Sanboxed Python Apps for home automation
AppDaemon is a loosely coupled, multi-threaded, sandboxed python execution environment for writing automation apps for various types of Home Automation Software including Home Assistant and MQTT. It has a pluggable architecture allowing it to be integrated with practically any event driven application. It also provides a configurable dashboard (HADashboard) suitable for wall mounted tablets.
AppDaemon integrates natively with Home Assistant, in fact it was designed to work with it. AppDaemon takes automations in Home Assisten to the next level!
AppDaemon also natively integrates with MQTT which opens up a host of possibilities for home automation.
AppDaemon listens for events and takes actions, all under the control of python classes or apps. It sounds simple but it's very powerful!
An app is a fragment of Python code, specifically a Python class capable of integrating with your home automation system. It can monitor triggers or events and respond accordingly. Due to their Python-based nature, apps possess all of the capabilities of Python. While some automation tasks cannot be implemented using straightforward YAML-based rules, apps provide the necessary power to accomplish any task that Python can undertake.
AppDaemmon seamlessly handles the lifecycle of apps, allowing them to be created or destroyed ont the fly without restarting AppDaemon. Edited apps are automatically reloaded and immediately start doing their job.
AppDaemon features a comprehensive scheduler with microsecond resolution. You can set callbacks to run at specified times in the future, to repeat forever, to work on absolute times or times relative to sunrise and sunset. The scheduler can even randomise it's callback times - great for occupancy simulation apps.
One of the most important jobs of an app is to sit and wait until something happens. That event could be anything from a light being switched on to a sensor reporting a temperature, to someone arrving home. When an event is detected, you have the option to respond in any way supported by python. Events can also be filtered so that apps only hear what they need to.
Specific events can require responses back into one of the supported environments, MQTT or Home Assistant. A good example of this might be when we respond to a motion event. We can do some checks, maybe figure out of it's dark outside, and if so, call back to Home Assistant to trun on one of our lights. We can then set the scheduler to let us know when 5 minutes has passed so we can signal again to turn the light off.