Optional local AI / LLM analysis of update release notes

[ChrisBGL]

What problem would this solve?

Update Manager already uses cooldowns, community reports, scheduling and delayed installation, but cannot inspect release notes for breaking changes, migrations, changed defaults or required manual steps.

What would you like to happen?

Add an optional local LLM analysis step before auto-installation. Support OpenAI-compatible endpoints such as Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp or LocalAI.

Alternatives considered

No response

[klaptafel]

Thanks for the suggestion! I don't think I want to build LLM analysis into Update Manager itself. It would bring endpoints, models, keys and unreliable results that could wrongly block or wave through an update, and that's better decided by you in your own setup.

What I can imagine doing is making this possible with an automation instead. Update Manager already fires an update_manager_announced event some time before an auto-install runs, and the install can still be cancelled during that window. I could add the release notes (or at least the release URL) to that event, and a service to cancel a scheduled install. Then an automation could pass the notes to whatever model you like, for example through Home Assistant's AI Task, and cancel the install plus notify you if it spots a breaking change or a required manual step.

Would that cover what you have in mind?

[ChrisBGL]

Yes, absolutely — thanks for considering it!

I think that would actually be a very good solution and probably cleaner than integrating LLM support directly into Update Manager.

Adding the release notes/release URL to the "update_manager_announced" event together with a service to cancel the scheduled install would provide exactly the hooks needed. Then the AI part can remain completely external and users can choose whatever setup they prefer, for example Home Assistant AI Task, a local LLM, Ollama, LM Studio, etc.

That would also keep Update Manager deterministic and provider-independent, while still allowing an optional additional safety layer through automations.

So yes, that would cover what I had in mind very well. Thanks!

[klaptafel]

Good news, I've built this and it's out now in a pre-release: v0.12.0-beta.1 (https://github.com/HA-Update-Manager/ha-update-manager/releases/tag/v0.12.0-beta.1).

Two new services, update_manager.get_release_notes and update_manager.cancel_scheduled_install, plus a release_url field on the update_manager_announced event. If you get a chance to try it out with your own automation, I'd love to hear how it goes before this becomes the full release.

[klaptafel]

Small update: v0.12.0-beta.2 is out now (https://github.com/HA-Update-Manager/ha-update-manager/releases/tag/v0.12.0-beta.2). Found a couple of gaps while testing beta.1 myself: get_release_notes returned nothing at all for entities with no release_url of their own (e.g. Supervisor add-ons), and it could return a raw changelog's entire history instead of just the version actually being installed for a few others. Both fixed, it now matches the update-detail dialog's own Release notes section exactly.

[klaptafel]

And beta.3! Please let me know if this works for you and maybe once you have a working automation I can add it to a wiki-page on the repo.

[ChrisBGL]

Thanks! I’ve tested the new approach now and it works really well.

I’m using "update_manager_announced" to trigger a Home Assistant automation, fetch the release notes and analyze them with a local LLM via "ai_task.generate_data". If the AI detects a relevant breaking change/manual intervention, the scheduled update can be cancelled.

I’ve tested the full pipeline successfully with structured output. This is exactly what I was looking for — thanks for implementing the necessary hooks!

I’ll now leave it running for a while and see how it performs with real updates over time.

[klaptafel]

Glad to hear. Will release soon probably.

I’ve opened up discussions for the repo. Please share your automation over there to inspire others: https://github.com/HA-Update-Manager/ha-update-manager/discussions/categories/show-and-tell