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Recipe: Smart Home

Read before you run this recipe

This recipe gives an agent your shell (through openhue) and your lights. By default OpenClaw runs host commands without asking (tools.exec.mode is full) and the sandbox is off. Turn on approvals first (openclaw config set tools.exec.mode ask), use a strong model for anything that runs tools unattended, and give the agent only the accounts and devices it needs. See Security hardening and upstream permission modes.

Turn lights on and off, dim rooms and set scenes from chat. This recipe covers Philips Hue. For locks, alarms, thermostats and other devices, see the Home Assistant recipe, which needs stricter guardrails.

The Skill​

OpenClaw ships a bundled openhue skill that drives the OpenHue CLI. There is nothing to write or install from ClawHub. Install the CLI on the Gateway host and pair it with your Hue Bridge:

brew install openhue/cli/openhue-cli   # or see openhue.io/cli for other installs
openhue setup                          # press the button on the Hue Bridge when asked
openhue get room                       # check it can see your rooms
openclaw skills info openhue

openhue setup stores the bridge address and key in ~/.openhue/config.yaml, owned by the OpenHue CLI. Don't copy the key into a skill file, SOUL.md, AGENTS.md or chat: workspace files are read by the agent and sent to your model provider. The Gateway host must be on the same local network as the bridge.

Guardrails​

Lights are low-stakes, but the pattern is the one to use for any device:

  1. Only you can reach it. Use an allowlist rather than pairing on the channel you control the house from, and keep the bot out of groups.
  2. Only the one command runs freely. Turn exec approvals on, then allowlist openhue. OpenHue commands run without a prompt; anything else the agent tries to run waits for your approval.
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
{
  tools: {
    exec: { mode: "ask" }, // allowlisted commands run; everything else asks you
  },
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      dmPolicy: "allowlist",
      allowFrom: ["123456789"], // your numeric Telegram user ID
      groupPolicy: "disabled",  // no group chats
    },
  },
}
openclaw config validate
openclaw approvals allowlist add openhue
openclaw exec-policy show

More on both: who can talk to the agent and exec approvals.

Usage​

From your Telegram DM with the bot (or the Control UI):

You: Turn off the bedroom lights
Bot: Done. Bedroom is off.

You: Set the office to bright cool white
Bot: Office set to 100% brightness, cool white.

You: Movie mode in the living room
Bot: Living Room dimmed to 10%.

Under the hood the skill runs commands such as openhue set room "Bedroom" --off and openhue set room "Office" --on --brightness 100 --temperature 250.

The skill covers Hue lights, rooms, zones and scenes only. It does not control thermostats, plugs from other brands or TVs.

Schedules​

Lights on a schedule are an automation:

openclaw cron add "30 22 * * *" \
  "Dim the bedroom lights to 20% warm white." \
  --name "Bedtime lights" --tools exec,read --no-deliver

--tools exec,read lets the job run openhue (through the allowlist) and read the skill, nothing else. --no-deliver keeps the run out of your chat.

See Also​