switchbot-mqtt

SwitchBot MQTT client

MQTT client controlling SwitchBot button automators and curtain motors

Compatible with Home Assistant's MQTT Switch and MQTT Cover platform.

Setup

$ pip3 install --user --upgrade switchbot-mqtt

Usage

$ switchbot-mqtt --mqtt-host HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS

Use sudo hcitool lescan or select device settings > 3 dots on top right in SwitchBot app to determine your SwitchBot's mac address.

Button Automator

Send ON or OFF to topic homeassistant/switch/switchbot/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff/set.

$ mosquitto_pub -h MQTT_BROKER -t homeassistant/switch/switchbot/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff/set -m ON

Curtain Motor

Send OPEN, CLOSE, or STOP to topic homeassistant/cover/switchbot-curtain/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff/set.

$ mosquitto_pub -h MQTT_BROKER -t homeassistant/cover/switchbot-curtain/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff/set -m CLOSE

The command-line option --fetch-device-info enables position reports on topic homeassistant/cover/switchbot-curtain/MAC_ADDRESS/position after STOP commands.

Device Passwords

In case some of your Switchbot devices are password-protected, create a JSON file mapping MAC addresses to passwords and provide its path via the --device-password-file option:

{
  "11:22:33:44:55:66": "password",
  "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff": "secret",
  "00:00:00:0f:f1:ce": "random string"
}

$ switchbot-mqtt --device-password-file /some/where/switchbot-passwords.json …

MQTT Authentication

switchbot-mqtt --mqtt-username me --mqtt-password secret …
# or
switchbot-mqtt --mqtt-username me --mqtt-password-file /var/lib/secrets/mqtt/password …

⚠️ --mqtt-password leaks the password to other users on the same machine, if /proc is mounted with hidepid=0 (default).

Home Assistant 🏡

Rationale

Why not use the official SwitchBot integration?

I prefer not to share the host's network stack with home assistant (more complicated network setup and additional netfilter rules required for isolation).

Sadly, docker run --network host even requires --userns host:

docker: Error response from daemon: cannot share the host's network namespace when user namespaces are enabled.

The docker image built from this repository works around this limitation by explicitly running as an unprivileged user.

The official home assistant image runs as root. This imposes an unnecessary security risk, especially when disabling user namespace remapping (--userns host). See https://github.com/fphammerle/docker-home-assistant for an alternative.

Setup

# https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/mqtt/broker/#configuration-variables
mqtt:
  broker: BROKER_HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS
  # credentials, additional options…

# https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/switch.mqtt/#configuration-variables
switch:
- platform: mqtt
  name: switchbot_button
  command_topic: homeassistant/switch/switchbot/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff/set
  state_topic: homeassistant/switch/switchbot/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff/state
  # http://materialdesignicons.com/
  icon: mdi:light-switch

cover:
- platform: mqtt
  name: switchbot_curtains
  command_topic: homeassistant/cover/switchbot-curtain/11:22:33:44:55:66/set
  state_topic: homeassistant/cover/switchbot-curtain/11:22:33:44:55:66/state

Docker 🐳

Pre-built docker images are available at https://hub.docker.com/r/fphammerle/switchbot-mqtt/tags

Annotation of signed tags docker/* contains docker image digests: https://github.com/fphammerle/switchbot-mqtt/tags

$ docker build -t switchbot-mqtt .
$ docker run --name spelunca_switchbot \
    --userns host --network host \
    switchbot-mqtt:latest \
    switchbot-mqtt --mqtt-host HOSTNAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS

Alternatively, you can use docker-compose:

version: '3.8'

services:
  switchbot-mqtt:
    image: switchbot-mqtt
    container_name: switchbot-mqtt
    network_mode: host
    userns_mode: host
    environment:
    - MQTT_HOST=localhost
    - MQTT_PORT=1883
    #- MQTT_USERNAME=username
    #- MQTT_PASSWORD=password
    restart: unless-stopped

Alternatives

• https://github.com/binsentsu/switchbot-ctrl
• https://github.com/OpenWonderLabs/python-host/blob/master/switchbot_py3.py
• https://gist.github.com/aerialist/163a5794e95ccd28dc023161324009ed
• https://gist.github.com/mugifly/a29f34df7de8960d72245fcb124513c7