HomeCore

HomeCore is a fast, local-first home automation platform written in Rust. It runs entirely on your hardware — no cloud accounts, no internet dependency, no subscription fees.

What it emphasises

• Rust, async first. Built on Tokio for true concurrent I/O across devices.
• MQTT as the universal fabric. Plugins publish device state over MQTT topics; HomeCore publishes commands the same way. No hardwired transports.
• Embedded MQTT broker (rumqttd). Ships in the binary — no external broker needed for a basic install.
• Rules as data. Automations are RON files, hot-reloaded at runtime. Create, edit, and delete them via the API.
• Fully local. Solar calculations use local lat/lon. All automation logic runs offline. No cloud accounts, no subscription fees.

Architecture at a glance

Physical devices (Zigbee, Z-Wave, WiFi, cloud APIs)
    ↕ MQTT
Embedded MQTT broker (rumqttd — no separate process)
    ↕ rumqttc client
HomeCore kernel
  ├── State bridge     — MQTT → typed events
  ├── Rule engine      — triggers / conditions / actions
  ├── Scheduler        — time, solar, cron
  ├── Mode manager     — named boolean modes + solar modes
  ├── Timer manager    — countdown timer virtual devices
  ├── Switch manager   — virtual on/off flag devices
  └── REST + WS API    — everything over HTTP/WebSocket
Plugins (separate processes, any language)
  ├── hc-hue, hc-yolink, hc-lutron, hc-sonos
  ├── hc-zwave, hc-wled, hc-isy
  └── Your plugin (Rust/Python/Node/.NET SDK)

Key design principles

1. MQTT as the device fabric — every device communicates via MQTT topics. Plugins publish state; HomeCore publishes commands. Nothing is hardwired.
2. Rules are data — automations are RON files hot-reloaded at runtime. Create, edit, and delete rules through the API with no restart.
3. API-first — every operation is available over REST or WebSocket. The web UI is just another API consumer.
4. No cloud dependency — solar calculations use local lat/lon config. All automation logic runs offline.
5. Side-effect-free conditions — rule conditions only read state. Dry-run and test mode work because conditions never have side effects.
6. Plugin isolation at the MQTT layer — each plugin has its own credential + declared ACL patterns in [[broker.clients]]. The embedded rumqttd enforces CONNECT authn; for real per-topic enforcement (containers, third-party plugins, compliance), deploy against an external Mosquitto broker. See the broker deployment guide.

License

All HomeCore repositories are dual-licensed under MIT and Apache-2.0. You may use either license at your option.

Quick navigation

I want to…	Go to
Install and run for the first time	Installation
Get something working in 5 minutes	Quick Start
Understand the full config file	Configuration
Write my first automation rule	Rules Overview
Connect a specific device	Plugins
Add HomeCore to Docker	Docker
Build a plugin	Plugin Development
Contribute to the core	Dev Workflow