claude code for home automation: beyond 'alexa turn on the lights'

by Ray Svitla

home automation should be invisible. that’s the whole point. lights that turn on when you need them. temperature that adjusts based on context. presence that just works.

instead, most people’s smart homes are dumber than their old light switches.

you have seventeen apps. your routines break randomly. you spend more time maintaining automations than you would just flipping switches. and explaining to houseguests how to turn on the bathroom light requires a flowchart.

Claude Code won’t fix bad automation design. but it can dramatically lower the barrier to good automation design.

the yaml problem

Home Assistant is fantastic. it’s also a YAML hellscape.

automations look like this:

automation:
  - alias: "morning routine"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "07:00:00"
    condition:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.workday
        state: 'on'
    action:
      - service: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.bedroom
        data:
          brightness: 80

now multiply that by 50 automations. add template sensors. add custom integrations. add the fact that indentation matters and one misplaced space breaks everything.

this is not friendly.

but here’s the thing: Claude Code speaks YAML fluently. more importantly, it speaks intent → YAML fluently.

“when I arrive home after sunset, turn on the porch light and set the thermostat to 21°C” becomes valid Home Assistant configuration in seconds.

you’re not fighting syntax. you’re describing behavior.

the MCP bridge: home assistant as an API

Model Context Protocol (MCP) changes the game here. instead of generating YAML files and hoping they work, you can give Claude Code direct API access to your Home Assistant instance.

install the home-assistant-mcp server. point it at your instance. suddenly Claude Code can: → query your current device states → trigger services directly → read your existing automations → test changes before committing them

now you’re not just generating code. you’re having a conversation with your smart home.

“why didn’t the porch light turn on last night?”

Claude Code can check the automation, verify the sensor states, look at the logs, and tell you exactly what happened.

this is what smart home debugging should feel like.

automations that actually make sense

the problem with most home automations: they’re too literal. motion sensor triggers light. door opens, camera records. simple cause and effect.

real life is contextual. you don’t want the bathroom light at full brightness at 3am. you don’t want the music to pause every time someone walks past the motion sensor. you don’t want the security system armed when you’re home even if it’s midnight.

Claude Code is actually good at context.

“I want the bedroom lights to turn on gradually when my alarm goes off, but only on workdays, and only if someone is actually in bed (check the mattress sensor), and adjust brightness based on sunrise time”

that’s six nested conditions. writing that in YAML is tedious and error-prone. describing it in english and letting Claude Code handle the logic? much better.

presence detection that isn’t creepy

presence detection is the foundation of good automation. but most approaches are either unreliable (bluetooth beacons) or creepy (camera-based person detection in every room).

Claude Code can help you build a presence model from multiple signals: → phone wifi connection → door sensors → motion patterns → time of day → calendar events

“I’m probably home if my phone is on wifi, OR if there’s been motion in the last 10 minutes during waking hours, OR if my calendar shows I’m in a meeting (work from home)”

this is fuzzy logic, not binary logic. Claude Code can generate the template sensors and automations to handle this complexity.

you end up with presence detection that feels intelligent instead of mechanical.

the notification problem

smart homes love to spam you. every door opens, every motion detected, every automation triggered — your phone buzzes like a very annoying insect.

good notification logic is hard. you only want alerts that matter. but “matter” is contextual and personal.

use Claude Code to build notification filters based on context:

“notify me when the front door opens, but only when I’m not home, unless it’s after 10pm in which case always notify me, and if it happens twice in 5 minutes that’s probably the delivery person so just notify once”

this is the kind of logic humans can describe but rarely bother to implement because it’s tedious. let the AI handle the tedious parts.

integration hell: the one thing AI helps with

every smart home device speaks a different protocol. zigbee, zwave, wifi, bluetooth, whatever proprietary nonsense your smart bulb manufacturer invented.

Home Assistant integrates most of them. but configuration is still painful.

Claude Code can help translate between ecosystems. you bought a new sensor that outputs data in format X, but your automation expects format Y? describe what you need, get the translation template.

more importantly: Claude Code can read integration documentation and generate the configuration for you. most Home Assistant integrations have good docs. most humans don’t want to read them. AI doesn’t mind.

voice control that doesn’t suck

alexa and google home are… fine. for very basic commands. but they’re bad at context, bad at complex logic, and bad at learning your preferences.

you can build better voice control by combining: → a decent voice-to-text engine (whisper) → Claude Code for intent parsing → Home Assistant for execution

now “it’s too bright in here” can mean different things based on time, room, and activity. claude interprets intent, checks context, and executes the right action.

this is way more flexible than pre-programmed voice commands.

when automation becomes too automated

here’s the uncomfortable part: you can over-automate.

lights that turn on before you reach for the switch feel magical. lights that turn on when you don’t want them feel broken.

the right amount of automation is personal and situational. some people want everything automated. some people want manual control with smart assists.

Claude Code makes it easy to build complex automations. that doesn’t mean you should.

the skill is knowing what to automate and what to leave manual. automate the boring repeating stuff. leave agency for the things that matter.

nobody wants their morning coffee automated differently every day based on an ML model’s guess about their mood. some things should just be predictable.

the maintenance problem

here’s what nobody tells you about smart homes: they require maintenance.

integrations break. APIs change. devices go offline. automations that worked perfectly for six months suddenly start misbehaving.

Claude Code can help with debugging and updates, but it can’t eliminate the fundamental problem: complexity has a maintenance cost.

before you automate something, ask: is the automation simpler than the thing it replaces?

if the answer is no, maybe don’t automate it.

privacy: the thing everyone forgets

every smart device is a potential surveillance device. every automation that tracks presence or behavior is collecting data.

use Claude Code to audit your setup:

“show me all automations and integrations that have access to location data” “which devices send data to external servers?” “can I run this entire setup locally without cloud services?”

most people don’t think about this until it’s too late. your smart home shouldn’t cross the creepy line .

the future: ambient AI for homes

we’re heading toward homes that understand context without explicit programming. not “if motion then light” but systems that learn patterns and adapt.

Claude Code today can help you build rule-based systems that approximate this. you describe the context, it generates the logic.

tomorrow’s systems will just observe and learn. but we’re not there yet. and honestly, I’m not sure we want to be. explicit rules are predictable. learned behavior is mysterious.

maybe the sweet spot is hybrid: explicit rules for important things, learned patterns for minor conveniences.

what’s your most annoying home automation problem? the thing you’ve tried to solve three times and it still doesn’t quite work? and would you trust an AI to fix it, or does that feel like adding complexity to complexity?

Ray Svitla stay evolving 🐌