S2JYarbo Home Assistant

Home Assistant custom integration workspace for Yarbo devices using MQTT, published under the s2jyarbo domain to avoid conflicts with other Yarbo integrations.

This integration allows a user to view the current map of a YArbo, start and stop plans, Edit and Add No Go Zones and Pathways. More to come.

This repository contains:

• the s2jyarbo custom integration in custom_components/s2jyarbo
• a custom S2JYarbo topics sidebar panel
• a custom S2JYarbo overview card for the Home Assistant dashboard

The integration is currently MQTT-first. It subscribes to snowbot/<serial>/#, captures topic samples, builds device summaries from device/DeviceMSG, device/heart_beat, and device/data_feedback, and exposes those details through Home Assistant entities and custom UI.

See CHANGELOG.md for feature history.

Overview snapshot

Current capabilities

• Config flow with:
  • broker host or IP
  • broker port
  • TLS on or off
  • Yarbo serial number
• Local-push MQTT runtime with automatic reconnect
• Subscription to all device topics under snowbot/<serial>/#
• Topic discovery and sample capture in the S2JYarbo Topics sidebar panel
• Pairing of app/get_* and app/read_* commands with device/data_feedback
• Merged device/DeviceMSG document to capture fields that appear across multiple messages
• Diagnostic sensor entities for MQTT/runtime state
• Device tracker entity from GPS / RTK data
• Overview dashboard card with one widget per selected Yarbo device
• Integrated local map widget inside the overview card with:
  • decoded get_map geometry rendering
  • live Yarbo footprint and heading with fixed GPS offset correction
  • dock geometry and docking guard square rendering
  • plan_feedback overlay rendering with visited vs remaining plan path state
  • plan summary pill with plan name, progress, remaining area, and estimate
  • recharge_feedback return-to-dock route rendering
  • cloud_points_feedback collision/barrier rendering
  • follow mode, zoom, pan, and breadcrumb trail controls
  • in-map GPS/heading overlay
  • variable trail width based on mower motor state
  • magenta reverse trail segments
  • edit mode for pathways and no-go zones after a stored Home Assistant acknowledgement
  • pathway/no-go zone point editing, whole-object move, rotate, and no-go zone sizing controls
  • no-go zone preset/context actions for circle, 1 m square, and 1 m 8-point circle generation
  • unsaved-change protection while editing, including Home Assistant dashboard navigation
• Plan dropdown populated from read_all_plan
• Start percentage slider under the plan selector
• Device commands from the overview card:
  • start plan
  • pause
  • resume
  • stop
  • recharge
  • shutdown
  • restart
  • volume update
  • bulk refresh
• Auto-refresh of stale device data when Last Updated is missing or older than one hour
• Three custom cards to add to your dashboard.

Project layout

.
├── .github/workflows/          # Validation workflows
├── .homeassistant/              # Local Home Assistant config directory
├── custom_components/
│   └── s2jyarbo/                # S2JYarbo custom integration
├── scripts/                     # Local workflow helpers
├── CHANGELOG.md                 # Project change log
├── LICENSE                      # Distribution license
├── docker-compose.yml           # Local Home Assistant instance
├── hacs.json                    # HACS metadata
├── pyproject.toml               # Ruff configuration
└── requirements-dev.txt         # Optional local tooling

Install in Home Assistant

HACS

Once this repository is published and available on GitHub, the recommended install path is HACS.

1. Open HACS -> Integrations
2. Open the menu and choose Custom repositories
3. Add:
   • Repository: https://github.com/steves2j/Yarbo_HomeAssistant
   • Category: Integration
4. Search for S2JYarbo Home Assistant Integration
5. Install it
6. Restart Home Assistant
7. Add the integration from Settings -> Devices & Services

Manual install

1. Copy custom_components/s2jyarbo into your Home Assistant config directory under custom_components/
2. Restart Home Assistant
3. Add the integration from Settings -> Devices & Services

Example target path:

<config>/
└── custom_components/
    └── s2jyarbo/

Release and distribution notes

The repository now includes the minimum scaffolding for a normal HACS-style custom integration release:

• hacs.json
• LICENSE
• GitHub workflow for HACS validation
• GitHub workflow for hassfest

For a clean public release:

1. Push the repository to GitHub
2. Make sure the repository description, topics, and branding are set appropriately on GitHub
3. Bump custom_components/s2jyarbo/manifest.json version
4. Update CHANGELOG.md
5. Create a GitHub release/tag that matches the integration version
6. Verify the GitHub Actions pass

If the GitHub repository URL changes, update:

• custom_components/s2jyarbo/manifest.json
• this README

Home Assistant UI

Devices & Services

Each config entry creates:

• sensor.<name>_mqtt_connection
• sensor.<name>_discovered_mqtt_topics
• device_tracker.<name>_location

The integration can be reconfigured from the S2JYarbo card menu in Settings -> Devices & Services.

