Add-ons for Home Assistant are essentially apps that run along side your Home Assistant application. There are a lot to choose from, each with their own benefits. Every time I set up a new server I make sure to install these three Add-ons before I do anything else.

Prerequisites

• Home Assistant Operating System – This is very important. The container installs do not have the Add-on store

Duck DNS

If you want to access your smart home remotely you need a signed certificate. In order to get a signed certificate you need to have a web address or URL. There are ways that you can purchase your own domain address and then have all of the certificates work through that, but there are free versions as well.

In comes duck dns. You will need to register a new domain on https://www.duckdns.org in order to have the Add-on connect to it. Once you have that set up then the Duck DNS add-on can handle the certificate.

The certificate is created with LetsEncrypt which is built in to the add-on and it handles all of the certificate updates and everything on its own.

This add-on should be the first add-on installed on a new Home Assistant server.

Studio Code Server

Studio code server is a program that allows you to write code directly inside of your home assistant setup. There are a handful of use cases, such as Restful sensors, that require you to write custom YAML to function. Without a built-in code server you would need to SSH into your server from a different computer and handle the headaches that come with that.

Setting up the server is very straightforward and it will allow access to all of the configuration files as well as any themes, automations, sensors, and extra files you can want or need.

Node-Red

I install Node-Red for automations. The Home Assistant server comes with its own automation builder that can handle most automations you could come up with. But sometimes you just want something more robust.

The expansiveness of Node-Red is what makes it shine. I’ve written about it in a previous post which I would suggest reading for a more in-depth review. Being able to build automations using blocks and flows is a lot of fun as well and definitely worth learning.

In Conclusion

Adding these three add-ons from the add-on store will supercharge your new server. You will have remote access so you can manipulate your smart home from anywhere in the world. You will also be able to build sensors and automations that can add new dimensions to any smart home system.

Bonus: Z-Wave JS

If you plan on having Z-Wave devices in your system I would recommend the Z-Wave JS Add-on. This add-on allows you to add Z-Wave devices into your system that communicate using JavaScript which makes reading and manipulating the services more user-friendly.