No brands have used the Cloud badge before, so no one is affected by its removal.
Art by Clelia Rella
+
+HACS 2.0 [main dashboard](https://www.hacs.xyz/docs/use/repositories/dashboard/) has taken cues from Home Assistant, and now closely matches the native look and functionality of the data tables you find on the entities or automation pages. This includes the options to filter, group, sort, and search.
+
+### Faster downloads
+
+
+
+Previously, HACS 100% relied on GitHub to retrieve information, from file locations to the number of stars, so we needed to limit the API (as there are a lot of HACS users). To speed things up, we've created a [remote dataset](https://www.hacs.xyz/docs/faq/data_sources/) stored in Cloudflare R2 buckets, which are updated at regular intervals. Files are still downloaded from GitHub and their API is still contacted, but it will see drastically fewer calls, and the speed improvement is massive. Behind the scenes, this was a big piece of work, which has ongoing costs, and shows the kind of support the Open Home Foundation can provide to a community-driven project like HACS.
+
+### Update and repair
+
+
+
+No more visiting the HACS page every day to check for updates. They'll now appear in the same places system and add-on [updates](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/updates/) appear in the native Home Assistant format. Also, once they're finished updating, they will give you suggested repairs (for instance, reloading the dashboards or rebooting Home Assistant).
+
+### Other improvements
+
+We have also renamed things to help them make more sense, including changing "category" to "type", and "Lovelace" to "dashboard" (Lovelace needs to make room for [Grace](https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/03/04/dashboard-chapter-1/#what-is-project-grace)). We're also including Template management, which utilizes the new [template type](https://www.hacs.xyz/docs/publish/template/) to enhance your Jinja templates.
+
+{% note %}
+**Breaking changes** - There have been some breaking changes, such as removing the YAML configuration, no longer including the NetDaemon type, and moving [beta selection to a switch entity](https://www.hacs.xyz/docs/use/entities/switch/). Many of the changes are more likely to affect those sharing their code via HACS, check the [release notes for the full list](https://github.com/hacs/integration/releases/tag/2.0.0).
+{% endnote %}
+
+## What is HACS?
+
+Home Assistant is built around choice, and HACS is the epitome of this, giving you access to hundreds of community-made integrations, cards, themes, and more. HACS isn't actually *a hack*, as Home Assistant has always allowed you to add custom integrations and UI elements - HACS just adds a streamlined interface to find, install, and update these.
+
+HACS stands for *Home Assistant Community Store*, and despite the name it doesn't sell anything - it's all free and open-source. HACS is there for people in the community who write custom code to address something they think is missing from Home Assistant. It allows them to easily share this code with the community unrestricted via submitting their GitHub repository to HACS. This means these are maintained by the community members that upload them, not HACS or Home Assistant. If you want to learn more about what you're installing, or report issues, there is always a link to the original code.
+
+Just to clear up the biggest misconception about HACS, **it does not install add-ons**. Home Assistant OS natively has its own [built-in store for Home Assistant Add-ons](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/supervisor_store/). Add-ons run alongside Home Assistant, while HACS installs custom code that can run in Home Assistant (which has implications for system stability, more on that below).
+
+## Why use HACS?
+
+**More integrations** - Not every device and service is supported by Home Assistant out-of-the-box, and HACS helps fill the gaps. There are hundreds of integrations on HACS, some are there because the authors didn't have the time to meet Home Assistant's requirements, while others are doing something not allowed by Home Assistant, like web scraping (which is sometimes the only way, but [not a good idea](https://github.com/home-assistant/architecture/issues/252)). Just be aware that these decisions can come at the expense of stability.
+
+**Advanced integrations** - Some HACS integrations are more complex and advanced versions of their Core counterparts, while other integrations combine multiple sensors to provide new data points. Some of these "integrations" even give Home Assistant advanced new features and settings. It also allows for rapid development as it allows updates outside the Home Assistant refresh cycle.
+
+**Cards and Themes** - There are some amazing cards, UIs, and themes being built by community developers and designers - BTW if you're one, [our frontend team needs your help](/blog/2024/07/26/dashboard-chapter-2/#process-how-can-we-work-together). HACS has made the installation and updating of these designs very simple and quick.
+
+**Scripts and Templates** - This is the easiest way to share scripts and templates, while also adding the ability to push new improvements to users via updates.
