While the built in automations designer in Home Assistant is great, Node-Red makes building automations much more intuitive. There is a slight learning curve to the software but getting past that opens up a world of possiblity.
Installing Node-Red
If you have installed the Home Assistant in a container you will need to create a new container for Node-Red and link them together. If you installed Home Assistant OS, you have access to the Add-ons store where you can install Node-Red with ease.
- Go to the Settings Tab
- Click on the Add-ons link
3. In the bottom right corner you will see a link to the Add-on Store
4. In the community Add-ons you will find Node-Red
5. After you select Node-Red press “Install” to have the Add-on installed on your server.
6. There is a tab at the top of the page labeled “Documentation” which will walk you through the install.
7. Move over to the “Configuration” tab and input a Secret Credential. This can be anything you want but keep it secret.
8. Heading back over to the “Info” tab you will have some options you can set before you start the Add-on. There are descriptions for each toggle, but I like to always set “Start on Boot” and “Show in Sidebar” at a minimum. This means Node-Red will start any time the server boots up and then it will be easily accessible in the sidebar to get to it quickly.
9. Press Start and give it a minute to start up.
10. Now you can head over to the sidebar where there should be a new link for Node-Red. Any errors with startup will be on the “Log” tab.
And there you have it! This is the default screen for creating all of your new automation flows!