How to connect Home Assistant to Claude

Which way should you connect Home Assistant to Claude?

Every way to connect Home Assistant to Claude that we could verify, official and community.

• MCP Server integration: Built into Home Assistant. Claude gets the same controls as the Assist voice assistant, limited to the devices you expose to it. Sign in with a token, or with OAuth for Claude.ai.
• ha-mcp: The most popular community server. It reaches everything in Home Assistant, not just exposed devices, including automations, history and logs. More power, so more care is needed.
• hass-mcp: A smaller community server for reading entities, calling services and checking history and logs.

How to connect Home Assistant to Claude Code

Recommended · Claude Code · uses MCP Server integration

1. 1

   In Home Assistant, go to Settings, then Devices & services, and add the Model Context Protocol Server integration. Choose Assist as the API.

2. 2

   Check what Claude will be able to control in Settings, then Voice assistants, then the Expose tab. Leave locks, alarms and garage doors off unless you really want Claude to use them.

3. 3

   Open your user profile, go to the Security tab, and create a long-lived access token. Copy it now: it's only shown once.

4. 4

   Add Home Assistant to Claude Code. Replace the address with your own and YOUR_TOKEN with the token.

   TerminalCopy

   claude mcp add --transport http homeassistant http://homeassistant.local:8123/api/mcp \
     --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

5. 5

   Check the connection: in Claude Code, run /mcp and look for homeassistant. Then ask what's on, or ask Claude to turn something off.

We tested it

Checked against the source on Oct 5, 2026.

How to connect Home Assistant to Claude.ai or Claude Desktop

Alternative · Claude.ai and Claude Desktop · uses MCP Server integration

1. 1

   Make Home Assistant reachable on a public HTTPS address, and set that as its External URL. Home Assistant Cloud is the simplest way: its docs recommend it to avoid proxy and tunnel problems.

2. 2

   In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors. Click + and choose Add custom connector.

3. 3

   Enter https://<your-external-url>/api/mcp as the server URL. Under Advanced settings, set the OAuth Client ID to https://claude.ai and leave the secret blank.

4. 4

   Connect, sign in to Home Assistant when asked, and approve access.

Checked against the source on Oct 5, 2026.

Access and permissions

What Claude can control

With the built-in integration, only devices exposed to Assist. In our test, Claude could switch lights but refused to lock the front door, because locks aren't exposed by default.

The token

A long-lived token lasts 10 years and carries the full rights of the user who created it. Exposure limits what the MCP tools can do, not the token itself. Consider a separate, non-admin user for Claude. From 2026.10, non-admin users connect through /api/mcp/assist.

Revoking access

Delete the token in your user profile, on the Security tab. In Claude Code, also run claude mcp remove homeassistant.

Community servers

ha-mcp and hass-mcp use the Home Assistant API directly, so they can reach everything the token can, not just exposed devices.

What can you do after connecting Home Assistant to Claude?

• “Which lights are on right now, and in which rooms?”

  Copy

  Claude reads the live state of every exposed light and returns which are on, their brightness, and the room each one is in.

• “What are my thermostats set to, and what's the current temperature?”

  Copy

  Claude lists each thermostat's mode, target and current temperature, and points out which ones are likely heating or cooling.

• “Turn off the kitchen lights.”

  Copy

  Claude turns the light off and confirms it. If the light isn't assigned to a room, it falls back to the light's name and tells you how to fix the room.

• “Add 'buy milk' to my shopping list.”

  Copy

  Claude adds the item to Home Assistant's shopping list.

• “Lock the front door.”

  Copy

  With default settings Claude can't, because locks aren't exposed. It tells you where to expose the lock if you want it to.

Troubleshooting

404 Not Found on /api/mcp

The MCP Server integration isn't set up yet. Add it in Settings, then Devices & services. Source

401 when connecting

The token is wrong or was deleted. Create a new one. From 2026.10, a non-admin user also gets this on /api/mcp: use /api/mcp/assist, or turn off Require an administrator account in the integration's options. Source

Claude says it can't find a device that exists

The device isn't exposed to Assist. Turn it on in Settings, then Voice assistants, then Expose, and ask again. Source

Claude Desktop shows the server as disconnected when using mcp-proxy

Current mcp-proxy releases crash with a newer MCP library (cannot import name 'request_ctx'). Run it with uvx --with "mcp<2.0.0" mcp-proxy, or use the remote connector instead. Source

FAQ

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