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ESPHome 2026.10.0: Native ESP8266 builds and compressed updates

ESPHome 2026.10.0: Native ESP8266 builds and compressed updates
Jesse Hills
Jesse Hills
ESPHome Developer

NOTE

This is a beta release. Details on this page may change before the stable release is published.

Every month ESPHome ships a release like this one, so you can learn about new features, fixes, and other changes worth knowing about before you update.

Short on time? Here’s the quick version

Section titled “Short on time? Here’s the quick version”

Here’s the plain-language rundown for anyone short on time or newer to ESPHome; the full technical post continues below for anyone who wants it.

Action needed if you use any of these:

  • Lights with an initial_state: now actually respect it at boot, so if you had a light configured to come up on but it was quietly staying off, double-check the behavior is what you want after updating.
  • The codec_support_enabled option on speaker media players is gone; remove it from your config and set the pipeline format: to NONE to keep the old behavior, otherwise the config will no longer validate.
  • IR climate devices with supports_heat: false or supports_cool: false no longer offer the combined heat/cool auto mode by default - add supports_heat_cool: true to bring it back if you were relying on it.

New features: Updates install about a third smaller and proportionally faster on every platform ESPHome supports, and ESP8266 builds are considerably quicker end-to-end, including on recent Apple Silicon Macs that no longer need Rosetta.

Also in this release: 20 new components (including Wi-Fi motion sensing, a persistent counter, a new CO2 sensor, USB-UART bridging and TCP-UART), broader Zigbee cluster coverage, live light transition reporting, CSS color names in light actions, and a long list of smaller fixes and improvements.

If you’re running a typical config, there’s nothing else you need to look at before updating - aside from the items above, your setup should carry over cleanly.

If you’re running custom lambdas, external components, or a non-standard config, or you just want the full technical detail, keep reading below for the full release overview and feature writeups.

Components added in this release

Section titled “Components added in this release”
Improv ​via ​BLE
Bridge
CDC-​ACM ​UART ​Bridge
TCP ​UART
UART ​Mux
UART ​TCP
STCC4​
CO2​ ​&​ ​Temperature ​&​ ​Humidity
TF-​Luna
IR ​optical ​distance
PZEM-​6​L2​4​
3​-​Phase ​Voltage ​&​ ​Current ​&​ ​Power
Counter
Exponential ​Moving ​Average
Systa ​Bus
ESPectre
Wi-​Fi ​Motion
Xiaomi ​Body ​Scale
S2​0​0​,​ ​S4​0​0​
TAS2​7​8​0​
TAS5​8​xx
TAS5​8​0​5​M
Home ​Assistant
Select
Text
MIPI ​SPI ​Display ​Brightness
Resampler ​Microphone
Sendspin ​Switch
Template ​Time
RX8​0​2​5​T ​RTC
ICNT8​6​

Release overview

Section titled “Release overview”

ESPHome 2026.10.0 lands two platform-wide defaults that touch most of the fleet: the native ESP8266 Arduino toolchain is now the default build path, retiring Rosetta on Apple Silicon and cutting cold compile time nearly in half, and OTA uploads are compressed on ESP32, RP2040, LibreTiny and host through a new deflate decoder, so updates ship about a third fewer bytes and finish proportionally faster on slow or lossy links. The native API’s protobuf and controller-dispatch hot paths got another round of per-byte and per-instruction optimizations, 20+ field-packing PRs and a sweep moving codegen data from heap and RAM into flash tables trim RAM across every build, and the register_apply_action and sub_* codegen helpers remove hundreds of boilerplate C++ classes and Python lines across more than 150 components with no YAML changes. ESP-IDF builds now run cmake and ninja directly instead of through idf.py, and a --skip-bootloader flag plus mbedTLS and tool-startup trims save several more seconds per compile on Home Assistant Green class hardware. On top of that, 20 new components land, including Wi-Fi CSI motion sensing, USB-UART bridges with mux and tap seams, TCP-UART and UART-TCP, SPI Ethernet on KSZ8851SNL, a persistent counter sensor and a Sensirion STCC4 CO2 sensor, alongside a device-side Home Assistant onboarding wizard, outgoing API connections for NAT-ed devices, broader Zigbee cluster coverage and new light transition, color, resume-effect and e-paper features. The bundled Device Builder can now flash every supported chip family from the browser.

