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Installation

HaCasa Nova needs Home Assistant 2024.4 or newer. It ships as one file, hacasa-nova.js, that you can use in two ways:

  • as a sidebar panel (recommended): its own entry in the sidebar, full screen, with clean URLs per room;
  • as a dashboard card: no YAML at all, the panel lives inside a dashboard view.

Both use the same settings, so you can switch later.

1. Download

  1. Open HACS in Home Assistant.
  2. Open the menu (⋮, top right) and choose Custom repositories.
  3. Add https://github.com/damianeickhoff/HaCasa with type Dashboard.
  4. Search for HaCasa Nova, open it and choose Download.
  5. Reload the browser when HACS asks.

HACS installs the file at /config/www/community/HaCasa/hacasa-nova.js, which Home Assistant serves as /hacsfiles/HaCasa/hacasa-nova.js. HACS also adds it as a dashboard resource.

  1. Download hacasa-nova.js from the latest release.
  2. Copy it to /config/www/hacasa-nova/hacasa-nova.js.
  3. Its URL is /local/hacasa-nova/hacasa-nova.js. Use that instead of the /hacsfiles/… URL below.
  4. For the card variant, add it as a resource yourself: Settings → Dashboards → ⋮ → Resources → Add resource, type JavaScript module.

2a. Sidebar panel

Add this to configuration.yaml and restart Home Assistant:

frontend:
  extra_module_url:
    - /hacsfiles/HaCasa/hacasa-nova.js   # loads the HaCasa logo icon for the sidebar

panel_custom:
  - name: hacasa-nova
    url_path: hacasa
    sidebar_title: HaCasa
    sidebar_icon: hacasa:logo
    module_url: /hacsfiles/HaCasa/hacasa-nova.js
key value
name must be hacasa-nova (the element the file registers)
url_path the address: http://homeassistant.local:8123/hacasa
sidebar_title whatever you like
sidebar_icon hacasa:logo for the HaCasa logo, or any mdi: icon
require_admin optional, true hides it from non-admin users

The logo icon and extra_module_url

hacasa:logo is an icon that HaCasa Nova registers itself. extra_module_url loads the file when Home Assistant starts, so the icon is there before you open the panel. Already have a frontend: section (for themes, for example)? Add extra_module_url to it rather than adding a second frontend:. Without it the panel works fine; use an mdi: icon for sidebar_icon then.

The icon works anywhere Home Assistant takes an icon, for example icon: hacasa:logo on your own cards.

Make it the start page

In the panel go to More → HaCasa settings → General → HA start page to open Home Assistant on HaCasa Nova (per user). See Best experience for that, hiding the sidebar and wall tablets.

2b. Dashboard card

  1. Settings → Dashboards → Add dashboard → New dashboard from scratch and open it.
  2. Click the pencil, open the view settings and set View type to Panel (single card).
  3. Add a card and pick HaCasa Nova, or use the YAML editor:
type: custom:hacasa-nova-card

Inside a card the rooms are routed through the URL hash (/dashboard-home/0#/kitchen), so the dashboard URL itself never changes.

Panel view only

The card fills the whole view. In a masonry or sections view it does not have room to work.

Optionally give the card a starting configuration. It is shared by all users, and each user can still change things in the panel settings:

type: custom:hacasa-nova-card
config:
  title: Home.
  rooms: [living_room, kitchen, bedroom]

3. Open it

Open the panel and the setup wizard starts. Then add room photos and you are done.

Updating

When a new version is out, administrators see a line in the notification row on the home page: HaCasa Nova 3.x.x · update available. Tap it to open Home Assistant's update dialog with the changelog (all release notes since your version) and an Install button. The same dialog is under Settings → System → Updates → HaCasa Nova. After installing, reload the browser.

Your settings are stored in Home Assistant, not in the file, so updates never touch them.

Note

The notice comes from the update entity HACS creates (update.hacasa_nova_update). Installed without HACS? Then the panel asks GitHub for the latest release, at most twice a day. Turn the notice off under More → HaCasa settings → General → Check for updates.