Getting started

If you have set up a wall panel or kiosk before, you probably remember how it went: sideloading apps, hunting for a browser engine that could draw a dashboard, guessing at settings, and never quite trusting the next reboot. Setting up a panel with Panel Assistant will come as a pleasant shock. You can be done in minutes, and even with the panel on the wall you won’t have to get up from your chair. OK, maybe once ;-)

The hard part of any panel is the first hour. Panel Assistant does that hour for you, from inside Home Assistant. If the panel is already on your network, give the integration its address and it does the rest. If it is still in the box, plug it into your laptop with a USB cable and install straight from your browser, before it ever goes on the wall. If the panel asks you to authorise debugging, accept the prompt on its screen, then watch the installation through.

1. Install the integration

Add Panel Assistant through HACS and restart Home Assistant. This is the only thing you install by hand. From here on, Home Assistant guides you. See Install the integration.

Note

Panel Assistant 1.0 is a release candidate. HACS offers 0.9.0 by default. To try the release candidate, enable and turn on the Pre-release switch on the Panel Assistant device under Settings, Devices and services, HACS; Install the integration walks through the disabled-entity step. A panel that runs the 1.0 app cannot go back to 0.9; Upgrading to 1.0 explains what changes.

2. Switch on debugging on the panel

Open developer options on the panel: on most panels, open Settings, then About, and tap Build number seven times. Then turn on USB debugging if you are plugging the panel in, or network ADB on TCP port 5555 for the network route. Not every panel has a network ADB switch; the hardware pages list known routes and say when initial access is unverified. If network access is unavailable, use USB once USB debugging and a USB data port are confirmed for your model. Prepare the panel has the details.

3. Add the panel

In Home Assistant, go to Settings, Devices and services, Add integration, and choose Panel Assistant. Then pick how the panel is connected.

Plugged into your computer

A brand-new panel can be set up before it ever goes on the wall. Plug it into your computer with a USB cable and install straight from your browser. You need Chrome or Edge for this. After you choose Install using USB on this computer, select Open the USB installer, keep the recommended version and press Continue; the installer opens in a new window. The panel still needs Wi-Fi to finish setting up, so join it to your network in its own Settings app, before or after the install.

1 Choose Install using USB

2 Plug the panel in, press Find my panel and choose the panel in your browser's list

3 Allow debugging on the panel if asked

4 Press Install

5 Watch it install

6 Done

On your network

If the panel is already on the wall, all Home Assistant needs is its address.

1 Choose Add a panel on your network

2 Give it the panel's address

3 Pick a version if more than one is offered

4 Allow debugging on the panel if it asks

5 Open the panel's setup page

If the panel asks whether to allow debugging, tick Always allow from this computer and tap Allow on the panel; Home Assistant carries on by itself. Then confirm the install.

Either way, the wizard takes care of the messy part. It checks what is already on the panel, installs the current release of the panel app, starts it and confirms it is healthy. A panel that already runs the app is adopted, not reinstalled. The panel recognises its own model and loads the matching hardware profile, so its screen, buttons, LEDs and sensors arrive in Home Assistant ready to use. See Add a panel.

4. Finish in the panel’s setup wizard

Next comes the panel’s own setup wizard. It is served by the panel and opens in your browser on the computer, not on the panel’s screen. After a network install, Home Assistant shows Finish setting up this panel: open the panel’s setup page, finish the steps there, then return to Home Assistant and select Done. After a USB install, the installer window moves straight on to the wizard. Because the panel serves it, it only loads in a browser on the same network as the panel.

The wizard asks for a name for the panel, signs the panel in to Home Assistant, and asks which dashboard to show and which area the panel is in. The panel connects as whichever Home Assistant account you sign in with, so if your browser is signed in as you, the panel may connect as you; to keep the panel on its own account, sign in as that account instead. With entity filtering on, the panel loads only the entities that dashboard uses, which is what keeps it fast. See Connect a panel.

In the unreleased 1.0.0-rc2 version, setup can finish even when the panel’s browser engine is too old to show a current Home Assistant dashboard with the built-in renderer. The wizard warns when this needs attention. Follow the WebView guide before relying on the dashboard; finishing setup alone does not confirm that the dashboard can load.

1 Name the panel

2 Sign in to Home Assistant

3 Pick the dashboard and area

4 Turn on the entity filter, if asked

5 Almost there

6 All set

What you need

• Home Assistant 2026.8.3 or newer, with HACS.
• An ARM wall panel running Android 8.0 or newer, with debugging access. Most panels work with the generic hardware profile, and Choose a panel lists the models with full hardware support.
• For the USB option, a Chromium-based browser such as Chrome or Edge.

Where the detail lives

The pages under Keep it running cover each feature of the panel app in depth. The reference section documents the API, hardware profiles and the security model, and the hardware pages cover each supported panel.