Your first beta test

Every month, a beta of the next release comes out a week before the release itself. Every bug found in that week is a bug that does not hit everyone else's home. Testing the beta is one of the most valuable things you can do, and you only need a Home Assistant installation to do it.

A beta is almost done, but not quite. Most of the time it works fine. Sometimes something breaks. Before you join:

• Test on an installation where a problem is an annoyance, not a disaster. If your heating or your alarm depends on Home Assistant, think twice, or test on a second installation.
• Make sure you have a recent backup. Home Assistant OS makes one before every update, if you let it.
• Expect several betas in one week. Fixes come in as they are found.

On Home Assistant OS:

1. Go to Settings > System > Updates.
2. In the top-right corner, open the three dots menu.
3. Select Join beta channel.
4. Install the update that shows up. If it does not show up, select Check for updates in the same menu.

You can also do it from the command line:

ha supervisor options --channel beta
ha supervisor reload
ha core update --backup

Running Home Assistant Container? Use the beta tag of the image, and recreate the container:

docker pull ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:beta

The beta release notes explain what is new, and list the backward-incompatible changes. Read the backward-incompatible changes first: they tell you what might need a change on your side. Then try out the new features you care about.

Found a problem? Before you report it:

• Check that it is new. Did it work in the current stable release?
• Search the issue tracker. Someone may have reported it already. If so, add what you know to that issue, instead of opening a new one.

Then open an issue in the right repository:

• Integrations, automations, and the core: core issues.
• The interface, dashboards, and cards: frontend issues.
• The documentation and release notes: home-assistant.io issues.

You need a free GitHub account to open an issue. New to GitHub? See Use GitHub, without being a developer.

Fill in the issue template completely. Mention the beta version you run, like 2026.11.0b2, what you expected, what happened instead, and the relevant log messages. In core, link the documentation page of the integration and attach its diagnostics file if it has one: the template asks for both. A clear report gets fixed faster.

• Labels and integration owners. In core, the Home Assistant bot adds an integration: label based on the integration you named, and mentions the integration owners of that integration, so the people who know it best get a notification.
• Duplicate check. Once an integration label is on the issue, a workflow in core looks for similar open issues. If it finds any, it links them in a comment and adds the potential-duplicate label. Have a look: if one of them is your problem, continue there.
• Questions. An integration owner or maintainer may ask for more details, like logs or diagnostics, or label the issue needs-more-information. Answer when you can, and keep testing the next betas.
• The fix. A fix starts as a normal pull request. During the beta week, it lands in one of the next betas. After the release, it goes into a patch release. See Get a fix into a patch release.

An issue in core or the frontend without any activity for 90 days is marked stale, and closed 7 days later if nothing happens. A comment is enough to keep it open.

When the release comes out, you get it as a normal update. You can stay on the beta channel for the next month, or leave it with Leave beta channel in the same menu. Leaving does not downgrade you automatically: you get the next stable release when it is newer than what you run.

• Read How releases work, so you know what happens when.
• Found a typo or something unclear in the beta release notes? That is worth fixing too. See Release notes and the release party.