Home Assistant Presence Plugin
Overview
A personal Home Assistant plugin designed to detect real-time room occupancy from entry and exit sensor data.
Problem
Smart lighting often needs reliable room-level occupancy information, but raw sensor events can be too low-level to use directly.
My Role
I designed and implemented the automation approach, including event-driven logic, Python scripts, and RESTful API integration.
Tools
- Home Assistant
- Python
- RESTful APIs
- Entry and exit sensor data
Process
- Mapped entry and exit sensor events to room occupancy states.
- Created event-driven logic for updating presence information.
- Connected the occupancy state to smart lighting automation.
Challenges
The main challenge was interpreting sensor events accurately enough to avoid incorrect occupancy states.
Outcome
The plugin demonstrated a practical path toward responsive lighting that reacts to room presence instead of manual input alone.
Reflection
This project connected software design with physical spaces, which made the value of event-driven architecture easier to see.