// the find
smartHomeHub/SmartIR
Home Assistant integration to manage climate systems, TVs, fans and lights using IR/RF controllers. Compatible with Broadlink, Xiaomi, MQTT, LOOKin and ESPHome
SmartIR is a Home Assistant custom component that lets you control IR/RF devices — AC units, TVs, fans, lights — through Broadlink, Xiaomi, ESPHome, MQTT, and LOOKin hardware. The real value is the community-built IR code library: hundreds of JSON files covering specific device models so you don't have to capture your own codes. It's for HA users with dumb IR-controlled appliances they want to automate.
The IR code database is genuinely useful — 300+ climate device files alone, each keyed to specific models, saves hours of code capture. Supporting five different controller backends (Broadlink, Xiaomi, ESPHome, MQTT, LOOKin) means it works with whatever IR blaster you already own. The HACS integration path makes installation straightforward for the HA ecosystem. ESPHome support via user-defined services is a smart choice — it lets you run this on dirt-cheap ESP32 hardware you already have flashed.
The update mechanism is self-rolled and pulls directly from GitHub on HA startup — that's a supply-chain risk and a fragile design that breaks if the repo moves or GitHub is slow. The code JSON files have no validation schema enforced by CI, so community contributions can and do ship malformed or untested entries. Light support has only 4 device files, making that platform close to useless in practice. There's no way to know if a given IR code file actually works for your specific hardware revision — the numbering scheme is opaque and there's no community rating or verification status on individual files.