---
layout: page
title: "Getting Started"
description: "Step by step guide to get started with Home Assistant."
date: 2014-12-18 22:57
sidebar: false
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
---

<div class='install-instructions-container'>
<input name='install-instructions' type='radio' id='normal-install' checked>
<input name='install-instructions' type='radio' id='raspberry-install'>
<input name='install-instructions' type='radio' id='docker-install'>
<label class='menu-selector normal' for='normal-install'>Install on local machine</label>
<label class='menu-selector raspberry' for='raspberry-install'>Install on a Raspberry Pi</label>
<label class='menu-selector docker' for='docker-install'>Install using Docker</label>


<div class='install-instructions normal'>
<p>Installing and running Home Assistant on your local machine is easy. Make sure you have <a href='https://www.python.org/downloads/' target="_blank">Python 3.4</a> installed and execute the following code in a console:</p>

<pre class='CodeRay'>$ pip3 install homeassistant
$ hass --open-ui
</pre>

<p>Running these commands will:</p>
<ol>
<li>Install Home Assistant</li>
<li>Launch Home Assistant and serve web interface on
<a href='http://localhost:8123' target="_blank">http://localhost:8123</a></li>
</ol>
</div> <!-- INSTALL-INSTRUCTIONS NORMAL -->


<div class='install-instructions docker'>

<p>Installation with Docker is straightforward. Adjust the following command so that <code>/path/to/your/config/</code> points at the folder where you want to store your config and run it:</p>

<pre class='CodeRay'><code>$ docker run -d --name="home-assistant" -v /path/to/your/config:/config -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro --net=host balloob/home-assistant
</code></pre>

<p>This will launch Home Assistant and serve its web interface from port 8123 on your Docker host.</p>

<p class='note'>
When using boot2docker on OS X you are unable to map the local time to your Docker container. Replace <code>-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro</code> with <code>-e "TZ=America/Los_Angeles"</code> (replacing America/Los_Angeles with <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones' target="_blank">your timezone</a>)
</p>

</div> <!-- INSTALL-INSTRUCTIONS DOCKER -->


<div class='install-instructions raspberry'>

<p>Home Assistant requires the Raspberry Pi to run <a href='https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/'>Raspbian Jessie</a>. This version has been released on September 24, 2015 and comes by default with Python 3.4 which is required for Home Assistant.</p>

<p>Execute the following code in a console:</p>

<pre class='CodeRay'><code>$ pip3 install homeassistant
$ hass --open-ui
</code></pre>

<p>Running these commands will:</p>
<ol>
 <li>Install Home Assistant</li>
 <li>Launch Home Assistant and serve web interface on <a href='http://localhost:8123'>http://localhost:8123</a></li>
</ol>

</div> <!-- INSTALL-INSTRUCTIONS RASPBERRY -->

<h3 id='troubleshooting'>Troubleshooting</h3>

<p>If you run into any issues, please see <a href='/getting-started/troubleshooting/'>the troubleshooting page</a>. It contains solutions to many of the more commonly encountered issues.</p>

<p>For additional help, in addition to this site, there are three sources:</p>
<ol>
 <li><a href='https://gitter.im/balloob/home-assistant'>Gitter Chatroom</a> for general Home Assistant discussions and questions.</li>
 <li><a href='https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/home-assistant-dev'>Development Mailing List</a> for development related questions and discussing new features.</li>
 <li><a href='https://github.com/balloob/home-assistant/issues'>GitHub Page</a> for issue reporting.</li>
</ol>

<h3>What's next</h3>
<p>If you want to have Home Assistant start on boot, <a href='/getting-started/autostart/'>autostart instructions</a> can be found here.</p>

<p>To see what Home Assistant can do, launch demo mode: <code>hass --demo-mode</code></p>

<p>To update Home Assistant to the latest release: <code>pip3 install --upgrade homeassistant</code></p>

<h3><a href='/getting-started/configuration/'>Next step: Configuring Home Assistant &raquo;</a></h3>