Using the Code generator

NetDaemon has a generator that creates code based on the entities and services in Home Assistant. This makes it possible to navigate all entities and services using intellisense.

Use as local tool

If you are using the template project you can install the code generator as a local tool. The advantage is that you will have a update script that keeps your tool version and NetDaemon versions in sync. If you encounter an error adding the local tool, please make a fresh project template using the latest version of the cli tool and move your apps to that version. You do not have to install the tool in this case.

Run the tool using:

dotnet tool run nd-codegen

You can use following command to keep it up to date with the latest version:

dotnet tool update NetDaemon.HassModel.CodeGen

Or use the convenience script update_all_dependencies.ps1 to update all tools and nuget packages (only available in later versions of the template).

Use as global tool

The code generator is installed as a .NET global tool via the following command:

dotnet tool install -g NetDaemon.HassModel.CodeGen

After it is installed as a global tool it can be run with the command:

nd-codegen

You can use the following command to keep it up to date with the latest version:

dotnet tool update -g NetDaemon.HassModel.CodeGen

Make sure the version of the codegen tool and your nuget packages NetDaemon.* have the same version.

When the tool is run from the folder of your NetDaemon project that contains an appsettings.json or appsettings.development.json file it will automatically use the connection settings from that config file to connect to Home Assistant. It will output a single file HomeAssistantGenerated.cs that contains all the generated code.

The generated code contains the following:

• A class Entities that provides properties to navigate to all existing entities in Home Assistant via intellisense
• A record derived from Entity for each domain that has entities in Home Assistant
• A record with all the attributes of all entities in a specific domain, so they can be accessed via typed properties
• A class Services that provides access to all services in Home Assistant via their domain
• Extension methods for each service that takes an entity as a target

The code generator also generates an extension method AddHomeAssistantGenerated() that injects different classes to be used in dependency injection for your convenience. Add it to the program.cs like this:

    .ConfigureServices((_, services) =>
        services
            .AddAppsFromAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly())
            .AddNetDaemonStateManager()
            .AddNetDaemonScheduler()
            .AddHomeAssistantGenerated()

Command line arguments

The settings for the code generator can also be set from the command line. This will override the settings from a configuration file if it is present.

switch
-host	Host of the NetDaemon instance
-port	Port of the NetDaemon instance
-ssl	true to connect over ssl; otherwise false
-token	A long lived Home Assistant token
-o	The output file to generate
-ns	The namespace to use for the generated code