Ready-to-paste text for announcing Advance Tools. Post the forum version first, then Reddit a day or two later — that way any early bug reports land in one place while the Reddit thread is still fresh.
Before posting, check that the repo README renders correctly on GitHub, that
the screenshots load, and that a fresh install actually completes the setup
wizard (test it with a clean /data if you can).
Category: Share your Projects! → Third party integrations / add-ons Title: Advance Tools — a visual toolbox add-on: dashboard builder, entity cleanup, alarm panel with keypad, history explorer (18 tools)
I've been building an add-on for about a year to scratch my own itches, and it has grown enough that it might be useful to other people.
Advance Tools is a hub with 18 tools in it. The common thread: things that are possible in Home Assistant but still take YAML, a template, or an afternoon of clicking. It runs entirely locally against the Supervisor API — no account, no cloud, no telemetry.
A few things it does
- Starter Templates — pick a layout (Family Home, Apartment, Security Tablet, Vacation Rental) and it matches the layout's "slots" against the entities you actually own, by domain, device class, area and name. It shows you every match to review before it creates anything, and never touches an existing dashboard.
- Dashboard Maker — freeform drag-and-drop designer for wall tablets with 120+ card skins, per-user access and entity allowlists, so the tablet in the kids' room can't turn off the boiler.
- Entity Doctor — the one I use most. It finds dead devices (every entity unavailable), orphaned registry entries, duplicate names and flat batteries, shows which automations reference something before you delete it, and cleans up through a drag-and-drop triage board. Every deletion is logged.
- Security Center — a real alarm panel: Home / Away / Night behind a PIN, exit and entry delays, per-sensor instant-vs-delayed, and actions on trigger (sirens, lights, locks, scenes, scripts, a camera snapshot attached to the push notification). There's a keypad card for a wall tablet in eleven designs.
- History Explorer — pick entities and a range, get a line chart plus a state timeline for on/off things, with time-weighted averages and CSV export. Short ranges use raw recorder history, long ones use statistics, and it tells you which.
- System Center — export your whole setup to one file for migrating to a new box, and generate a support bundle with every password and token stripped out.
Also: Automation Maker, Helper Maker, Scene Maker, Alert Maker, Notify Hub (with a two-way Telegram bot), Energy Center, Climate Scheduler, Family Board, Announce & Intercom, Away Simulator, Backup Manager, and a searchable manual inside the app.
Design rules I've stuck to
- Visual first — if it can be a grid, a dial or a preview, it isn't a text box.
- Every non-obvious field has a
?with a real example. - Destructive things preview exactly what will happen, imports write a rollback point, and nothing is deleted silently.
- Honest about limits: the alarm is a convenience layer that works while HA and the add-on are running. It is not a monitored, certified system and the docs say so.
Install
Add https://github.com/FreeHaTools/Advance-tools as an add-on repository,
install Advance Tools, and the setup wizard takes it from there. HA OS or
Supervised, amd64 / aarch64 / armv7.
Repo, screenshots and full docs: https://github.com/FreeHaTools/Advance-tools
I'd genuinely like to know where it breaks on someone else's setup — my house has its own quirks (Home Assistant classifies my cat feeders' lids as doors, which is how I learned the sensor picker was necessary). If a tool misbehaves, System Center → Support bundle produces a redacted zip that makes a bug report much easier to act on.
Title: I built a 18-tool add-on for the parts of HA that still need YAML — dashboard builder, entity cleanup, alarm keypad, history charts
Been building this for my own house for about a year and finally polished it enough to share. Advance Tools is a Home Assistant add-on: one hub, 18 tools, all local, no account or cloud.
The three I use most:
Entity Doctor — finds dead devices (every entity unavailable), orphaned registry entries, duplicate names and flat batteries. On my own 745-entity install it turned up 9 completely dead devices I'd forgotten about. It shows you which automations reference an entity before you delete it, and logs every deletion.
Starter Templates — instead of an empty dashboard canvas, pick a layout and it matches the layout against the entities you actually have, shows you every match to confirm, then builds it. It won't guess when it shouldn't: sixteen lights with no room in the name is a genuine question, so it asks.
Security Center — proper alarm panel with Home/Away/Night, exit and entry delays, per-sensor instant vs delayed, and a keypad card for a wall tablet (Matrix, Police, Military, Vault, Neon and a classic beige alarm panel design). On trigger it can sound sirens, turn on lights, lock doors, run scenes and attach a camera snapshot to the push notification.
Plus Dashboard Maker (freeform designer, 120+ card skins, per-user access), History Explorer (charts + state timelines + CSV), Automation/Helper/Scene Maker, Notify Hub with a two-way Telegram bot, Energy Center, Climate Scheduler, Backup Manager and more.
Screenshots and install instructions: https://github.com/FreeHaTools/Advance-tools
Happy to answer questions. Bug reports especially welcome — I've only been able to test against my own house, and I already know it does odd things when your device classes are unusual.