Upgrade checklist

Section titled “Upgrade checklist”
  • If you have ESP8266 devices, expect the first compile to be a clean build on the new native arduino toolchain; set toolchain: platformio under esp8266: to keep the old path (and plan to migrate before 2027.4.0).
  • If you set restore_mode: on a light with initial_state: {state: on/off}, verify the boot state is what you want - lights that previously booted off against your initial_state will now follow it.
  • If you set codec_support_enabled: on a speaker media player, remove it and switch the pipeline format: to NONE for the old all behaviour; configs that still carry the key now fail validation.
  • If you rely on a speaker or speaker_source media player muting itself at volume zero (or firing on_mute / on_unmute from a volume change), update your automations - volume and mute are now independent.
  • If you use climate_ir platforms with supports_heat: false or supports_cool: false and want to keep the heat_cool auto mode, add supports_heat_cool: true.
  • If you set buffer_size: on remote_receiver for ESP8266, RP2040, LibreTiny, ESP32-C2 or ESP32-C61, multiply the value by 4 to keep the same number of buffered pulses.
  • If you have usb_uart entries that could match the same USB device (overlapping VID/PID), split them with manufacturer and product filters - overlapping entries are now rejected at validation.
  • If you use epaper_spi with saturated pure green or magenta drawn by RGB value, review the output; monochrome conversion now uses perceived luminance. Also drop full_update_every above 1 on panels without partial refresh and add psram: for seeed-reterminal-sticky.
  • If you have a sendspin switch, add type: enabled to each entry.
  • If you build for the host platform, remove unsupported platformio_options keys and rewrite any separate-argument build_flags (such as -include pre.h) as a single entry; Windows host builds are no longer supported.
  • If you use homeassistant.action with more than 255 data/variable keys per action, split it - the config is now rejected at validation.
  • If you write lambdas that read tag after a delay in on_tag / on_tag_removed, note that tag is now passed by reference; existing read-only uses continue to work, but code that modified a local copy of the tag now modifies the shared reference.

ESP8266 native toolchain by default

Section titled “ESP8266 native toolchain by default”

The native Arduino toolchain foundation that landed dormant in 2026.9.0 is now the default for every ESP8266 build. @bdraco finished the stack with the compile driver and dispatch layer (#18539), ESPHome-built xtensa gcc 10.3 archives for Linux x86_64/arm64, macOS x86_64/arm64 and Windows x86_64 served from esphome-libs/xtensa-lx106-elf-toolchain instead of the registry package (#19849), and flipped the default to toolchain: arduino in #19886. The CI matrix now compiles every ESP8266 component test the same way (#19714, #19740).

  • Faster builds end-to-end - on an M5 Max against the same config an esphome compile runs in 9.2s cold instead of 17.8s, a warm-ccache rebuild in 2.8s instead of 7.6s, a no-op rebuild in 0.4s instead of 2.2s, and a one-line edit in 9.6s instead of 20.7s.
  • Apple Silicon without Rosetta - the registry package had no arm64 macOS build, so ESP8266 builds on recent Macs needed Rosetta 2, which Apple ends with macOS 28. The ESPHome-built archives are native on every supported host.
  • ESP8266 progress in Device Builder - the native build runs through ninja, so its [N/M] progress counters feed the device builder a compile percentage the way ESP-IDF builds already do.
  • Opt-out available, deprecated - a custom framework source, a framework version other than 3.1.2, an unlisted board or an unsupported host still work with toolchain: platformio. The PlatformIO path warns on validation and goes away in 2027.4.0.

Roughly 40% of ESPHome devices run on ESP8266, so the change touches a large slice of the fleet; the first build after upgrading is a clean build because the build directory’s toolchain changed.

Compressed OTA uploads on ESP32, RP2040, LibreTiny and host

Section titled “Compressed OTA uploads on ESP32, RP2040, LibreTiny and host”

@bdraco extended compressed OTA, which the ESP8266 already had via its gzip-aware bootloader, to every other platform ESPHome supports (#19037). RP2040 takes the same gzip path through the Arduino Pico stub. ESP32, LibreTiny and host inflate a raw deflate stream through a 4 KB window as it arrives, so an image goes over the network about one third smaller than before.

  • Automatic negotiation - a client bit and a server bit opt in; old clients and old firmware never see it, so pre-2026.10.0 devices update exactly as before.
  • Covered by the digest - the client sends the inflated image’s MD5, so the integrity check covers the decoder.
  • Big win on slow or lossy links - ESP32-C6 OpenThread, encrypted WiFi with 15% packet loss and any mesh-hop or VPN upload is transfer-bound; measured on an ESP32 at 15% simulated loss, upload time drops from 317/113s to 74/67s.
  • Allocation-safe - the 4.9 KB decoder session is allocated through RAMAllocator::make_unique so a heap-exhausted device falls back to an uncompressed upload instead of rebooting.

The flash cost is about 2 KB on ESP32 and under 100 bytes on ESP8266 and RP2040 for the negotiation glue.

