Home Assistant Command Palette

A PowerToys Command Palette extension that lets you search and control your Home Assistant entities from CmdPal.

Inspired by the Raycast Home Assistant extension by tonka3000.

Setup

1. In Home Assistant, go to Profile → Security → Long-Lived Access Tokens and create a token. Copy it somewhere safe; HA only shows it once.
2. Open PowerToys Command Palette, type Home Assistant, and open the extension's Settings page.
3. Set:
   • Home Assistant URL — e.g. http://homeassistant.local:8123
   • Long-Lived Access Token — paste from step 1
   • Ignore TLS certificate errors — only for self-signed certs on a LAN
   • Custom HTTP headers — optional, one Header: Value pair per line for proxies such as Cloudflare Access

Settings are stored at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\HomeAssistantCommandPalette\settings.json

Token storage

The Long-Lived Access Token is stored in plain text in that local settings.json file. This keeps setup simple and matches the current CmdPal settings toolkit, which does not provide a password/secret setting. The file is under %LOCALAPPDATA%, so it is scoped to the signed-in Windows user, but any process already running as that user could read it.

If your environment requires stronger at-rest protection, create a dedicated HA token with only the access you are comfortable exposing, rotate it regularly, and delete the token from the extension settings when you stop using it. Custom HTTP header values are stored in the same file and have the same trust boundary. Moving the token to Windows Credential Manager remains a possible future hardening step, but the current project decision is to keep the token in local settings and document the trade-off clearly.

How it works

• GET {url}/api/states is called every time the list is opened (with a 3-second cache to keep typing snappy).

• The default action calls POST {url}/api/services/{domain}/{service} with {"entity_id": "..."} based on the domain:

  Domain	Default action
  light, switch, fan, input_boolean, automation, group, cover, media_player	toggle
  scene	turn_on
  script	turn_on
  button, input_button	press
  other	open in dashboard

Requirements

• Windows 10 2004+ or Windows 11
• Microsoft PowerToys with Command Palette support
• Home Assistant 2024.04+ (any modern version exposes the REST API used)

Project structure

HomeAssistantCommandPalette/
├─ Commands/              # CallServiceCommand, OpenDashboardCommand
├─ Models/                # HaEntity, HaQueryResult
├─ Pages/                 # EntityListPage (filters by domain set)
├─ Services/              # HaSettings (JsonSettingsManager), HaApiClient (REST)
└─ Assets/                # HA-branded MSIX icons

The provider in HomeAssistantCommandPaletteCommandsProvider.cs declares the per-domain top-level commands as DomainPage records — add a new line there to expose another domain.

Notes

• The starter icons under Assets/ are placeholders copied from the SSMS extension. Replace them with Home Assistant–themed art before publishing.
• Package.appxmanifest declares internetClient and privateNetworkClientServer capabilities — required for HTTP calls to the HA instance.
• See Token storage for the current settings.json vs. Windows Credential Manager decision and threat model.

Privacy

No analytics, no telemetry. The extension only talks to the Home Assistant URL you configure. Full policy: https://s-nissen.dk/privacy/homeassistant-command-palette.html.

Roadmap

Open work is tracked in GitHub Issues. Phase 1 (minimum viable) and most of Phase 2 (per-domain actions) are shipped; remaining items cover Phase 3 (notifications, weather forecast, history charts, multi-instance, etc.) and pre-publish polish.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Disclaimer

Independent extension for Microsoft PowerToys; not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, Nabu Casa, or the Home Assistant project.