HearthNodes is a recipe library for home automation that keeps its control loop on your own network. Every entry on this site is a complete automation: what wakes it up, what has to be true before it runs, what it does, which hardware it assumes, and the exact YAML you can paste into a local hub. There is no app to install and no account to create here — the site is a reference, and the automation runs on your hardware.
How a recipe is put together
A recipe is written as six blocks, in this order, and nothing is published without all six:
- Trigger — the single sensor event that starts the run. One recipe, one trigger source, so a failure is always traceable to one device family.
- Condition tree — the nested
and/orgroups that must hold. Conditions are where most published automations go wrong, so they are drawn as a tree you can expand rather than buried in prose. - Actions — the ordered commands, with the target entity and the exact service call.
- Hardware — the models the recipe assumes, the radio each one speaks, whether the link is wired or wireless, and the role each device plays in the chain.
- YAML — the full payload, shown on the first screen of every recipe, in a dialect that speaks to most local hubs.
- When it fails — the fallback path. Every recipe has a defined behaviour for a dead sensor, a lost radio, or a hub restart, because a silent failure in a heating or water automation is worse than no automation.
Latency and power figures
The millisecond figure on each recipe is the observed trigger-to-action latency on a quiet local network, not a manufacturer's specification. It is there so you can tell which chains are safe for a hallway light and which are only safe for a slow thermal load. The power figure describes how the sensing hardware is powered, since that decides whether a chain survives a mains outage.
Why recipes are released a few at a time
The library is published on a schedule rather than all at once. A recipe is only added to the list, the topology map, the sitemap and the search index once its publication date has passed, so the site grows steadily instead of appearing as a bulk dump. If a link you saved returns a not-found page, the recipe has probably not been released yet; the topology map on the homepage always shows exactly what is live.
Editorial independence
Nothing on this site is sponsored, and no hardware link is an affiliate link. Models are named because a recipe is not reproducible without them. Where a cheaper device is a bad idea — cheap dimmer drivers that cannot hold a low level, mains relays without a neutral wire requirement check — the recipe says so.
Not professional advice
These recipes switch mains electricity, water valves and physical locks. They are informational. Local electrical and plumbing codes, fusing, isolation and RCD requirements, and the testing of every fail-safe are your responsibility, and a licensed electrician or plumber should be involved wherever the law requires one.
Questions, corrections, or a recipe that behaved badly in a real house: write to [email protected].