Bear Stone Smart Home Documentation
Be sure to :star: my configuration repo so you can keep up to date on any daily progress!
Live, personal Home Assistant configuration shared for browsing and inspiration. This is not a turnkey clone-and-run setup; borrow ideas, adapt entity IDs/secrets, and test in your own environment.
Latest video: Local Holiday Countdowns in Home Assistant (with Codex)
Calculate all nine holiday countdowns locally with Python while preserving the sensor IDs used by speech and seasonal lighting.
Quick navigation
- You are here:
/(root repo guide) - Blog | Gear and buying notes | Issues | Diagram | YouTube
- Config readmes: Config index | Packages | Automations | Scripts | Scenes | Sounds | Package triggers
- Codex skills (optional): Home Assistant Codex Skills
What this repo is (and isn't)
- A live record of how my smart home runs, with real-world automations, scripts, and scenes.
- A place to reverse-engineer patterns, not a deployment guide. If you reuse snippets, adjust entities, secrets, and services to fit your setup.
- Issues double as a changelog and design history; browse them for rationale behind changes.
Repo layout and files you won't see
- Reusable config lives under
config/(see the quick navigation paths above). - Runtime artifacts, local development tools and tests, and detailed internal topology notes stay out of the public tree. GitHub Actions keeps the public YAML examples and dashboards validated. This is a browsing guide, not a turnkey deployment; adapt host-specific helpers, URLs, entities, and secrets before reuse.
Platform
- Runs on Docker/compose today; this README is a browsing guide, not a how-to-install. Current HA version is tracked in
config/.HA_VERSION(see the badge above). - Camera and network examples reflect one home installation; replace local endpoints and service names when adapting them.
Featured examples to start with
- Cloudflare website alerts with authenticated webhook delivery and persistent Repairs:
- Colored iOS notification icons for packages, driveway alerts, and vacuum help:
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- Windows Codex usage and reset alerts:
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- WAN reachability, quality, Ookla capacity, and freshness monitoring:
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- Read-only BGW gateway health, link, uptime, and traffic telemetry:
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- Mobile quick-access dashboard with large two-column controls:
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- Alarm and perimeter monitoring:
- Garage routines and entry lighting:
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- Tesla tire-pressure alerts with shared briefing snoozes:
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- Frigate driveway parked-car alert:
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· Icon styling:
- Local Frigate package reminders (setup and validation notes):
.
Original LLM Vision experiment:
- Docker update reporting and exception review:
, config/dashboards/infrastructure,
- Entity registry and Docker telemetry cleanup:
,
- TeslaMate road-trip reports and milestone alerts:
, issue #1845,
- Air-quality speech alerts with separate CAQI and US AQI thresholds:
, issue #1834,
- Water leak response loop:
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- Water softener salt maintenance:
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- Sprinkler status and last-run dashboard:
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- Bedroom camera kiosk tablet:
, config/dashboards/kiosk,
- Holiday/front-of-house color scenes:
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; local calendar source:
- Dash-button triggers for quick actions:
- PC lock/unlock-driven lighting plus workday wake-up via HASS.Agent + Wake on LAN:
- Seasonal cuckoo clock with patriotic, October, and Christmas sound packs:
- Garage arrival and entry helpers:
- Vacation Mode and house-sitter checks:
- HVAC runtime maintenance loop:
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- Snoozeable maintenance notifications:
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- Battery and solar awareness:
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- Weather-aware lighting:
Docker add-ons & utilities
| Container | Repo/Docs | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicati | duplicati/duplicati | Off-box, versioned backups for HA config, media, and infrastructure compose/config trees. |
| Cloudflared | cloudflare/cloudflared | Secure tunnel/edge access to Home Assistant without opening inbound ports. Cloudflare certificate, tunnel, and origin alert example: |
| WordPress | wordpress | Hosts vCloudInfo.com for docs, how-tos, videos, and long-form writeups that accompany this config. |
Gear tied to real automations (affiliate links)
Hardware linked to the automations below. Older hardware and projects under evaluation are labeled; check the gear catalog for buying notes and walkthroughs.
Affiliate disclosure: Amazon purchase links in this table are paid links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
| Device | What it drives (friendly name -> file) | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Fire tablet wall kiosk (older Fire 7) | Bedroom camera screen with Fully Kiosk recovery, bedtime dimming, and a lightweight dashboard - |
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| Garadget garage door controller | Garage doors: open/close, arrival helpers, and nighttime reminders - |
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| August smart lock | Front-door lock control + status - |
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| Phyn Plus water shutoff | Leak detection + auto shutoff - |
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| Rachio sprinkler controller | Rain-skips, active-zone status, trigger-derived last-run history, and dashboard controls - |
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| Tesla Powerwall 2 | Grid-outage alerts, charging watchdog, and load-shed automations - |
Powerwall at Tesla (manufacturer; examples use Powerwall 2) |
| Google Nest thermostat | HVAC schedules plus runtime-based filter reminders and condenser-line cleanout tracking - |
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| Raspberry Pi 3 + Aeon Z-Wave stick (historical) | Older hardware reference; current garage-entry examples use wired NodeMCU contacts. Check current host and radio support before buying. | |
| Roku streaming device | TV presence -> scenes/lighting - |
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| NFC tags | Phone taps record per-unit HVAC filter changes and trigger quick actions. |
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| Amazon Echo Show | Front door camera pop-up when the August lock unlocks - |
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| Amazon Echo Glow (under evaluation) | Unvalidated bridge experiment for Home Assistant status cues; follow the issue before buying - |
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| Dreame L10s Ultra vacuum | Away-only room queues, sweep/mop phases, family-return cancellation, a four-day cycle-start guard, Alexa room cleans, and rescue notifications - |
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| Flux/LED strip controller | Monthly color scenes for exterior - |
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| Etekcity/433MHz outlet | Accent lighting relays - |
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The Dash Button automation remains as a historical example; the discontinued button is no longer a shopping recommendation. The older Fire tablet and Pi / Z-Wave links document earlier hardware, rather than a current starter kit.
Gear and affiliate links
- Browsing or purchasing through the affiliate links above helps support this project; thanks!
- Browse gear by project, category and setup status, with my walkthroughs and compatibility notes.
Still have questions on my Config?
Message me on X :
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