How to Install HACS on Home Assistant

Today we’re going to take a look at how to install HACS on Home Assistant. HACS stands for Home Assistant Community Store and is a tool that allows you to customize Home Assistant by downloading different integrations and themes.

Following this process will allow you to create a fully customized dashboard with one of the many different Home Assistant themes that currently exist, as well as customize Home Assistant in other ways too.

The process of installing HACS is slightly different using the OS/Supervised version rather than the Docker container, but we’ll take a look at both options below. Fortunately, you only really need to run one command which will download all of the necessary files.

If you’d like to know how to install HACS using Docker, please scroll down to the second heading.

How to Install HACS on Home Assistant

There are two ways to install HACS and it depends on if you’re using HASS.IO (Home Assistant Supervised) or if you’re using Docker to run Home Assistant. This will go over how to install HACS using the supervised version, but skip down to view the Docker version instructions.

Supervised Version of Home Assistant Installation

Since the command to install HACS has to be run from the terminal to install HACS, we need to install the Terminal & SSH add-on. However, we need to actually enable the option first (it will be hidden in the add-on store by default).

1. Select your User Account in the bottom left.

2. Enable Advanced Mode in the account options.

3. Now that Advanced Mode is enabled, we can install the Terminal & SSH application. Select Settings in the bottom left.

4. Select Add-ons.

3. In the bottom right, select Add-On Store.

4. Search for Terminal & SSH, then select the Official add-on.

5. Select the Install option.

6. When it’s done installing, select Start in the bottom left. You can also enable any of the other options that you’d like.

7. After it’s started, select Open Web UI in the bottom right.

8. Paste the command below in the terminal window by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + V. If you have trouble pasting it in, type the command into the terminal window and press enter.

wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -

9. HACS will be downloaded. When it’s done downloading, run the command below to restart Home Assistant.

ha ha restart

10. After Home Assistant connects, select Settings, then Devices & Services.

11. In the bottom right, select Add Integration.

12. Search for HACS and select it.

13. If you agree with everything, select all options and then Submit.

14. Copy the code that Home Assistant provides and then select the link to sign into GitHub.

15. Sign in to GitHub, then paste in the code from the previous step.

16. If you’d like to proceed, select Authorize HACS.

17. HACS is now installed! It’s best to reboot now by selecting Settings > System > Hardware > Reboot Host (top right corner).

18. After Home Assistant loads back up, HACS will be fully installed and ready to use!

Docker (Non-Supervised Home Assistant) Installation

The option above looked at the installation process on an OS/Supervised version, however, you can easily install it on Docker as well.

The main difference is that instead of installing the Terminal & SSH application, you’ll have to access the terminal on your Docker host and navigate to the folder location where the /config volume is mounted. In the example below, it’s mounted in the /home/frank/docker/home-assistant directory.

1. SSH into your Docker host and navigate to the folder location where you have the Home Assistant /config volume.

2. Run the command below.

wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -

3. The files will now be downloaded and put into the directory where your Home Assistant volume is mapped.

4. Reboot your Docker host. Please keep in mind that any containers running on this machine will temporarily stop during the reboot.

sudo reboot now

5. Log in to Home Assistant.

6. After Home Assistant connects, select Settings, then Devices & Services.

7. In the bottom right, select Add Integration.

8. Search for HACS and select it.

9. If you agree with everything, select all options and then Submit.

10. Copy the code that Home Assistant provides and then select the link to sign into GitHub.

11. Sign in to GitHub, and then paste in the code from the previous step.

12. If you’d like to proceed, select Authorize HACS.

13. HACS is now installed! It’s best to reboot your Docker host at this point.

sudo reboot now

14. After Home Assistant loads back up, HACS will be fully configured and ready to use!

Custom Integrations, Themes, and More

The power of HACS is unleashed when using custom integrations, themes, etc. The setup process below will explain how to install custom integrations and themes in HACS.

1. Select HACS on the left side, then select Integrations or Frontend. The Integrations section is where you can download custom integrations (like Blue Iris, for example), and the Frontend section is where you can download new themes.

2. Select Explore & Download Repositories, then search for the HACS item you’re looking for. This section is where you can search for HACS packages and download/install them – just make sure you select the correct section first (integrations or frontend).

3. To restart Home Assistant (after the download finishes), select Developer Tools, then Restart. As soon as you restart, you should be running the new HACS package!

Conclusion & Final Thoughts on Installing HACS

This tutorial looked at how to install HACS on Home Assistant. HACS is incredibly powerful and gives you loads of different options for customizing Home Assistant. In general, most people who use Home Assistant want to run HACS, and it’s easy to set it up on the Supervised/Docker versions.

Just keep in mind that installing HACS still requires you to go in and install things inside of HACS, but there’s tons of great information online on how to do that.