How to Copy Files From GitHub to Home Assistant

Moving files from GitHub into your Home Assistant environment is a common task — whether you're pulling in a custom integration, a YAML configuration snippet, a Lovelace dashboard, or a community-built automation script. The process isn't complicated, but it does branch depending on your setup, your technical comfort level, and how Home Assistant is installed.

Why You Might Need Files From GitHub

The Home Assistant community is deeply connected to GitHub. Most custom components, HACS integrations, Lovelace card plugins, themes, and blueprint automations are hosted there. While some of these are installable through the Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) automatically, there are plenty of cases where you'll want to pull files manually — particularly for unofficial components, personal forks, or configurations shared by other users.

Method 1: Using HACS (Home Assistant Community Store)

If your goal is to install a custom integration or frontend plugin, and that repository is listed in HACS, this is the most straightforward path.

HACS connects directly to GitHub and handles the file transfer for you. Once HACS is installed as an add-on:

1. Open HACS in the Home Assistant sidebar
2. Browse or search for the repository
3. Click Download or Install

HACS places files in the correct directories automatically — typically /config/custom_components/ for integrations or /config/www/ for frontend resources.

The limitation: HACS only works with repositories that are either in its default index or manually added as a custom repository. If the repo you need isn't listed, you'll need a different approach.

Method 2: Using the File Editor or Studio Code Server Add-On

For smaller files — a YAML snippet, a script, a single configuration file — you can copy content from GitHub manually:

1. Open the file on GitHub and click the Raw button to view plain text
2. Select all and copy
3. In Home Assistant, open File Editor (or Studio Code Server if you have it installed)
4. Navigate to the appropriate directory
5. Create a new file or open an existing one and paste the content

This works well for blueprints, Lovelace dashboard YAML, and custom template scripts. It requires no command line knowledge and works entirely through the Home Assistant UI.

Method 3: SSH and the Terminal

If you're running Home Assistant OS or Home Assistant Supervised, you can install the SSH & Web Terminal add-on and use command-line tools directly.

Once connected via SSH, git or wget/curl can pull files from GitHub: