Local-first smart home: running automations on a LAN with MQTT, Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant

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After a six-hour internet outage left a smart switch unresponsive even though it sat close to the router, the author set out to build a smart home that keeps working without the internet. Cloud-dependent Wi-Fi devices suffer from added latency, risk becoming useless when vendors shut down or discontinue products, and maintain constant outbound connections with firmware users cannot control. The proposed architecture places a local Mosquitto MQTT broker at the center, with Zigbee devices routed through Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant running on a small Linux machine such as a Raspberry Pi 4 or mini PC. Internet access is optional and limited to remote control over a VPN like WireGuard or Tailscale. The guide also shares practical tips, including referencing USB devices by stable serial IDs, enabling authentication in Mosquitto 2.x, pinning software versions to avoid breaking changes, and reflashing compatible ESP-based Wi-Fi devices to point at the local broker.

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