API protobuf throughput and controller dispatch

Section titled “API protobuf throughput and controller dispatch”

A sustained push on the native API’s hot paths continued through this release. @bdraco collapsed the three protobuf decode virtuals into one and removed the vtable from decode (#19016, #19029), made generated encode and size entry points type-erased (#19015), passed the encode cursor by value through the protobuf helpers so it stays in a register (#19014), counted packed varints a machine word at a time (#20122), decoded base64 in a single pass (#20123), and kept the write cursor in a register while emitting sub-message tags inline (#20124).

A separate change dispatches controller updates through generated direct calls instead of a runtime registry: APIServer and WebServer drop the Controller base class and the state-publish path goes from 25 instructions with 8 loads and 2 indirect calls to 10 instructions with 2 loads and direct calls only, costing 256 B less flash and 24 B less RAM on a typical ESP32 build (#19588). The web server also builds state documents in a stack arena and sends events straight from the caller’s buffers so a state event does no heap allocation at all (#19376, #19383).

External components that subclass Controller or hand-write a non-const AudioFile * need small updates; the migration notes are in each PR.

Memory optimizations across every build

Section titled “Memory optimizations across every build”

@bdraco led a tree-wide sweep to shrink per-instance structures and move constant codegen data out of RAM.

  • Field packing - roughly twenty PRs grouped single-byte flags next to other byte fields on speaker, mixer, i2s_audio, voice_assistant, microphone, sendspin, template, ledc, rtttl, ld2450, remote_receiver, esp32_ble, improv_ble, wifi and more (#20135 through #20152), reclaiming three bytes of padding at a time across many instances.
  • Empty-base packing - [[no_unique_address]] lets the empty Scheduler mutex, empty script argument tuple, empty template unused members and the empty WiFi pending_ flags struct take no space on single-threaded platforms (#20139, #20140, #20141, #20142); App drops from 156 to 152 bytes on ESP8266.
  • Light state 12 bytes smaller - the effect index became a uint16_t sharing a word with the flags, the gamma factor rode along in the flash lookup table, and the flash transition length only compiles in when a light sets flash_transition_length (#19711). LightState goes from 180 to 168 bytes.
  • StaticVector and FreeRTOS handles embedded in place - the ring buffer, FreeRTOS queue, static task and ESP32 logger buffer now use the static structure as their own handle instead of allocating one next to it (#20129, #20133, #20134).
  • Codegen data in flash - audio files, display init sequences, select options, font glyphs, RC switch protocols, allowed origins, UDP addresses, BLE MAC filter lists, matrix keypad keys, Home Assistant action fields and select.is option lists are now constexpr tables in flash instead of heap or RAM objects built in setup() (#20072, #20079, #20081, #20085, #20086, #20088, #20089, #20090, #20091, #20108, #20110, #20117, #20237); the Voice PE config saves 192 B of RAM and 272 B of flash from the audio files change alone.
  • Header inlining - trivial single-store setters moved into headers on template, bme280_base, bme680, bmp280_base, mqtt_subscribe, tsl2561, tsl2591, esp32_camera, web_server, waveshare_epaper, bang_bang, graphical_display_menu, adc, thermostat, openthread, st7789v, max44009, sds011, haier, lc709203f (#19278 through #19299) and setters that pass defaults are skipped at codegen on api, template, uart and version (#19227, #19232, #20066, #20067, #20069).
  • ESP8266 log tags and flash strings - every ESPHOME_LOG_TAG on ESP8266 now rides in flash (#20290, #19574, #19578) and the long-inert esp8266_store_log_strings_in_flash option that forced them into RAM is deprecated and ignored (#19577).
  • ESP32 unused subsystems trimmed - a flash_chip option under esp32: framework: advanced: drops the unused flash-vendor driver tables, saving up to 5 KB of RAM and image on an ESP32-S3 with octal flash (#19217), and nvs_cache_in_psram moves ESP-IDF’s internal NVS page cache into PSRAM for an extra ~10 KB of internal heap on boards with guaranteed PSRAM (#19378).

Codegen architecture: register_apply_action

Section titled “Codegen architecture: register_apply_action”

@bdraco finished one of the largest coordinated refactors in recent memory. register_apply_action and register_apply_condition turn an action or condition that only forwards config values to its parent into a field table with no C++ class and no builder, with constants and inline lambdas baked into one stateless function (#19469, #19655).

