Our principles
What Home Assistant stands for, and how we work together. The values behind the decisions you'll see in reviews and discussions.
Home Assistant makes a lot of decisions every day: in reviews, in discussions, in what gets built next. Most of them go back to a few values. Knowing them helps you understand why a reviewer asks for a change, and helps you make the same calls yourself.
Home Assistant is part of the Open Home Foundation, which stands for three values in the smart home:
- Privacy: your home is yours. Home Assistant runs locally, and data about your home stays there unless you choose otherwise. The cloud is an option, never a requirement.
- Choice: you pick your devices, from any brand, and combine them however you like. No vendor gets to lock you in.
- Sustainability: a smart home should keep working for years, not stop when a company moves on.
Every area applies these in its own way. Architecture principles explains what they mean for the code, and design principles what they mean for the interface.
Code, discussions, and decisions happen in public, on GitHub and in public channels. Anyone can read along, and anyone can join in. When you decide something in a private chat, write the outcome down where others can find it.
Home Assistant runs millions of homes. People rely on it for their lights, their heating, and their alarm. That is why changes that affect existing setups get extra care, and why a reviewer may ask you to keep something working that you'd rather remove.
The project would rather do fewer things well. That's why reviews can feel strict, and why a pull request sometimes needs a few rounds. It's never personal: it's what keeps Home Assistant working for everyone.
A small, focused change is easier to understand, review, and merge. When in doubt, split it up. Pull requests and reviews explains why.
Many contributors give their free time, and reviewer time is limited. Make it count: test your work before you share it, fill out the templates, and understand what you submit. The AI policy follows from the same idea.
You don't need to be an expert to contribute, and you don't need to know everything to ask. The code of conduct sets how we treat each other, everywhere.
Home Assistant also has a personality: welcoming, candid, supportive, generous, and independent. It shows up in the interface, in the documentation, and in how we talk to each other. Personality describes each trait.