homeclaw

HomeClaw

Control your Apple HomeKit smart home from AI assistants, the terminal, and automation tools.

HomeClaw exposes your HomeKit accessories through a command-line tool, a stdio MCP server, and plugins for Claude Code and OpenClaw. It runs as a lightweight macOS menu bar app.

Screenshots

Settings — every preference in one place

CLI — every accessory, one command away

Terminal UI — for power users

Why HomeClaw?

Apple HomeKit has no public API, no CLI, and no way to integrate with AI assistants or automation pipelines. HomeClaw bridges that gap with a Mac Catalyst app that talks to HomeKit on your behalf and exposes a clean API surface.

• Ask Claude or OpenClaw to "turn off all the lights" or "set the thermostat to 72"
• Script your smart home from the terminal
• Build automations that go beyond what the Home app offers
• Search and control devices by name, room, category, or semantic type

Architecture

Claude Code --> Plugin (.claude-plugin/) --> stdio MCP server (Node.js) --+
Claude Desktop --> stdio MCP server (Node.js) ----------------------------+
OpenClaw --> Plugin (openclaw/) --> homeclaw-cli --------------------------+
                                                                          v
                                               Unix socket (JSON newline-delimited)
                                                                          |
                                               HomeClaw (Mac Catalyst app)
                                                 +-- HomeKitManager (direct, in-process)
                                                 +-- SocketServer (for CLI/MCP clients)
                                                 +-- macOSBridge.bundle (NSStatusItem menu bar)

Single-process design. Apple's HMHomeManager requires a UIKit/Catalyst app with the HomeKit entitlement. By making the entire app Catalyst, HomeKit access is direct (no IPC), signing is unified (single archive), and App Store submission is clean. The macOSBridge plugin bundle provides the native macOS menu bar via NSStatusItem.

Install

Marketing site with screenshots and full pitch: homeclaw.omarknows.app.

Mac App Store (Recommended)

HomeClaw is live on the Mac App Store:

1. Open in the Mac App Store and install
2. Launch HomeClaw -- grant HomeKit access when prompted
3. The menu bar icon appears. Click it to see your connected homes.

App Store builds are fully signed and notarized, so HomeKit works without any developer account setup.

TestFlight Beta

Want early access to in-flight builds before they ship to the App Store?

1. Join the TestFlight Beta
2. Install HomeClaw from TestFlight
3. Launch the app -- grant HomeKit access when prompted

TestFlight builds are signed the same way as App Store builds, so HomeKit works out of the box. You'll get new features (like the automations work in v1.0.1) before they hit the App Store.

After installing

Set up your AI integrations:

• Claude Desktop -- one-click install from Settings > Integrations, or add the MCP server config manually
• Claude Code -- install the plugin from GitHub
• OpenClaw -- one-click install from Settings > Integrations, or set up manually

Build from Source

Prerequisites and setup for building from source

Prerequisites