aioesphomeapi

aioesphomeapi allows you to interact with devices flashed with ESPHome.

Installation

The module is available from the Python Package Index.

$ pip3 install aioesphomeapi

An optional cython extension is available for better performance, and the module will try to build it automatically.

The extension requires a C compiler and Python development headers. The module will fall back to the pure Python implementation if they are unavailable.

Building the extension can be forcefully disabled by setting the environment variable SKIP_CYTHON to 1.

Usage

It's required that you enable the Native API component for the device.

# Example configuration entry
api:

For secure communication, use encryption (recommended):

api:
  encryption:
    key: !secret api_encryption_key

Generate an encryption key with openssl rand -base64 32 or visit https://esphome.io/components/api/

Note: Password authentication was removed in ESPHome 2026.1.0. Encryption is optional but recommended for security.

To connect to older devices still using password authentication:

api = aioesphomeapi.APIClient("device.local", 6053, password="MyPassword")

Check the output to get the local address of the device or use the name: under esphome: from the device configuration.

[17:56:38][C][api:095]: API Server:
[17:56:38][C][api:096]:   Address: api_test.local:6053

The sample code below will connect to the device and retrieve details.

import aioesphomeapi
import asyncio

async def main():
    """Connect to an ESPHome device and get details."""

    # Establish connection
    api = aioesphomeapi.APIClient(
        "api_test.local",
        6053,
        noise_psk="YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY",  # Remove if not using encryption
    )
    await api.connect(login=True)

    # Get API version of the device's firmware
    print(api.api_version)

    # Show device details
    device_info = await api.device_info()
    print(device_info)

    # List all entities of the device
    entities = await api.list_entities_services()
    print(entities)

 loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
 loop.run_until_complete(main())

Subscribe to state changes of an ESPHome device.

import aioesphomeapi
import asyncio

async def main():
    """Connect to an ESPHome device and wait for state changes."""
    api = aioesphomeapi.APIClient(
        "api_test.local",
        6053,
        noise_psk="YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY",  # Remove if not using encryption
    )
    await api.connect(login=True)

    def change_callback(state):
        """Print the state changes of the device."""
        print(state)

    # Subscribe to the state changes
    api.subscribe_states(change_callback)

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
try:
    asyncio.ensure_future(main())
    loop.run_forever()
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass
finally:
    loop.close()

Other examples:

• Camera
• Async print
• Simple print
• InfluxDB

Development

For development is recommended to use a Python virtual environment (venv).

# Setup virtualenv (optional)
$ python3 -m venv .
$ source bin/activate
# Install aioesphomeapi and development depenencies
$ pip3 install -e .
$ pip3 install -r requirements/test.txt

# Run linters & test
$ script/lint
# Update protobuf _pb2.py definitions (requires docker or podman)
$ docker run --rm -v $PWD:/aioesphomeapi ghcr.io/esphome/aioesphomeapi-proto-builder:latest
# Or with podman:
$ podman run --rm -v $PWD:/aioesphomeapi --userns=keep-id ghcr.io/esphome/aioesphomeapi-proto-builder:latest

A cli tool is also available for watching logs:

aioesphomeapi-logs --help

A cli tool is also available to discover devices:

aioesphomeapi-discover --help

License

aioesphomeapi is licensed under MIT, for more details check LICENSE.