S2JYarbo Topics sidebar

The custom admin-only sidebar panel is registered as S2JYarbo Topics.

It shows:

• discovered topics
• latest sample per topic
• command/response pairing for app/get_* and app/read_*
• packet metadata
• merged DeviceMSG document

S2JYarbo dashboard cards

The frontend registers three separate Lovelace cards:

• custom:s2jyarbo-control-card
• custom:s2jyarbo-map-card
• custom:s2jyarbo-advanced-card

Recommended:

• add the three cards to a normal Lovelace dashboard
• configure each card for the same S2JYarbo device when you want a complete dashboard view

If you are using Home Assistant 2026.4 or newer, be aware that new installs use the new auto-generated Home/Overview dashboard by default. That view only exposes Add entity and does not behave like a normal Lovelace dashboard for custom cards.

In that case, the working path is:

1. Open Settings -> Dashboards
2. Click Add dashboard
3. Create a new dashboard
4. Open that dashboard
5. Click Edit dashboard
6. Click Add card
7. Add the S2JYarbo custom cards you want

If you prefer, you can also create a dashboard from the Overview (legacy) template and add the card there.

Example Lovelace setup:

type: custom:s2jyarbo-control-card
---
type: custom:s2jyarbo-map-card
---
type: custom:s2jyarbo-advanced-card

The control card includes:

• connection state
• serial number
• battery and recharge action
• Wi-Fi signal strength
• satellite count
• plan selection
• start percentage slider
• start / pause / resume / stop controls

The map card includes:

• decoded site geometry from get_map
• follow mode, zoom, pan, reset, breadcrumbs, and live device heading
• fixed GPS offset correction applied to the live Yarbo position
• trail width changes between transit and 550 mm cutting width based on mower motor state
• magenta trail segments for reverse movement
• plan_feedback overlays:
  • visited vs remaining plan path rendering
  • right-side plan summary pill
• recharge_feedback as a cyan dotted return-to-dock route
• cloud_points_feedback as tomato collision/barrier strips
• pathway, memory path, and no-go zone edit mode:
  • full-browser warning acknowledgement stored in Home Assistant
  • point insert, drag, and delete
  • Ctrl-drag whole-object move
  • Shift-scroll rotate
  • Ctrl-scroll no-go zone resize
  • no-go zone context menu actions for ToCircle, addSquare, and addCircle
  • unsaved-change prompts with discard, cancel, and save flows
• background aerial image support:
  • upload a background image
  • Shift-drag to move the image
  • scroll to scale the image
  • Ctrl-scroll to rotate the image around the cursor
  • opacity control
  • placement import/export JSON for backup/restore across Home Assistant instances

The advanced card includes:

• status, battery, firmware, GPS, network, and diagnostic details
• shutdown and restart controls
• volume control
• Wi-Fi details

MQTT behavior

The integration currently expects:

• requests on snowbot/<serial>/app/...
• live state from:
  • device/DeviceMSG
  • device/heart_beat
  • device/data_feedback

Notes:

• device/DeviceMSG payloads may be zlib-compressed JSON
• device/data_feedback is paired back to the originating command topic, preferably using the topic field inside the payload
• some brokers do not echo outbound app/* publishes back to subscribers; the integration does not rely on that echo for core device state updates

Development notes

• Code changes in custom_components/s2jyarbo are mounted directly into the local Home Assistant container.
• Frontend changes usually require a hard browser refresh.
• Backend changes usually require reloading the integration or restarting Home Assistant.
• The custom panel/frontend bundle is served from custom_components/s2jyarbo/panel/.

Known limitations

• This is still a custom integration under active development, not a finished package.
• Some Yarbo MQTT payloads and command shapes are being derived from observed traffic and cached samples.
• Native HA recorder may warn when topic/entity attributes become very large.

Reference docs

• Home Assistant development environment:
  • https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/development_environment/
• Home Assistant config flows:
  • https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/core/integration/config_flow/
• Home Assistant custom integration branding:
  • https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/core/integration/brand_images
• Home Assistant frontend icons:
  • https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/frontend/icons/

AI acknowledgement

There is no pretence. Most of this code was developed using AI. AI is a tool, not a replacement for a developer, and it handles a lot of the boring boilerplate work. It still makes enough mistakes that a human developer is required, as it is not yet at a stage where it can write unsupervised code reliably. Do not hate AI; see it as a tool, the next generation of autocomplete. Autocomplete with benefits.