Over 80 components moved onto it in this release, covering actions and conditions on cover, fan, climate, light, switch, valve, lock, number, text, select, event, media_player, speaker, voice_assistant, mqtt, globals, update, ledc, esp32_ble_tracker, alarm_control_panel, rtttl, sprinkler, servo, haier, midea, mitsubishi_cn105, nextion, dfplayer, hlk_fm22x, max7219digit, fingerprint_grow, ezo_pmp, sim800l, senseair, scd30, scd4x, sen5x, nau7802, ds1307, pcf8563, pcf85063, rx8130, bm8563, pzemac, pzemdc, bl0906, cm1106, hc8, htu21d, hdc302x, cs5460a, cc1101, sx126x, sx127x, pulse_counter, pulse_meter, display_menu_base, hub75, snapshot, router, animation, rotary_encoder, audio_dac, online_image, duty_time, pipsolar, aic3204, pmwcs3, mcp4461, ufire_ec, ufire_ise, max6956, grove_tb6612fng, hbridge, lightwaverf, openthread, mixer, speaker_source, emontx, zigbee and more. The parallel register_apply_condition sweep covered switch, binary sensor, fan, light, media player, script, lock, time, mqtt, speaker, display, pn532, tinyusb, voice_assistant, sun, alarm_control_panel and pid.

Each converted action is one pointer per action instead of one per field, with no per-component action class. Alongside it a shared register_simple_action / register_parented_action / register_bare_condition set covers the three remaining builder shapes (#19321, #19322). The removed action classes were only instantiated by codegen and never reachable from user lambdas, so no YAML changes.

Sub-entity codegen helpers

Section titled “Sub-entity codegen helpers”

Over 150 hub components wired up optional child entities with the same three-line pattern per key. @bdraco added new_sub_sensor, new_sub_binary_sensor and new_sub_text_sensor on top of a shared entity_helpers module, then expanded to seven entity types with bound sub_* helpers (#19725, #19754). Over 100 components moved to the new helpers across this release’s merge window, covering ina2xx_base, pzemac/pzemdc, bl0906/bl0939/ bl0940/bl0942, hlw8012/hlw8032, cse7766, scd30, bme280_base, bme680, bmp280_base/bmp3xx_base/ bmp581_base/spa06_base/mlx90393, bmp085/dps310/lps22/mpl3115a2/ms5611, hdc1080/hdc2010/hdc2080/ hdc302x/hte501, aht10/am2315c/am2320/dht/dht12, atm90e26/atm90e32, ld2410/ld2412/ld2420/ld2450, sgp30, sgp4x, pmsx003, sps30, hm3301, sun_gtil2, veml7700, tsl2591, tcs34725, hmc5883l, htu21d, ccs811, inkbird_ibsth1_mini, mopeka_pro_check / mopeka_std_check, kuntze, ufm01, alpha3, max9611, ufire_ec/ufire_ise, kmeteriso, mcp9600, airthings_wave_base/airthings_wave_plus, ruuvitag, seeed_mr24hpc1/seeed_mr60bha2/seeed_mr60fda2, mhz19, growatt_solar, havells_solar, sdm_meter, wireguard, pm2005, ee895, mmc5603/mmc5983, gdk101, smt100, pmwcs3, emc2101, ens160_base, zyaura, cs5460a, es8388, sht3xd, shtcx, combination, libretiny, sound_level, bthome_mithermometer, atc_mithermometer, pvvx_mithermometer and a dozen Xiaomi BLE sensors.

Each converted hub drops from three lines per key to a single sub_sensor(), sub_binary_sensor() or sub_text_sensor() call, so a 600-line hub config in Python becomes a few dozen declarative calls while the generated main.cpp stays identical.

ESP-IDF build speed

Section titled “ESP-IDF build speed”

@bdraco replaced the idf.py wrapper with direct cmake and ninja calls, matching the native ESP8266 and host paths (#19871). The firmware is byte-identical across nine scenarios on ESP-IDF 5.5.5 and 6.1.0 and a CI check runs the real idf.py on a freshly built tree so an IDF bump cannot drift unnoticed. The win is Python startup and the removed second ninja all: about 5 seconds saved per build on a Home Assistant Green.

Several supporting pieces compound the saving.

  • --skip-bootloader flag for OTA-only builds disables the bootloader sub-build when the update will never deliver one, saving 7.5 s per compile on a warm ccache on an M5 Max and proportionally more on Green-class hardware (#19925).
  • Build-and-size in one ninja run instead of two (#19997) and the json2 size data emitted so the link edge is not blocked (#18848).
  • ESP-IDF tool paths resolved once per build and the IDF version read in-process instead of starting idf_tools (#19996, #19998).
  • mbedTLS trimmed to the client-only defaults needed by ESPHome’s HTTPS and MQTT paths, and disabled entirely when no component needs crypto (#18877, #19088).
  • nRF52 shared ccache between devices and native-toolchain cache settings (#20027, #20028).

Native API outgoing connections

Section titled “Native API outgoing connections”

@bdraco added outgoing_connection under api: so the device opens the native API connection itself instead of waiting to be reached (#18919). With no host: the device remembers the last dial-back client and reconnects when that client stops reaching it; with host: set the device always dials out, which covers a peer behind NAT or on a routed segment it cannot reach inbound.

