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url: /home-assistant.md
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# Home Assistant

camera.ui and Home Assistant meet in two independent ways: the app **runs camera.ui inside Home Assistant**, the integration **connects a camera.ui server to Home Assistant** and surfaces its cameras and sensors as HA entities. Use either or both.

## Running vs connecting

* **The app runs camera.ui.** It installs the camera.ui server as a Home Assistant OS app, so your cameras, recordings, and detection live on the same box as HA.
* **The integration connects camera.ui.** It talks to a camera.ui server (the app, or a Docker/desktop install anywhere on your network) and creates one HA device per camera with live streams, sensors, and PTZ.

The app alone creates no entities: add the integration as well. If camera.ui already runs elsewhere, you only need the integration.

## Getting entities in: pick one transport

Two independent transports bring camera.ui cameras and sensors into Home Assistant:

1. **The integration** (recommended). A custom component that pushes entities to HA over a local connection. No broker needed.
2. **MQTT discovery**. An opt-in on the camera.ui server's MQTT bridge that publishes Home Assistant discovery configs to your broker.

::: danger Do not run both
The two do **not** merge: running both leaves you with two copies of every camera, device and sensor. Use the integration unless you specifically want to route camera.ui through an existing MQTT broker.
:::

## The integration

Live camera changes arrive by push, and it re-checks the camera list once a minute as a backstop.

You get, per camera:

* **A live camera entity** with streaming. Snapshots and the live source (high, mid, or low RTSP) come straight from camera.ui.
* **Motion and object-detection sensors.** Object sensors cover the labels person, vehicle, animal, and package.
* **Sensors** across the `binary_sensor`, `sensor`, `switch`, `light`, `siren`, `lock`, `cover`, and `alarm_control_panel` domains. Switches, lights, sirens, locks, covers, and alarm panels are controllable from Home Assistant; contact and measurement sensors are read-only.
* **A PTZ service**, `cameraui.ptz`, for continuous, stop, move, absolute, preset, and home actions.

On top of that, the integration registers its dashboard cards, embeds the full camera.ui web UI as a sidebar panel, and fires a `cameraui_event` on the HA event bus for every detection, with device triggers wired up for the automation editor. Setup can start from zeroconf: camera.ui advertises itself over mDNS, so host and port are pre-filled and you only enter an access token.

See **[Integration](/home-assistant/integration)** for the full setup.

## MQTT discovery

For setups that already run an MQTT broker. It needs no custom component and no HACS: the camera.ui server publishes retained discovery configs, and Home Assistant's built-in MQTT integration picks them up.

You turn it on in the camera.ui server's MQTT settings (enable HA discovery). You get status, motion, and object binary sensors, a snapshot camera image, and the same controllable sensor domains as the integration. What you do not get: a live stream (snapshot only), the PTZ service, the sidebar panel, the auto-registered cards, or the `cameraui_event` bus events. In return it adds a dedicated per-camera connectivity sensor.

MQTT discovery is documented with the rest of the broker settings on the [MQTT admin page](/admin/mqtt).

## Integration vs MQTT discovery

| | Integration | MQTT discovery |
|---|---|---|
| Needs an MQTT broker | No | Yes |
| Custom component / HACS | Required | Not needed |
| Live camera stream | Yes | Snapshot only |
| Motion & object sensors | Yes | Yes |
| Controllable sensors | Yes | Yes |
| PTZ service | Yes | No |
| Per-camera connectivity sensor | No separate one | Yes |
| Embedded web UI panel | Yes | No |
| Dashboard cards auto-registered | Yes | No |
| `cameraui_event` + device triggers | Yes | No |
| Discovery | zeroconf (mDNS) | over MQTT |

## Bringing Home Assistant sensors in

The integration and MQTT both send camera.ui out to Home Assistant. The **Home Assistant plugin** goes the other way: it imports Home Assistant's own sensors and controls into camera.ui, where you can assign them to cameras and use them as detection triggers. It does not clash with either transport.

See **[Import from Home Assistant](/home-assistant/import)** for setup.

## The dashboard cards

Three cards put a camera, a camview view or the recent events on your dashboards, and a click opens the camera.ui dialog with the timeline. The integration registers them.

See **[Dashboard cards](/home-assistant/card)** for the options.

## Next steps

* **[App](/home-assistant/app)** — run the camera.ui server inside Home Assistant OS.
* **[Integration](/home-assistant/integration)** — connect a camera.ui server and get cameras, sensors, and PTZ as HA entities.
* **[Dashboard cards](/home-assistant/card)** — put cameras, a view or recent events on your dashboard.
* **[Import from Home Assistant](/home-assistant/import)** — bring Home Assistant's own sensors and controls into camera.ui.