Key concepts
These terms describe the Home Assistant web interface unless noted otherwise. The native iOS app can also use Apple Home directly.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Room | A space in your home. In the web interface it is usually created from a Home Assistant Area; with Apple Home it comes from your HomeKit home. It has a picture, devices and scenes. |
| Device | A Home Assistant entity that Hauser shows in a room, for example a light, a thermostat or a window contact. |
| Stage | The large room picture on the panel. It changes with daylight, weather and the lights in the room. |
| Control surface | The panel area with the room’s scenes and devices. It sits next to the stage and can be swiped away. |
| Room picture | The illustration of a room. Hauser ships default pictures. You can upload your own or let the room-image wizard draw one from a photo. |
| Standby | The resting screen: clock, date, the week, notes and the shopping list. A tap opens the home screen. |
| Edit mode / Use mode | Edit mode allows configuration through long presses. Use mode locks configuration away but keeps every control working. |
| Household configuration | The JSON file Hauser writes during setup. It holds rooms, devices, modules and sensors. See Household configuration. |
| Module | A part of the interface you can switch on or off: Home, Energy, Calendar, Notes, Media, Library, Documents. |
| Hauser server | The small Node.js server that serves the app, keeps the configuration and talks to services on your behalf. |
| Home Assistant App | Hauser packaged as a Home Assistant add-on. It talks to Home Assistant through the Supervisor. |
| Wizard | The guided setup that runs on first start. It discovers rooms and devices from Home Assistant. |
How Hauser talks to Home Assistant
Section titled “How Hauser talks to Home Assistant”There are two modes. Hauser picks one per installation, you never choose it by hand.
- Supervisor mode (Home Assistant App): only the Hauser server talks to Home Assistant. The browser never sees a token.
- Direct mode (Docker Compose): the browser connects to the Home Assistant address you typed in the wizard, with a long-lived access token.
Details are in Home Assistant integration.