  • Noise only - the option requires encryption: because the connection can leave the LAN and the shared key is the only trustworthy way to verify the peer.
  • Protocol unchanged - the device stays the Noise responder; it only sends its server hello first so the peer can pick the key by name and MAC.
  • Deep-sleep aware - deep-sleep builds skip the connect delay and dial as soon as the network is up.

The cost on an ESP32 is 32 B of RAM with outgoing_connection plus a host, 48 B when learning the target. aioesphomeapi 46.4.0 and Home Assistant core already know how to answer.

Setup wizard for Home Assistant onboarding

Section titled “Setup wizard for Home Assistant onboarding”

@jesserockz added a device-side setup wizard that Home Assistant can show during onboarding (#19966). A wizard: block under api: describes a series of pages with device entities to highlight (an enable switch, for example) and inputs that pick Home Assistant entities the device needs. Inputs can be linked to a homeassistant-platform entity so the device subscribes to it automatically, or stand alone as a plain entity id a lambda can use.

The wizard is fixed at build time and compressed with zstd on the Python side, so the device ships one blob out of flash and the format can grow without new proto fields. On an ESP32-IDF build a single-switch wizard adds about 0.4 KB of flash; a config with no wizard adds nothing.

NOTE

The wizard will not be shown until Home Assistant 2026.11. Older versions ignore it and add the device as usual.

Light transition state publishing and color names

Section titled “Light transition state publishing and color names”

@nohat added an opt-in transition_state_publish_interval on every light so Home Assistant and MQTT subscribers see the live value during a fade or flash instead of just the start and end (#11968). Values below 150 ms are rejected; 200 to 250 ms is a good value. The build pays nothing unless at least one light sets the option, and each light grows by 8 bytes of RAM when the option is enabled. This also lays the groundwork for hold-to-dim.

Two other light-side quality-of-life improvements landed from @clydebarrow: CSS color names and 0xRRGGBB values anywhere a light state is specified, including strobe and addressable_color_wipe (#19712, #19874); and resume_effect: from @TheRealChriAnd that resumes the running effect after a plain turn-off / turn-on (#17791). restore_mode is replaced by a more expressive restore_state that can leave, invert or force a specific value per property, with a warning when a legacy restore_mode would silently discard an explicit initial_state (#18997).

Host platform builds natively

Section titled “Host platform builds natively”

@jesserockz moved the host platform off PlatformIO onto ninja and the machine’s own compiler, matching how ESP32 and ESP8266 already build (#19214). Compilers are picked from PATH (g++/gcc first, then clang, honouring CC/CXX), ccache is used when present, and libraries go through the shared converter into archives. Build-flag routing follows SCons semantics, and cg.set_cpp_standard replaces the old -std=gnu++20 build flag so C sources never see a C++ standard. Measured on an M5 Max against the same host config and the same 128 objects, a cold build takes 2.4 s instead of 3.9 s, a no-op rebuild 0.3 s instead of 1.2 to 1.4 s, and a clean build with a warm ccache 0.5 s instead of 4.0 s.

USB bridging, mux and serial proxy taps

Section titled “USB bridging, mux and serial proxy taps”

A connected effort landed around sharing physical ports between a USB host, an on-device component and remote API consumers. Starting from @kbx81’s new bridge component with its first cdc_acm_uart platform (#11689), the ESP32-S2/S3/P4 can present as a USB-to-UART bridge with dynamic line coding, DTR/RTS output, and clean pause()/resume() for sharing the UART with on-device code. The new uart_mux component (#19066) routes a UART to either the bridge or a local consumer like zwave_proxy, driven by tinyusb on_mount / on_unmount automations added in #19067.

Alongside it, serial_proxy grew a protocol-agnostic tap seam and port mode so Home Assistant can flash through a port that normally carries a protocol (#18955) and a USB_SERIAL port type plus a SerialProxyIdentity message so clients can target a specific USB device even when the topology changes (#19308, by @puddly). usb_uart gained descriptor filters for iManufacturer and iProduct for devices that share VID/PID (#19095) and a claim_comm_interface: false option that frees a USB host hardware channel per device on channel-poor hosts like the ESP32-S3 (#18969).

Networking, ethernet and connectivity

Section titled “Networking, ethernet and connectivity”
  • TCP-UART bridges - @Bascht74 added two complementary components: tcp_uart presents a remote TCP socket as a UART, so Modbus and similar can talk to a network-reachable serial device without an on-device hardware UART (#19884); uart_tcp copies a hardware UART to a TCP socket in either direction (#19887). A server role with IPv4 allow-lists, a shared TcpListener, and a diagnostic disconnects counter follow in #20026, #20037 and #20096.
  • KSZ8851SNL SPI Ethernet - @jesserockz added Microchip’s KSZ8851SNL to the ethernet component’s SPI chip list, so boards built around it can now use their Ethernet port (#19883).
  • Forced WiFi roam check - a new wifi.roam action and force_roam() API call trigger an immediate roaming scan from automations (#17349, by @clydebarrow).
  • ESP32 UART clock source - @ikruglov added a clock_source option that keeps a UART stable through dynamic frequency scaling: a 9600 bps Modbus RTU bus that was flooded by timeouts under DFS runs cleanly with clock_source: XTAL, and idle power drops noticeably because DFS becomes usable (#16486).

