Home Assistant and Device Builder

Home Assistant and Device Builder

Home Assistant's ESPHome integration and the ESPHome Device Builder add-on serve different purposes.

ESPHome integration

Adding the panel under Settings > Devices & services > ESPHome connects it to Home Assistant. This provides:

• Bluetooth proxy service
• display mode, rotation, brightness, and OLED Care controls
• OLED Care animation, restart, and test notification buttons
• temperature and humidity values
• network, firmware, proxy, source, and uptime diagnostics

The Manager's Add selected to Home Assistant action completes the supported ESPHome config flow and transfers the matching API encryption key without displaying it.

ESPHome Device Builder

Device Builder stores a maintainable YAML project and compiles firmware. Adding the panel to Home Assistant does not automatically add it to Device Builder.

Select the panel in the Manager and choose Add to Device Builder. The Manager uses protected Home Assistant ingress to create the exact YAML and namespaced secrets for that panel. It preserves unrelated secrets and refuses to overwrite YAML it does not manage.

Firmware 1.5.0 and later also advertises an official GitHub import package. Standalone users can use Adopt in Device Builder. Manager users should prefer Add to Device Builder because it transfers the saved API key, OTA password, Wi-Fi profile, display defaults, and climate sensor selections.

Manual discovery fallback

If automatic discovery does not appear:

1. Open Settings > Devices & services.
2. Choose Add integration > ESPHome.
3. Enter the panel's IP address or its .local hostname.
4. Enter the API key from your own secure configuration if Home Assistant asks for it.

The ESP32 and Home Assistant must be able to reach each other on TCP port 6053. mDNS is needed for hostname discovery, but direct IP setup still works when mDNS is blocked.