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 to install HACS on Home Assistant 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 on Home Assistant 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.

Installing HACS on Home Assistant Supervised

Since the command to install HACS on Home Assistant 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.

selecting the user account in home assistant.

2. Enable Advanced Mode in the account options.

enabling advanced mode in home assistant.

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

selecting settings in home assistant.

4. Select Add-ons.

selecting add-ons in home assistant.

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

selecting the add-on store.

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

searching and selecting the terminal and ssh package.

5. Select the Install option.

installing the terminal & ssh.

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.

ensuring that ssh starts at boot.

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

opening the web ui after the add-on is started.

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 -
getting the hacs package.

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

ha ha restart
restarting home assistant through terminal.

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

selecting devices and settings in home assistant.

11. In the bottom right, select Add Integration.

adding integration in home assistant.

12. Search for HACS and select it.

how to install hacs on home assistant - setting up a new integration with hacs.

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

specifying the hacs settings.

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

logging into github to authorize hacs.

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

entering the two-factor code.

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

authorizing hacs access.

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

rebooting home assistant.

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

selecting hacs in home assistant.

Installing HACS on Home Assistant (Non-Supervised Using Docker)

The option above looked at how to install HACS on Home Assistant using the 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 -
installing hacs in the docker home assistant volume.

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

unzipping the zip file of hacs.

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
rebooting the vm of docker.

5. Log in to Home Assistant.

logging in with the username and password of home assistant.

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

selecting devices and services in home assistant.

7. In the bottom right, select Add Integration.

selecting add integration in home assistant.

8. Search for HACS and select it.

searching for hacs in home assistant.

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

confirming the home assistant wsettings and submitting.

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

logging into github for authorization.

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

entering the two-factor authentication code.

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

authorizing hacs access.

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

sudo reboot now
rebooting the server hosting home assistant.

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

showing hacs is fully installed.

HACS 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.

HACS menu in Home Assistant.

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

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.

Thanks for checking out the tutorial on how to install HACS on Home Assistant! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments!

WunderTech

Frank is an IT professional with 13+ years experience and the creator of WunderTech. He focuses on sharing his experience with others on computer hardware, servers, software, networking, and self-hosted apps. He has a BS in Computer Information Systems and an MBA. Learn more about Frank in his bio.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Stu Megson

    Thank you for sharing, an up to date version. And this works well.
    Great job.
    We need more new up to date help files.

    1. WunderTech

      I’m glad that it helped, thanks for checking out the tutorial!!

  2. James

    Thanks for such a great writeup as always!

    For anyone running Home Assistant in a Docker on Synology, you may find the following steps useful as Synology use 7Zip instead of unzip, which will cause issues. These steps replace steps 1, 2 and 4 in the “How to Install HACS on Home Assistant – Docker” section.

    1. SSH into your Synology box then connect to the Docker container with the following command (replace homeassistant with the name of your Home Assistant container): sudo docker exec -it homeassistant bash

    2. Download HACS: wget -O – https://get.hacs.xyz | bash –

    3. Reboot the Home Assistant container: reboot now

    I hope that helps 🙂

    James

    1. WunderTech

      Awesome info, thank you very much for sharing!!

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