Signed OTA mDNS and plaintext migration lane

Section titled “Signed OTA mDNS and plaintext migration lane”

@kbx81 made devices built with signed_ota_verification advertise an ota_signed=1 TXT record on _esphomelib._tcp, so a discovery client like Device Builder knows up front it needs a trusted key before compiling anything (#19407). To bridge the long tail of devices that cannot encrypt yet, @bdraco added allow_plaintext_upload: true under ota: encryption: so one migration install can still land after the plaintext fallback is removed in 2027.3.0; the uploader logs that the install went plaintext and tells the user to remove the option once the device is seen encrypting (#19396).

ESPHome Device Builder

Section titled “ESPHome Device Builder”

The bundled ESPHome Device Builder can now flash every chip family that ESPHome supports from the browser. Before this release, browser flashing worked only for ESP32 and ESP8266. This section covers the main changes merged since the 2026.9.0 release notes.

Other Device Builder changes in this release:

  • Signed OTA devices - a device that advertises ota_signed=1 rejects any OTA update that is not signed by a key it trusts. After adoption, the user’s own build is unsigned. When the config has no signing key, @kbx81 made the dashboard flash the first build over USB (#2895, frontend#1991).
  • Faster OTA builds - OTA updates compile with the new --skip-bootloader flag. On ESP32, the build skips the bootloader and factory image, which an OTA update never uses. This saves tens of seconds per device on a Home Assistant Green. Other platforms run a full build as before (#2874).
  • Optional MCP endpoint - MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard way for an AI assistant to call tools. The new /api/mcp endpoint lets an MCP client, such as Home Assistant’s MCP integration, read and edit configs, add components and automations, and validate, compile and install (#2733, #2736, #2789). It is optional. The Device Builder never calls an AI model itself. The endpoint does nothing until you connect an MCP client, and everything else works the same without one.
  • Offline duration - @siegeld added how long a device has been offline. The status pill shows Offline 2h (#2842, frontend#1862).
  • Network column - @davidcoulson added a Network column and filter. It shows whether a device uses WiFi or Ethernet (#2692, frontend#1737).
  • Analyze memory - Expert Mode has a new action that runs esphome analyze-memory. It shows the flash and RAM use of each component (#2835, frontend#1816).
  • Flash chip setting - the ESP32 framework form shows the new flash_chip option (#2870).
  • Version history - the Device Builder now only commits to a git repository rooted at the ESPHome config directory. If your whole Home Assistant /config is a git repository, ESPHome edits are no longer committed to it (#2882).

New components

Section titled “New components”

The release adds a strong batch of new components and platforms:

Other notable features

Section titled “Other notable features”
  • Zigbee for ESP32 grows substantially - @luar123 added measurement-cluster support (cluster: device_class) that exposes sensors over typed Zigbee clusters instead of generic analog/binary input (#17388), switch support (#17579) and number support (#20243).
  • Motion gestures and orientation - @clydebarrow added orientation sensors, face-up/face-down/free-fall/moving binary sensors and a shake event platform on the motion IMU hub (#16787).
  • Homeassistant text, select and button platforms by @jesserockz mirror live HA entities onto the device with no heap allocation after setup (#19964).
  • Resampler microphone platform by @remcom converts a 48 kHz mic to the 16 kHz voice_assistant and micro_wake_word need, laying the groundwork for full duplex I2S (#19953).
  • Audio-HTTP private CA by @TheSwert lets TTS and announcement playback trust a private CA, inheriting from http_request when the per-source key is omitted (#19392).
  • Snapshot animated GIFs - @clydebarrow extended the snapshot display platform to record short animated clips (#19421), and the e-paper driver gained a full_update_next action, four-level grayscale on the Seeed reTerminal Sticky, a fix for partial-refresh fading on SSD1677 panels (#19213, by @FuNK3Y), SSD1681 support (#18073, by @snoack) and an is_updating condition (#20261).
  • I/O expander selection by I2C address - @clydebarrow lets canned display configs on boards with multiple identical expanders (M5Stack Tab5) pick the right hub by address instead of relying on single-instance auto-pick (#18939).
  • Template time by @ilikecake adds a lambda-driven time platform for simulation and testing (#14838).
  • !include with a condition: by @j9brown makes conditional file inclusion a first-class YAML construct instead of a two-step substitution trick (#19455).
  • esphome: suspend_loop: and loop_interval: by @luar123 let low-power configs sleep longer with no watchdog risk and no responsiveness loss when a component wakes the loop (#18136).
  • mk2pvrouter by @FredM67 gained tag-based sensor defaults, a binary_sensor platform and a text_sensor platform (#18870, #19719, #19720).
  • Hoermann HCP by @RaHehl adds the motor’s serial number and firmware version as diagnostic text sensors, a door_state text sensor that distinguishes vent, half-open and stopped states (#19543, #19747), and switches to one-shot commands with the lamp tracked as an absolute state (#19765).
  • LVGL animations and MIPI AMOLED light - @clydebarrow added animatable scale properties, ease_in/ease_out curves, and a debug_outline option (#19420), plus a MIPI SPI light platform for AMOLED brightness control (#20212).
  • Sendspin by @kahrendt gained manufacturer/model/firmware identity options (#18792), a switch platform to enable and disable the client (#19361) and mixer ducking that now goes up to 255 dB (#19347).
  • nRF52 2001-baud touch by @bdraco reboots an nRF52 straight into the application without going through DFU, so a host can “restart device” over USB (#19727).
  • ESP32 remote_receiver buffer - @bdraco resized the RMT ring from a flat 10 KB to four slots of receive_symbols, saving about 15 KB of free heap per two receivers with no decode regression (#19100); #19101 also fixed a decade-old bug where buffer_size was documented in bytes but allocated as entries on non-RMT platforms.
  • i2s_audio volume ramping by @kahrendt smooths software volume changes to avoid clicks (#19302), and speaker/speaker_source now treat a volume of zero as true silence regardless of volume_min while keeping mute independent of volume (#18412, #19305, #19307).
  • Zephyr mcuboot status LED by @tomaszduda23 exposes the bootloader-driven update LED (#16322).
  • AEG Hob2Hood IR protocol by @Mat931 adds the fan and light commands used by AEG induction hobs on remote_base (#4687).
  • PID climate deadband tuning by @ngolf exposes deadband multipliers and thresholds as runtime actions (#14730).
  • Mipi SPI SPD2010 by @grischard adds the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.46 to mipi_spi (#19056).
  • BTHome 0x45 and 0x2E - @mtmatteo79 decoded the standard BTHome v2 temperature (0.1 C sint16) and humidity (1 % uint8) objects, so Shelly BLU H&T sensors now report their values instead of silently publishing nothing (#19956).
  • DFPlayer by @myztillx added a dfplayer.set_current_track_repeat action so the repeat flag can be toggled mid-playback (#9186).

Codebase correctness and test coverage

Section titled “Codebase correctness and test coverage”

A long sweep by @bdraco and others gave over 60 classes a user-provided default constructor so they no longer carry 1264 bytes of value-initialised zero fill at every boot: App itself (#19109) and StaticVector (#19110), then binary_sensor::BinarySensor, text_sensor::TextSensor, TemplateButton, TemplateSensor, TemplateTextSensor, TemplateEvent, TemplateBinarySensor, TemplateSelect, SettleFilter, DelayAction, StatusBinarySensor, VersionTextSensor, UptimeSecondsSensor, InternalTemperatureSensor, IDFUARTComponent, GPIOBinarySensor, SafeModeComponent, IntervalSyncer, IPAddressEthernetInfo, RestartButton, HttpRequestIDF, PerformForcedCalibrationAction, FactoryResetButton (ld2450), BaudRateSelect, DistanceResolutionSelect, LightOutControlSelect, BluetoothSwitch, EngineeringModeSwitch, MultiTargetSwitch, LightThresholdNumber, PresenceTimeoutNumber, Automation, ESP8266PWM, BluetoothConnection, BluedroidGattClient, GPIOSwitch, RestartSwitch, DelayedOnFilter, DelayedOffFilter, PCF8574GPIOPin and PCA9554GPIOPin (#19111 through #19210). On an ESP32-S3 Apollo config this alone removes one 1264 B memset and shaves 20 B of flash per class.

Many previously untested branches on binary_sensor, sensor, climate, fan, light, select, event, cc1101, udp, espnow, sx126x, sx127x gained component tests, and GCC format warnings on climate, display, sensor, uart, light, mk2pvrouter, speaker, midea, modbus, dlms_meter, api, json, micro_wake_word, ufm01 and xdb401 were fixed so a tightened format-sensitive build is clean (#19936 through #19989 and many others).

