---
layout: page
title: "Emulated Hue Bridge"
description: "Instructions how to emulated Hue Bridge within Home Assistant."
date: 2016-08-26 08:00
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
ha_category: Hub
ha_release: 0.27
ha_iot_class: "Local Push"
---

The `emulated_hue` component provides a virtual Philips Hue bridge, written entirely in software, that allows services that work with the Hue API to interact with Home Assistant
entities. The driving use case behind this functionality is to allow Home Assistant to work with an Amazon Echo with no set up cost outside of configuration changes.

<p class='note'>
  It is recommended to assign a static IP address to the computer running Home Assistant. This is because the Amazon Echo discovers devices by IP addresss, and if the IP changes, the Echo won't be able to control it. This is easiest done from your router, see your router's manual for details.
</p>

### {% linkable_title Configuration %}

To enable the emulated Hue bridge, add the following to your `configuration.yaml` file:

```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry
emulated_hue:
  host_ip: 192.168.1.186
  listen_port: 8300
  off_maps_to_on_domains:
    - script
    - scene
  expose_by_default: true
  exposed_domains:
    - light
```

Configuration variables:

- **host_ip** (*Optional*): The IP address that your Home Assistant installation is running on. If you do not specify this option, the component will attempt to determine the IP address on its own.
- **listen_port** (*Optional*): The port the Hue bridge API web server will run on. If not specified, this defaults to 8300. This can be any free port on your system.
- **off_maps_to_on_domains** (*Optional*): The domains that maps an "off" command to an "on" command.
  
  For example, if `script` is included in the list, and you ask Alexa to "turn off the *water plants* script," the command will be handled as if you asked her to turn on the script.
  
  If not specified, this defaults to the following list:
  
  - `script`
  - `scene`

- **expose_by_default** (*Optional*): Whether or not entities should be exposed via the bridge by default instead of explicitly (see the 'echo' attribute later on). If not specified, this defaults to true.

- **exposed_domains** (*Optional*): The domains that are exposed by default if `expose_by_default` is set to true. If not specified, this defaults to the following list:
  - `switch`
  - `light`
  - `group`
  - `input_boolean`
  - `media_player`

With additional customization you will be able to specify the behaviour of the existing entities. 

```yaml
# Example customization
homeassistant:
  customize:
    light.bedroom_light:
      # Don't allow light.bedroom_light to be controlled by the emulated Hue bridge
      emulated_hue: false
    light.office_light:
      # Address light.office_light as "back office light"
      emulated_hue_name: "back office light"
```

The following are attributes that can be applied in the `customize` section:

- **emulated_hue** (*Optional*): Whether or not the entity should be exposed by the emulated Hue bridge. The default value for this attribute is controlled by the `expose_by_default` option.
- **emulated_hue_name** (*Optional*): The name that the emulated Hue will use. The default for this is the entity's friendly name.

### {% linkable_title License %}

Much of this code is based on work done by Bruce Locke on his [ha-local-echo](https://github.com/blocke/ha-local-echo) project, originally released under the MIT License. The license is located [here](https://github.com/blocke/ha-local-echo/blob/b9bf5dcaae6d8e305e2283179ffba64bde9ed29e/LICENSE).