+
+## A Brief History of HACS
+
+HACS started in 2019 as my ([Joakim Sørensen](https://github.com/ludeeus) ) third attempt to build a community store. It started small and quickly became the de facto standard, with so many talented community creators submitting their projects. The Home Assistant team was supportive from day one, and even as HACS gained hundreds of thousands of downloads, we all agreed it should remain an optional addition to Home Assistant. Giving users the choice to add new features to Home Assistant at the cost of stability.
+
+I joined [Nabu Casa](https://www.nabucasa.com/) in 2020, partly due to the work I did on HACS, but I was hired to work on Home Assistant more generally, not to work on HACS. Incidentally, I'm not the only developer working at Nabu Casa who got their start on HACS: [Paul Bottein](https://github.com/piitaya) on the frontend team built [Mushroom Cards](https://github.com/piitaya/lovelace-mushroom), and [Marcel van der Veldt](https://github.com/marcelveldt) who currently supports Matter development built [Music Assistant](https://music-assistant.io/).
+
+Over the years, I continued to work on HACS in my spare time, but there were always aspects of the original version that limited its ability to grow. Recently, the [Open Home Foundation](https://www.openhomefoundation.org/) reached out to make HACS a collaboration partner, and provided development support. Numerous people were brought in to support, from across Nabu Casa and the community, leading to the large list of improvements you see today.
+
+Just before we released this big update, it passed 5,000 stars on GitHub! It's the projects on HACS that make it what it is today, and I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who continues to contribute their code onto the store.
+
+## How to install
+
+{% note %}
+**Proceed with caution** - HACS is not for everyone. If you're a Home Assistant beginner or are looking for the most stable experience in your smart home, HACS is probably not for you. These are community-made projects that do not receive the same rigorous reviews required of projects submitted to Home Assistant. There may be projects that don't work or, even worse, break your system. Unlike add-ons that run separately and alongside Home Assistant, HACS projects run their code directly in Home Assistant, which increases the chances of crashing or harming your system. Before using HACS, always make a [backup of your system](https://hacs.xyz/docs/use/data/#creating-a-backup) and download that backup to another device.
+{% endnote %}
+
+HACS should work on any up-to-date version of Home Assistant, it even runs on core installations. It also requires a GitHub account. If you already have HACS 1.X installed, perform a backup, go into HACS and then click the update button for HACS (note: if you update, there is no downgrading).
+
+If you're a Home Assistant OS user here is the installation method (If you're not using our OS, [visit this page](https://www.hacs.xyz/docs/use/download/download/#to-download-hacs-core)),
+
+1. Make a [backup of your system](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/backup/) and download it to another device for safekeeping.
+
+2. Install the addon: Using [this link](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/supervisor_addon/?repository_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fhacs%2Faddons&addon=cb646a50_get), add the HACS add-on repository, and install the add-on it links to, [](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/supervisor_addon/?repository_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fhacs%2Faddons&addon=cb646a50_get)
+
+3. Start the add-on (no need to "start on boot", you should only need to run this once).
+
+4. Navigate to the add-on's "Log" and follow the instructions given there.
+
+5. Once finished, reboot Home Assistant and navigate to the [devices page](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/devices/). Add the integration HACS, and follow the instructions to link it with your GitHub account.
+
+***It's installed, now what?*** Start downloading some custom integrations and UI elements. There are a lot of great community resources listing the best custom [integrations](https://community.home-assistant.io/c/projects/custom-integrations/47?ascending=false&order=views), [cards](https://community.home-assistant.io/c/projects/frontend/34?ascending=false&order=views), [themes](https://community.home-assistant.io/c/projects/themes/29/l/top), and more.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+There are too many people to thank in this blog who have helped the development of HACS over the years. Thanks for submitting your projects, reporting issues, fixing code, and just using this funny little side project. Most important to this all, thanks to [Home Assistant Cloud subscribers](https://www.nabucasa.com/). They made this update possible, not only do they pay my salary, but they also fund the Open Home Foundation, whose support was critical.
diff --git a/source/_posts/2024-09-03-aqara-joins-works-with-home-assistant.markdown b/source/_posts/2024-09-03-aqara-joins-works-with-home-assistant.markdown
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..34002793393
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/_posts/2024-09-03-aqara-joins-works-with-home-assistant.markdown
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Aqara joins Works with Home Assistant"
+description: "We have certified 4 Aqara devices, all of which are the first to use our Works via Matter with Home Assistant badge."
