Home Assistant Stream Deck YAML 🎮

(See my intro post)

What started as a personal hack to control my home (temperature, lights, TV, music) with a gifted Stream Deck evolved into something bigger. This project became my first real exploration of AI-assisted development, showing me how much faster I could work with AI as a tool. With 250+ stars and 9 contributors adding significant features, it’s grown beyond my initial vision.

📖 Origin Story

While the Stream Deck’s official software is great for streamers, it doesn’t support Linux and its Home Assistant integration is not very programmable. After creating a simple solution using python-elgato-streamdeck, I realized others might be interested. Using AI as a development partner changed my workflow - it helped write tests, reviewed code, and generated use cases I hadn’t thought of. What really surprised me was asking AI to brainstorm example configurations - it generated over 30 creative use cases with complete code examples, which I then turned into unit tests. These tests now automatically generate the documentation using markdown-code-runner (from Day 5).

🔧 Technical Highlights

• YAML configuration with Jinja2 templating
• Supports all Stream Deck models, including the Plus with dials
• Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)
• 30+ example configurations (AI-generated, then human-refined)
• Documentation auto-generated from code and unit tests
• Available as a Home Assistant add-on
• Community-contributed features like touchscreen support and dial controls

💡 Lessons Learned

1. AI can significantly speed up development
2. Faster development enables broader project scope
3. Good examples make the best documentation
4. Tools building upon tools multiply productivity
5. Community contributions can take a project in exciting new directions

Want to control Home Assistant with a Stream Deck? Check out the project on GitHub!

#OpenSource #HomeAssistant #SmartHome #Python #AI