Home Assistant Ops

Use this skill as the operator's playbook for making bulk, reviewable changes to a Home Assistant instance without SSHing into the host.

Requires Node.js 22+ (uses built-in fetch + WebSocket; no npm deps).

Default workflow (plan -> apply -> validate)

1. •Inventory the current state (API) and/or registries (backup).
2. •Propose an explicit change set (entity_ids, names, automation ids, etc).
3. •Apply via API with validation (small batches, dry-run first).
4. •Smoke-test the specific behavior (traces + event tail).
5. •Record a timestamped log + a rollback mapping.
6. •(Optional) Snapshot before/after for diff/rollback.

Setup

Set environment variables (never pass tokens on the command line):

export HA_URL="http://<home-assistant-host>:8123"
export HA_TOKEN="<long-lived-access-token>"

Run scripts using node:

node scripts/ha_ops.js --help

Keep logs in a working folder (scripts write timestamped .md files by default).

First questions (to avoid rework)

• •What's the HA version and deployment type (OS / Container / Core)?
• •Which Zigbee stack is used (ZHA vs Zigbee2MQTT) and which devices are affected?
• •Which parts are YAML-managed vs UI-managed (automations, scripts, scenes, dashboards)?
• •Do we have a recent backup to inspect before making bulk changes?
• •Is the goal UI clarity, automation correctness, performance/latency, or all of the above?

Core concepts (what to change where)

• •Entity registry: source of truth for friendly-name overrides, entity_id renames, hidden/disabled, and some area assignment.
• •Device registry: best place to assign areas for physical devices (entity area often inherits).
• •Blueprint inputs: not templatable; state triggers need a static entity list at config-load time.
• •HA "group helpers": great for UI/targeting/maintenance, but they don't make Zigbee unicast faster (they expand to member calls).

Scripts

All scripts read HA_URL and HA_TOKEN from environment variables.

ha_ops.js - Single CLI with subcommands

All operations are available under a single CLI:

# List commands
node scripts/ha_ops.js --help

# Command help
node scripts/ha_ops.js cleanup --help

ha_ops.js cleanup - Bulk cleanup (dry-run by default)

# Dry-run all default steps (default)
node scripts/ha_ops.js cleanup

# Apply specific steps
node scripts/ha_ops.js cleanup --apply \
  --steps rename-switch-suffix,prefix-lights-cove

# Prefix custom patterns with area names
node scripts/ha_ops.js cleanup --apply \
  --steps prefix-generic \
  --pattern "Thermometer:^Thermometer" \
  --pattern "Blinds:^Blinds"

# Output proposed changes as JSON
node scripts/ha_ops.js cleanup --json

Available steps:

• •rename-switch-suffix: Rename "Lights ... Switch" to "Lights ..."
• •create-groups: Create/update switch groups for sync automations
• •prefix-lights-cove: Prefix Lights/Cove names with area
• •prefix-generic: Prefix entities matching --pattern with area

ha_ops.js snapshot - Capture state for diffing

# Full snapshot
node scripts/ha_ops.js snapshot

# Skip noisy sections
node scripts/ha_ops.js snapshot \
  --no-lovelace --no-scenes

# Include runtime states (noisy for diffs)
node scripts/ha_ops.js snapshot --include-states

ha_ops.js rollback - Revert registry changes from a snapshot

# Preview what would be rolled back
node scripts/ha_ops.js rollback \
  snapshot_before.json --dry-run

# Apply rollback
node scripts/ha_ops.js rollback \
  snapshot_before.json --yes

ha_ops.js find-references - Find entity_id usage

# Search for entity references before renaming
node scripts/ha_ops.js find-references \
  --needle "switch.bedroom_lights"

# Search from a rename mapping file
node scripts/ha_ops.js find-references \
  --map-json rename_map.json --backup-root /path/to/backup

ha_ops.js tail-events - Monitor events in real-time

# Tail state changes
node scripts/ha_ops.js tail-events

# Filter to specific entities
node scripts/ha_ops.js tail-events \
  --entity switch.bedroom_lights --entity switch.bedroom_lights_2

# Include ZHA events
node scripts/ha_ops.js tail-events \
  --event-type state_changed --event-type zha_event

ha_ops.js name-review-from-backup - Offline naming analysis

# Analyze backup for naming candidates
node scripts/ha_ops.js name-review-from-backup \
  --backup-root /path/to/backup

Error recovery

If a script fails mid-way:

1. •Check the log file for what was applied before the failure.
2. •Use ha_ops.js rollback with your before-snapshot to revert registry changes.
3. •Fix the underlying issue (network, permissions, entity conflicts).
4. •Re-run the script (operations are generally idempotent).

Resources

• •API reference: references/api.md
• •Ops playbook: references/playbook.md
• •Entity ID conventions: references/id_conventions.md

Logging convention

Prefer one markdown log per run (timestamped), listing every entity/automation changed and the before/after values.