+date: 2024-09-03 00:00:01
+date_formatted: "September 3, 2024"
+author: Guy Sie
+comments: true
+categories: Announcements
+og_image: /images/blog/2024-09-aqara-wwha/art.jpg
+---
+
+
+We're excited to announce that Aqara is bringing several of their devices to our [Works with Home Assistant](https://partner.home-assistant.io/) program. We know that Aqara is a brand that many in the community like to recommend for its solid options for Zigbee and Matter.
+
+This will be the first partner to join since [our recent update to the program](/blog/2024/08/08/works-with-home-assistant-becomes-part-ohf/), meaning it is the first to join certifying specific devices, making it much easier to see what will give you the best experience in Home Assistant. It will also be the first partner to use our "Works via Matter with Home Assistant" badge, giving some great options to use with Home Assistant's [industry-leading Matter support](https://www.matteralpha.com/news/new-home-assistant-update-matter-1-3-ai-automation).
+
+
+
+## Matter materializes
+
+Aqara has been an early adopter of Matter, and many of its new products support the standard, which is great for [connecting to Home Assistant](/blog/2024/01/25/matter-livestream-blog/). Matter allows for local control by directly connecting devices to Home Assistant, keeping your smart home data in your home. Matter is a completely local IP-based protocol that leverages your existing Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks, but it can also use [Thread](/integrations/thread/), which many Aqara devices take advantage of. Thread devices can be directly connected to Home Assistant using a [Connect ZBT-1](/connectzbt1), or can be connected to Home Assistant via an existing hub (Thread Border Router) you may already have from another [smart home ecosystem](/integrations/thread#google), including the Aqara Hub M3.
+
+One superpower of Matter compared to other standards is being able to control these devices with multiple different ecosystems simultaneously. For instance, an Aqara lock could be unlocked with a Home Assistant automation and then locked with a voice command directed to an Apple Homepod.
+
+## Devices joining the program
+
+Aqara has had the following three devices Works with Home Assistant certified. All of which can be directly connected to Home Assistant without an account.
+
+- [Motion and Light Sensor P2](https://www.aqara.com/en/product/motion-and-light-sensor-p2/) - Matter over Thread battery-powered motion and lux sensor.
+
+- [Door and Window Sensor P2](https://www.aqara.com/en/product/door-and-window-sensor-p2/) - Matter over Thread battery-powered cover sensor.
+
+- [Smart Lock U200](https://www.aqara.com/en/product/smart-lock-u200/) - Matter over Thread battery-powered lock.
+
+We're also testing the yet-to-be-launched Smart Lock U300, which we hope to see added soon.
+
+We have also certified a hub that makes it easy to connect an existing Aqara-based smart home to Home Assistant using Matter.
+
+- [Hub M3](https://www.aqara.com/en/product/hub-m3/) - It has many functions, but we have certified it as a Matter Bridge. This means you can use it to bridge your existing Aqara Zigbee devices to Matter. It can also act as a Thread Border Router for Home Assistant.
+
+If you have some Aqara products that are not listed above, rest assured that they will continue to work as they always have. The program is a way to clearly indicate which devices provide the best experience with Home Assistant. We've ensured this by testing these devices' compatibility ourselves. We also get assurances from the brand that they will provide responsive support and maintenance, while being a positive brand in the Home Assistant community.
+
+Works with Home Assistant is now run by the non-profit [Open Home Foundation](https://www.openhomefoundation.org/), which means it is not a profit-making endeavor. It is about encouraging brands to go above and beyond in the Home Assistant community, and we're excited to have Aqara join.
+
+When shopping for devices to connect to your home, we recommend first looking at our Works with Home Assistant partner's products. These products always prioritize long-term support and local control.
diff --git a/source/_posts/2024-09-04-release-20249.markdown b/source/_posts/2024-09-04-release-20249.markdown
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ed59a4a0bf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/_posts/2024-09-04-release-20249.markdown
@@ -0,0 +1,761 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "2024.9: Sections go BIG"
+description: "Bigger wider sections for big cards, smarter energy monitoring, a new LLM option, Works with Home Assistant Matter devices, and more open source."
