vome-automation: an automation pane for Claude Code

A side pane in Claude Code that shows the Home Assistant automation Claude is working on, kept up to date as Claude reads it, edits it and runs it.

Quickstart

1. Add the Vome app to Home Assistant, then get a key from it. No sign-up needed.

The button opens your own Home Assistant and adds the app's repository. Pick Vome and Install, open it, and on the Agent tab create a key. A home hosted on Vome gets its key at vome.io instead, under Account → API tokens.

2. Paste these into Claude Code, in a terminal (version 2.1.275 or newer):

/plugin install vome-connect --marketplace Vortitron/home-assistant-mcp

It asks for the key from step 1. Then:

/plugin install vome-automation --marketplace Vortitron/home-assistant-mcp
/reload-plugins

Or all four Vome panes at once (automations, ESPHome, health and a working dashboard): /plugin install vome-panes --marketplace Vortitron/home-assistant-mcp.

3. Ask Claude about an automation, for example "Why didn't my hallway lights turn off?". The pane opens beside the conversation.

In auto mode, the pane asks you to allow its read-only tools the first time; it shows the exact lines and where they go.

What it shows

• The automation as Home Assistant's editor nests it. Triggers, conditions and actions, with choose, if/then/else, repeat and parallel blocks indented the way the editor shows them.
• What a save changed. After Claude saves, each line is marked + added, ~ changed or − removed, and the changed lines light up for a few seconds. Steps are matched by what they do, so inserting one marks that one alone, and a step that moved shows as changed.
• What the latest run did. Each step is marked ● ran, ✗ evaluated false (or errored) or ○ not reached, so "why didn't it fire?" is answered at a glance. Whenever Claude reads, refreshes or saves an automation, the pane watches for its runs for the next 30 minutes and tells you when one happens.
• A car-stereo dot-matrix display. When something happens, it is acted out for a few seconds: a bulb glides in and lights when a run turns a light on, a fan spins up, a blind opens, a lock snaps shut. A condition that stopped the run flickers and stays dark, an error pops, and a save screws a new bulb in. While Claude is working on an automation, bulbs swim across the display like the dolphins did. Press b to turn it off.

The pane only reads. It never changes anything in your home itself; every change is Claude's own tool call, which you see and approve as usual.

Connect Home Assistant first

The pane follows Claude's work through the Home Assistant MCP server, @vortitron/home-assistant-mcp. Connect that to Claude Code before (or after) installing the pane; until it is connected, the pane says so and shows these two ways in:

• Through Vome (one key, nothing to run): get a key from the Vome app's Agent tab in Home Assistant (no sign-up needed; add the app to your Home Assistant) or, for a home hosted on Vome, from vome.io under Account → API tokens. Then install vome-connect, which asks for the key:

  /plugin install vome-connect --marketplace Vortitron/home-assistant-mcp
  

• Without Vome: run the MCP on your machine with npx, pointed at your Home Assistant's address and a long-lived access token. See Install in the MCP's README.

Check it's connected with /mcp; the pane picks it up by itself.

What it needs

• @vortitron/home-assistant-mcp connected to Claude Code. Any setup works: a home hosted on Vome, one linked through the Vome relay, or your own Home Assistant via HA_URL and a token. The server can have any name; the pane follows our tools whatever it is called. Other Home Assistant MCP servers are not supported; their tools and replies differ.
• Claude Code 2.1.287 or newer, in a terminal. The pane is drawn in the terminal. The VS Code and Cursor extensions don't show plugin panes yet, so run claude in a terminal there.
• Plugins of function hooks enabled for you. Panes like this one are an early-access Claude Code feature, being rolled out gradually. If yours doesn't have it yet, the plugin installs but doesn't load; nothing else is affected.

Install

In Claude Code (2.1.275 or newer), one command adds the marketplace and installs the pane:

/plugin install vome-automation --marketplace Vortitron/home-assistant-mcp

On an older Claude Code, use two:

/plugin marketplace add Vortitron/home-assistant-mcp
/plugin install vome-automation@vome

Then run /reload-plugins, or restart Claude Code.

Get updates

Claude Code doesn't update plugins from a marketplace like this one unless you ask it to. Turn it on once: run /plugin, open Marketplaces, select vome and choose Enable auto-update. Or update by hand with claude plugin update vome-automation@vome.

Allow the pane's reads (auto mode)

The pane reads the latest run of the automation in the background, and checks every 15 seconds for new ones while it watches. In auto mode, Claude Code's safety check refuses background calls like these, because no request of yours is behind them, and run marks and "it ran" notices would be missing.

Allow the read-only tools it uses, under your server's name. Find the name with claude mcp list: the Vome portal's snippet calls it vome, and vome-connect calls it plugin_vome-connect_vome (so mcp__plugin_vome-connect_vome__ha_get_trace). Add them to ~/.claude/settings.json (every project) or the project's .claude/settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__vome__ha_get_automation",
      "mcp__vome__ha_get_trace",
      "mcp__vome__ha_list_traces",
      "mcp__vome__ha_list_automations",
      "mcp__vome__vomehome_get_instance"
    ]
  }
}

If you skip this, the pane turns into a "needs permission" screen the first time a read is refused. It names the read, shows these exact lines for your server with a button to copy them, links your settings.json, and quotes what Claude Code said. d dismisses it and h brings it back.

Replace vome with your server's name, for example mcp__home-assistant__ha_get_trace for a server named home-assistant. The last line is only for homes on Vome: it lets the pane show an "Open in Home Assistant" link. You can also add each one with /permissions → Allow.

These tools only read: an automation's config and its recorded runs. Allowing them also lets Claude call them without asking, which it would mostly do anyway.

Using it

The pane opens on its own the first time Claude reads or saves an automation through the MCP. On a narrow terminal (under 144 columns) it waits; open it with /automation.

| | | | --- | --- | | /automation | open the pane; with nothing shown yet, list the home's automations to pick from | | /automation list | list the home's automations to pick from | | /automation <id> | show an automation by its id or automation. entity id | | r | refresh the automation and its latest run | | o | pick another automation from the list | | w | stop watching for runs, or start again (30 minutes) | | b | the dot-matrix display off or on (remembered) |

The keys work while the pane has focus: click it, or press ctrl+x then tab.

Troubleshooting

• No pane at all. Check you're in a terminal, not the VS Code or Cursor extension. /automation says where it is being drawn; "no surface is attached to draw it" means an editor extension. If /automation is an unknown command, the plugin didn't load: plugins of function hooks aren't enabled for you yet.
• "No run shown yet" and a line about the classifier. See Allow the pane's reads.
• "Vome now points at a different home". The MCP was switched to another home (vomehome_use_instance) while the pane showed an automation from the first. The pane stops rather than mixing two homes up; ask Claude to read the automation again.
• No dot-matrix display. It draws only in the terminal, and only while something happens or Claude is working on an automation. If you turned it off, press b.

Privacy

The pane talks only to your own MCP server, with the same connection Claude Code already has, and only to read. It keeps what it shows in the Claude Code session; the only thing stored between sessions is whether you turned the display off. Nothing is sent anywhere else.

Development

The hooks module is hooks/register.tsx. hooks/flow.ts turns an automation and a run into the pane's rows, and hooks/bulbs.ts draws the display; both are pure. Load a checkout with claude --plugin-dir claude-plugin/vome-automation (saving a file reloads it), and run the tests with claude plugin test claude-plugin/vome-automation. claude plugin validate checks the plugin and the marketplace at the repository root.