Home Assistant is the world's most powerful open-source smart home platform. It allows you to connect devices from different brands (like Apple, Google, Philips, and Ring) into one unified dashboard that runs entirely locally.
Overview
Normally, smart home devices require internet access to talk to a corporate cloud server. Home Assistant intercepts this. It talks directly to the devices over your Wi-Fi network, meaning your light switches will still work instantly even if your internet goes down.
Step 1: Initializing Home Assistant
Home Assistant comes pre-installed on the LocalNode but needs to be configured for your specific house.
Go to your LocalNode dashboard at http://localnode.local.
Click the Home Assistant app icon. This will open a new tab pointing to port 8123.
You will see a "Preparing Home Assistant" screen. This initial boot can take up to 5 minutes as it downloads the latest smart home integrations.
Step 2: The onboarding process
Once the preparation is complete, the setup wizard will begin.
Create Account: Enter your name, username, and a strong password. This is your master smart home administrator account.
Name & Location: Name your installation (e.g., "Home"). Providing your location allows Home Assistant to calculate exact sunrise and sunset times for your automations (e.g., "Turn on porch lights 15 minutes before sunset").
Data Analytics: We recommend leaving this off to maintain maximum privacy.
Click Finish.
💡 Tip: Because Home Assistant runs locally, the location data you provide in Step 2 is processed on the LocalNode and never sent to a cloud server.
Step 3: Auto-discovery
The moment you finish the wizard and land on the main dashboard, Home Assistant is already scanning your Wi-Fi network.
Look at the notifications icon (the bell) in the bottom left corner. You will likely see multiple "New devices discovered" alerts. Home Assistant will automatically find Apple TVs, Roku sticks, Sonos speakers, Philips Hue bridges, and many smart TVs.
Click on a discovered device notification.
Click Configure.
Follow the prompts. For example, to connect an Apple TV, Home Assistant will display a PIN code on your television that you must type into the dashboard to authorize the connection.
Assign the device to an Area (e.g., "Living Room").