+date: 2024-09-04 00:00:00
+date_formatted: "September 4, 2024"
+author: Gordon Cameron
+comments: true
+categories:
+ - Release-Notes
+ - Core
+og_image: /images/blog/2024-09/social.jpg
+---
+
+
+ 
+
+
+### Full span cards
+
+Larger sections mean larger cards. Instead of just stretching out the layout of a card, there is also a new option on cards to have them always use the full width of the section.
+
+### Badges
+
+Talking about dashboards, the newly styled badges we [introduced](/blog/2024/08/07/release-20248/#new-badges-for-your-dashboard) in last release, are now more configurable.
+
+Instead of using display mode, you can decide for yourself what element you want to show. This allows you, for example, to hide the icon of an badge and only show the state of the device you want to show in your badge.
+
+## Tracking your untracked energy
+
+In April, we introduced a [new energy graph for individual devices](/blog/2024/03/06/release-20243/#new-energy-graph-for-individual-devices) in our energy dashboard. This allows you to aggregate all your energy monitoring into one graph, giving you a quick way to see your house's biggest energy-using devices. Big thanks to [@karwosts](https://github.com/karwosts), the original creator of this graph, who has now updated it.
+
+
+
+We can't all have energy tracking for every device, and if you have whole-home energy tracking (like a smart meter or [something more DIY](/home-energy-management)) the updated graph will calculate the difference and show your home's untracked usage. So hop onto your [energy dashboard](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/energy/) and start to tackle your phantom energy load.
+
+## LLM agent options grow
+
+When we added the ability to use [Large Language Models (LLMs)](/blog/2024/06/05/release-20246/#dipping-our-toes-in-the-world-of-ai-using-llms) in our Voice Assistant, it began with a limited number of conversation agents. These included the cloud-based [OpenAI](/components/openai_conversation/) and [Google AI](/components/google_generative_ai_conversation/) integrations, along with the locally-run [Ollama](/integrations/ollama/) integration. All three can now control the devices in your home.
+
+[@Shulyaka](https://github.com/Shulyaka) has now added another cloud option with [Anthropic](/integrations/anthropic) - thanks again for giving us another option for experimenting with AI in Home Assistant. Setting it up can be a little different than other conversation agents, so take a look at the [documentation](/integrations/anthropic).
+
+We have updated our [LLM leaderboard](https://github.com/allenporter/home-assistant-datasets/tree/main/reports) to include Anthropic. Both Claude 3 Haiku and Claude 3 Sonnet score very high on our benchmarks and now rank among the top. Based on the results of the benchmark, we have set the cheaper Claude 3 Haiku as the default model for the Anthropic integration.
+
+[@allenporter] added the ability to configure the context window size of the [Ollama](/integrations/ollama) integration. The default size was increased, making it perform 20% better!
+
+## Aqara joins Works with Home Assistant
+
+
+
+We [recently announced](/blog/2024/09/03/aqara-joins-works-with-home-assistant/) that four Aqara devices are joining our [Works with Home Assistant](https://partner.home-assistant.io/) program. What's really exciting is that these are all Matter devices, and Aqara will be the first partner to use our "Works via Matter with Home Assistant" badge, giving some great options to use with Home Assistant's amazing Matter integration.
+
+What's more, this will be the first partner to join since [our recent update to the program](/blog/2024/08/08/works-with-home-assistant-becomes-part-ohf/), meaning device-by-device certification that we tested ourselves. This makes it really easy to see what will give you the best experience in Home Assistant.
+
+## Open source compliance
+
+We have put a lot of work into making sure that Home Assistant is truly open source, from top to bottom. This means ensuring that every library our integrations rely on uses the compliant license. We're now at more than 2,800 integrations, so as you can imagine, this was not a small task. Working with code owners and library developers, we have painstakingly checked that every library is now using an [OSI-approved license](https://opensource.org/license).
+
+This might seem like a small procedural thing, but it is critical to keep integrations and Home Assistant functional far into the future. If you're not aware, libraries are what many device and service integrations rely on to function, by calling in additional protocol specific code that [purposely](https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/api_lib_index/) sits outside of the Home Assistant project. If an individual or corporation can no longer maintain libraries, a proper open source license allows it to be picked up and continued by others.
+
+## Integrations
+
+Thanks to our community for keeping pace with the new {% term integrations %}
+and improvements to existing ones! You're all awesome 🥰
+
+### New integrations
+
+We welcome the following new integrations in this release:
+
+- **[Anthropic Conversation]**, added by [@Shulyaka]
Dark and tinted variants are available for the main App Icon and some custom icons
+
+I've said it before, but Home Assistant would be nothing without its community. That's why we decided this year to focus our anniversary celebration on acknowledging and thanking our amazing community. It's fitting as 2024 was the year we added a dedicated community manager, [Missy Quarry](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/an-introduction-your-new-community-social-media-manager/693623), who hosted this celebration of *you* in our [11th Anniversary live stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8yFUvQ2e4).
+
+Missy co-hosted the stream with creator and Home Assistant community member Andrej Broz, better known as [Bearded Tinker](https://www.youtube.com/c/BeardedTinker). Together they threw a barrage of questions at [Frenck](https://github.com/frenck) and [myself](https://github.com/balloob) - we didn't see any of them ahead of time so our responses don't get any more real than that. It was a lot of fun, and there was even a little announcement slipped in there, so [please check it out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8yFUvQ2e4).
+
+We can't thank our community enough for the past 11 years. You are the engine driving forward Home Assistant. You put in your spare time to test, fix, build, and share your ideas. You fund our work by subscribing to [Home Assistant Cloud](/cloud/), which allows us to devote our full attention to you, and never have to answer to a bunch of investors. We couldn't do it without you.
+
+
+
+## Live stream
+
+
+ 
+ Adding a badge to a dashboard.
+
indicates that this integration depends on the cloud.
-- The YAML icon 
indicates that this integration was not setup via the UI. You have either set it up in YAML or it is a dependency set up by an other integration. If you want to configure it, you will need to do so in your configuration.yaml file.
+The file icon 
indicates that this integration was not set up via the UI. You have either set it up in your {% term "`configuration.yaml`" %} file, or it is a dependency set up by another integration. If you want to configure it, you will need to do so in your {% term "`configuration.yaml`" %} file.
- The custom icon 
indicates that this is not an official Home Assistant integration but that it was custom made. It could be imported from another source, for example downloaded from HACS.
For a full list of compatible {% term integrations %}, refer to the [integrations](/integrations) documentation.
diff --git a/source/getting-started/configuration.markdown b/source/getting-started/configuration.markdown
index 7ee91082b73..f2637504869 100644
--- a/source/getting-started/configuration.markdown
+++ b/source/getting-started/configuration.markdown
@@ -38,10 +38,11 @@ To change basic settings such as location, unit system, and language, refer to [
You can back up your Home Assistant, add-on data, and configuration. Backups are used to restore a system or parts of it if a rollback is needed, or to migrate your Home Assistant to new hardware. It is good practice to create a backup before updating.
-To learn how to create a backup of your Home Assistant installation, refer to the following topics:
+To learn how to create a backup of your Home Assistant installation, select the link below that matches your installation type.
- {% term "Home Assistant Operating System" %}: [Creating a backup from OS](/common-tasks/os/#backups)
- {% term "Home Assistant Supervised" %}: [Creating a backup from Supervised](/common-tasks/supervised/#backups)
+- {% term "Home Assistant Core" %} or {% term "Home Assistant Container" %}: [Creating a backup from Core or Container](/integrations/backup/)
## Editing the configuration.yaml and configuring file access
diff --git a/source/getting-started/integration.markdown b/source/getting-started/integration.markdown
index 4252a203488..b6ec8dd93ec 100644
--- a/source/getting-started/integration.markdown
+++ b/source/getting-started/integration.markdown
@@ -48,7 +48,11 @@ This tutorial assumes that you have [installed Home Assistant](/installation/) a
- This opens the integration details page.
- - On the details page, we see that this integration has one {% term service %} and one {% term entity %}.
+ - We see that this integration has one {% term service %} and one {% term entity %}.
+ - **Documentation** opens the documentation page of this integration.
+ - **Known issues** opens the GitHub issue tracker, filtered for issues related to this integration.
+ - This allows you to see if other users reported issues related to that integration.
+ - **Enable debug logging** lets you [activate the debug logs for that integration](/docs/configuration/troubleshooting/#debug-logs-and-diagnostics).
diff --git a/source/green/index.html b/source/green/index.html
index f5be07b3259..64c08c14d2c 100644
--- a/source/green/index.html
+++ b/source/green/index.html
@@ -2544,6 +2544,24 @@ dark_header: true