How to Install and Use Home Assistant in OpenClaw

Open your terminal and run the ClawHub install command. The Home Assistant skill adds smart home control capabilities to your OpenClaw instance, translating natural language commands into Home Assistant REST API calls and WebSocket messages. After installation completes, ClawHub displays the required configuration keys: HOME_ASSISTANT_URL (the URL of your Home Assistant instance) and HOME_ASSISTANT_TOKEN (a Long-Lived Access Token). The skill will not activate until both are provided — using it before configuration produces a helpful error message pointing to the missing credentials. If ClawHub is not found (`clawhub: command not found`), your OpenClaw installation may be incomplete. Reinstall OpenClaw from openclaw.ai to get a fresh installation including the bundled ClawHub CLI.

1clawhub install home-assistant

Home Assistant uses Long-Lived Access Tokens for API authentication. These tokens are tied to your user account and grant full API access to your Home Assistant instance. To generate one, log in to your Home Assistant interface and navigate to your profile. Click your username in the bottom-left corner of the Home Assistant sidebar to open your profile page. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the profile page to find the 'Long-Lived Access Tokens' section. Click 'Create Token'. Give the token a descriptive name like 'OpenClaw Integration' so you can identify it later. Home Assistant generates the token immediately and displays it in a modal — this is the ONLY time the full token is shown. Copy it now to a safe temporary location. The token is a long string of random characters (around 180 characters). It does not expire by default, though you can revoke it from the same profile page at any time. Your HOME_ASSISTANT_URL is the address you use to access Home Assistant in a browser. On your local network this is typically `http://homeassistant.local:8123` or `http://192.168.1.X:8123`. If you access Home Assistant remotely via Nabu Casa, your URL will be in the format `https://YOUR_INSTANCE_ID.ui.nabu.casa`.

Add your Home Assistant credentials to OpenClaw's configuration. Both values can be set via the `clawhub config set` command or by editing `~/.openclaw/.env` directly. The HOME_ASSISTANT_URL should not have a trailing slash — the skill appends the correct API path (`/api`) automatically. After adding the credentials, run `clawhub reload` to apply the changes. OpenClaw will test the connection by making a request to the Home Assistant `/api/` endpoint. A successful connection returns the Home Assistant version and message 'API running.' You will see this confirmation in the OpenClaw log on first use. If you use Home Assistant with SSL/HTTPS (recommended for any remote access setup), ensure your URL starts with `https://`. Home Assistant with a self-signed certificate may require setting `ssl_verify: false` in the skill config — only do this on a trusted private network.

1# Option A: Add to ~/.openclaw/.env
2HOME_ASSISTANT_URL=http://homeassistant.local:8123
3HOME_ASSISTANT_TOKEN=your-long-lived-access-token-here
4
5# Option B: Set via clawhub config commands
6clawhub config set HOME_ASSISTANT_URL http://homeassistant.local:8123
7clawhub config set HOME_ASSISTANT_TOKEN your-long-lived-access-token-here
8
9# Apply changes
10clawhub reload
11
12# Verify both are set
13clawhub config get HOME_ASSISTANT_URL
14clawhub config get HOME_ASSISTANT_TOKEN

Open OpenClaw chat and test the integration with a simple device command. The Home Assistant skill understands natural language descriptions of devices and actions, translating them into the correct entity IDs and service calls. The skill matches your descriptions against your Home Assistant entity list. If you say 'turn on the kitchen lights', it searches your entities for items with 'kitchen' and 'light' in their name or friendly name. Home Assistant entities have IDs like `light.kitchen_overhead` but also have friendly names you set in the UI — the skill searches both. For best results, use the same names you see in your Home Assistant dashboard. You can also ask OpenClaw to list all devices in a specific area, get the current state of any entity, or trigger automations and scripts by their name. State queries return the current value of any Home Assistant entity — temperature sensors, lock status, motion sensor state, power consumption, and more.

The Home Assistant skill goes beyond individual device control. You can trigger automations by name, activate scenes that adjust multiple devices simultaneously, and issue multi-device commands in a single prompt. OpenClaw processes compound commands by breaking them into individual service calls and executing them in parallel. For automations, you can trigger them manually through the API regardless of their configured trigger conditions. This is useful for testing automations or triggering them on demand outside their normal schedule. Scenes are particularly powerful: a single scene can turn on specific lights at specific brightness levels, set the thermostat, start a media player, and lock certain doors — all with one OpenClaw prompt. OpenClaw lists the actions a scene will take before executing it if you ask. RapidDev recommends setting up entity aliases in the skill configuration for rooms and device groups — this lets you say 'the downstairs' or 'the office' and have OpenClaw automatically map these to the correct entity groups in Home Assistant.

1# ~/.openclaw/skills/home-assistant.yaml — optional advanced configuration
2home-assistant:
3  url: ""           # Leave blank if using HOME_ASSISTANT_URL env var
4  token: ""         # Leave blank if using HOME_ASSISTANT_TOKEN env var
5  ssl_verify: true  # Set false only for self-signed certs on trusted networks
6  # Friendly aliases for areas and device groups
7  aliases:
8    downstairs: ["light.living_room", "light.kitchen", "light.dining_room"]
9    upstairs: ["light.bedroom", "light.hallway", "light.bathroom"]
10    office: ["light.office_desk", "light.office_overhead", "climate.office"]
11  default_area: "living_room"   # Used when no area is specified in a command