HomeClaw
Control your Apple HomeKit smart home from AI assistants, the terminal, and automation tools.
HomeClaw exposes your HomeKit accessories through a command-line tool, a stdio MCP server, and plugins for Claude Code and OpenClaw. It runs as a lightweight macOS menu bar app.
Why HomeClaw?
Apple HomeKit has no public API, no CLI, and no way to integrate with AI assistants or automation pipelines. HomeClaw bridges that gap with a Mac Catalyst app that talks to HomeKit on your behalf and exposes a clean API surface.
- Ask Claude or OpenClaw to "turn off all the lights" or "set the thermostat to 72"
- Script your smart home from the terminal
- Build automations that go beyond what the Home app offers
- Search and control devices by name, room, category, or semantic type
Architecture
Claude Code --> Plugin (.claude-plugin/) --> stdio MCP server (Node.js) --+
Claude Desktop --> stdio MCP server (Node.js) ----------------------------+
OpenClaw --> Plugin (openclaw/) --> homeclaw-cli --------------------------+
v
Unix socket (JSON newline-delimited)
|
HomeClaw (Mac Catalyst app)
+-- HomeKitManager (direct, in-process)
+-- SocketServer (for CLI/MCP clients)
+-- macOSBridge.bundle (NSStatusItem menu bar)
Single-process design. Apple's HMHomeManager requires a UIKit/Catalyst app with the HomeKit entitlement. By making the entire app Catalyst, HomeKit access is direct (no IPC), signing is unified (single archive), and App Store submission is clean. The macOSBridge plugin bundle provides the native macOS menu bar via NSStatusItem.
Install
TestFlight (Recommended)
The easiest way to install HomeClaw is via TestFlight:
- Join the TestFlight Beta
- Install HomeClaw from TestFlight
- Launch the app -- grant HomeKit access when prompted
- The menu bar icon appears. Click it to see your connected homes.
TestFlight builds are signed for App Store distribution, so HomeKit works without any developer account setup.
Once running, set up your AI integrations:
- Claude Desktop -- one-click install from Settings > Integrations, or add the MCP server config manually
- Claude Code -- install the plugin from GitHub
- OpenClaw -- one-click install from Settings > Integrations, or set up manually
Build from Source
Prerequisites and setup for building from source
Prerequisites
- macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
- Xcode 26+ with Swift 6.2
- XcodeGen:
brew install xcodegen
- Node.js 20+ (for the MCP server wrapper)
- Apple Developer account with HomeKit capability enabled
Why is a developer account required? Apple does not provide a public HomeKit API for macOS. The only way to access HomeKit is through HMHomeManager, which requires the com.apple.developer.homekit entitlement and a provisioning profile that covers your Mac's hardware UDID. Apple restricts this entitlement to development signing and App Store distribution -- it cannot be included in Developer ID (notarized) builds. This means every Mac that runs HomeClaw must be registered as a development device in your Apple Developer portal, and the app must be built with your team's signing identity. There is no way around this; it's an Apple platform restriction, not a HomeClaw limitation.
Setup
git clone https://github.com/omarshahine/HomeClaw.git
cd HomeClaw
# Configure your Apple Developer Team ID (one-time setup)
echo "HOMEKIT_TEAM_ID=YOUR_TEAM_ID" > .env.local
# Install Node.js dependencies
npm install
# Build everything and install
scripts/build.sh --release --install
Find your Team ID at developer.apple.com/account under Membership Details.
Launch from /Applications or: open "/Applications/HomeClaw.app"
On first launch, grant HomeKit access when prompted. The menu bar icon appears -- click it to see your connected homes.
Note: Apple restricts the HomeKit entitlement to development signing and App Store distribution. Developer ID builds cannot access HomeKit. See Why Development Signing? for details.
MCP Tools
The stdio MCP server wraps homeclaw-cli and exposes these tools: