrides: any widget property can change based on entity state, attributes, or page, using ordered rules with AND/OR logic
• Template expressions: {{ ... }} in label text and color fields for calculated values
• MDI icons bundled locally: works fully offline, no CDN required
• Multi-page with swipe navigation: dot indicators, swipe gestures, persistent overlay page
• Camera support: MJPEG, snapshot, poster, and direct URL preview modes; fullscreen HLS stream on tap
• Screensaver: configurable idle timeout with optional bouncing text
• haven_command event bus: HA automations can trigger navigation, wake, dim, or speech on the device
• Visual themes: drop-in CSS theme files for scanlines, glow, fonts, and other visual effects without touching any dashboard config
• Visual designer: drag-and-drop editor at designer.html with live preview, undo/redo, and entity search

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Installation

1. Download the latest release from the releases page and unzip it
2. Copy the contents into a haven/ folder inside your Home Assistant /config/www/ directory
3. Access HAven at http://your-ha-ip:8123/local/haven/index.html

HACS distribution is planned for a future release. See the Roadmap below.

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Quick Start

1. Open http://your-ha-ip:8123/local/haven/index.html?device=example
2. Enter a Long-Lived Access Token when prompted
3. Edit devices/example.json or create your own device config

A graphical designer is available at designer.html on the same path. It requires Chrome or Edge over a HTTPS connection (Nabu Casa works perfectly).

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Documentation

Document	Contents
Getting Started	Installation, first run, credentials, browser compatibility, troubleshooting
Config Reference	Device block, theme, pages, icons, internal entities, performance notes
Widget Reference	All widget types with links to individual widget pages
Actions	Navigate, service calls, automations, value tokens, haven_command
Conditional Overrides	Override syntax, condition sources, visibility, template expressions
Designer Reference	Canvas, properties panel, entity search, pages, theme editor, keyboard shortcuts

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Widget Types

Widget	Description
label	Text display with live entity values, formatting, icons, and template expressions
button	Tappable button with entity-driven state styling and service actions
switch	Sliding toggle for any binary entity
slider	Draggable control for brightness, volume, cover position, and similar
bar	Horizontal progress bar with threshold-based colors
arc	Circular gauge with threshold colors and center label
rectangle	Filled rectangle for card backgrounds, overlays, and gradients
image	Static or entity-driven image with optional fullscreen tap
camera	Camera feed (MJPEG / snapshot / poster / direct URL) with fullscreen HLS stream
clock	Current time display, updates every second
scene	Option selector rendered as buttons, dropdown, or picker
history_chart	Bar chart from HA long-term statistics with optional fullscreen modal
agenda	Scrollable event list from one or more HA calendar entities

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Roadmap

Planned

• HACS distribution: HAven does not fit HACS 2.x plugin or dashboard categories cleanly, as it is a standalone web app rather than a Lovelace resource. A companion custom_components/haven integration that registers HAven as a proper HA panel is the likely path forward.
• Flow dots widget: animated dots along a path for energy/power direction visuals
• Multi-action buttons: an actions array (alongside the existing single action) so one button tap can call multiple HA services in sequence. Each entry supports an optional delay (ms) for cases where a media player or other device needs a moment before accepting follow-up commands. Fully backwards compatible.
• Actions on image widgets: add action support so a tap can trigger navigation, a service call, or an automation instead of only opening the fullscreen overlay.
• Conditional actions: a "type": "conditional" action that picks which service to call based on the widget entity's current state or attribute. Uses the same condition syntax as overrides. Enables true toggle behaviour (mute/unmute, repeat mode cycling, etc.) from a single button without HA scripts or stacked widgets.

Implemented

• All 13 widget types listed above
• Conditional overrides with ordered rules, all/any logic, attribute and page sources
• Template expressions in label text and color
• entity2 secondary entity binding
• Multi-page navigation with swipe gestures and dot indicators
• Page 0 persistent overlay
• Screensaver with idle timeout and bouncing text
• haven_command event bus (navigate, speak, wake, dim)
• Camera: MJPEG, snapshot, poster, direct URL, fullscreen HLS with audio
• History chart with fullscreen modal and multiple view periods
• Visual drag-and-drop designer with undo/redo, live preview, entity search, and attribute browser
• MDI icons bundled locally
• Page background images
• Version-based cache busting
• Per-device localStorage credentials with setup screen

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Compatibility

Runtime (index.html): any browser that can reach your HA instance. Tested on iPad Safari, budget Android WebViews, and smart TV browsers. Written in vanilla ES5 JavaScript with no framework dependencies.

Designer (designer.html): Chrome or Edge 86+ required for save-to-disk (File System Access API). Must be opened over HTTPS. Nabu Casa remote access works out of the box.

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Licence

MIT. Do whatever you like; attribution appreciated but not required.

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Supporting the Project

HAven is a personal project shared freely. If it's running on a screen in your home and you find it useful, the best support is sharing it with other HA users or contributing improvements back via GitHub issues or pull requests.

If you'd like to go further, you can buy me a coffee. HAven will always be free and open source, including the visual designer. Any support goes straight toward HA gadgets and tinkering that feeds future features.

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Credits

HAven bundles or loads the following third-party libraries and assets:

Library	Use	License
Material Design Icons	Icon set used throughout the runtime and designer	SIL OFL 1.1
Konva.js	Canvas rendering engine used in the designer	MIT
HLS.js	HLS stream playback for camera fullscreen (loaded on demand)	Apache 2.0