Thank you, contributors

Section titled “Thank you, contributors”

This release includes 786 pull requests from over 60 contributors. A huge thank you to everyone who made 2026.10.0 possible:

  • @bdraco - 564 PRs including the native ESP8266 toolchain by default, compressed OTA on every platform, native API outgoing connections, register_apply_action, direct ESP-IDF cmake/ninja builds and tree-wide protobuf and memory optimizations
  • @clydebarrow - 22 PRs including the LVGL scheduling and animation overhaul, motion gesture detection, animated GIF snapshots, I/O expander pin providers and a sweep of light enhancements (color names, strobe fix, persistent EMA and counter sensors)
  • @Bascht74 - 19 PRs building the new tcp_uart and uart_tcp components on top of a reusable TCP client link, listener, IPv4 allow list and reconnect helpers
  • @jesserockz - 17 PRs including the Home Assistant device wizard, homeassistant text/select/button platforms, KSZ8851SNL SPI ethernet and the native host build via ninja
  • @kbx81 - 16 PRs introducing the new bridge and uart_mux components, serial_proxy and tinyusb extensions, and PN71xx/PN532 NFC transport and tag-handling fixes
  • @kahrendt - 13 PRs updating esp-audio-libs to 4.x, refining speaker DAC/volume handling and extending sendspin with mDNS runtime enable/disable and a switch platform
  • @luar123 - 11 PRs adding Zigbee switch and number support, measurement-cluster device_class exposure, and new suspend_loop/loop_interval core options
  • @swoboda1337 - 11 PRs bumping ESP32 Arduino/platform and wireguard libraries, refining climate_ir encoding and tightening esp32_hosted compatibility
  • @leodrivera - 8 PRs reworking climate_ir supported-mode handling and shrinking state across fujitsu_general, gree and mitsubishi
  • @tomaszduda23 - 7 PRs adding initial nRF Connect SDK 3.4.0 / Zephyr 4.x build support, BLE NUS MTU and nRF52 deep-sleep power management
  • @remcom - 5 PRs including the new RX8025T RTC, TAS2780 and TAS58xx audio amplifiers, and the resampler microphone platform
  • @j9brown - 5 PRs including the new STCC4 CO2 sensor and conditional !include support in substitutions
  • @FredM67 - 4 PRs adding mk2pvrouter binary_sensor and text_sensor platforms with tag-based defaults
  • @puddly - 3 PRs adding USB host descriptor filters and the serial_proxy USB_SERIAL port type
  • @davidcoulson - 3 PRs fixing IPv6 SLAAC behavior on wifi and ethernet, and adding a bluetooth_proxy advertisement filter hook
  • @RaHehl - 3 PRs extending hoermann_hcp with serial number, firmware version and door-state text sensors
  • @vonpanda - 3 PRs fixing the platformio ccache path for non-root containers and tidying CLI address-cache handling
  • @Mat931 - 2 PRs adding the new systa_bus component and the AEG Hob2Hood infrared protocol
  • @rwrozelle - 2 PRs rewriting openthread’s esp.cpp against the new esp functions and fixing set_sockaddr() IPv4 validation
  • @jeroen85 - 2 PRs tightening web_server_idf EventSource timeout and HTTP header limit handling
  • @guillempages - 2 PRs cleaning up http_request and runtime_image log output
  • @exciton - 2 PRs fixing deferred modbus server replies and silencing unused-function warnings in user builds
  • @candrews - the new TF-Luna LiDAR distance sensor component
  • @francescopace - the new espectre Wi-Fi CSI motion detection component
  • @nuttytree - the new PZEM-6L24 three-phase energy monitor sensor

Also thank you to @asergunov, @myztillx, @nohat, @ngolf, @ilikecake, @dckiller51, @ikruglov, @TheRealChriAnd, @snoack, @danepowell, @carriewattsmake, @iago-veiga, @matt123p, @grischard, @rexmoriarty, @FuNK3Y, @pleasantone, @TheSwert, @Xiretza, @oxynatOr, @snabb, @dalklein, @tronikos, @n-IA-hane, @ryan-ronnander, @crnjan, @elpollodiablo, @catthetech, @techdregs, @patagonaa, @michaelheichler, @randybb, @cpruijsen, @mtmatteo79, @heythisisnate, @ssieb, @mrtoy-me, @ahpohl, @abderbejaoui, @makstech for their contributions, and to everyone who reported issues, tested pre-releases, and helped in the community.

Breaking changes

Section titled “Breaking changes”

Platform changes

Section titled “Platform changes”
  • Host: The host platform now builds natively with ninja instead of PlatformIO. Keys under esphome.platformio_options other than build_unflags, lib_deps and lib_ignore are ignored with a warning, and platformio_options.build_flags still works but is deprecated in favour of esphome.build_flags. Flags that take a separate argument (such as -include pre.h) must be written as a single build_flags entry; --toolchain platformio is rejected on host. Windows is refused because the host sources use POSIX interfaces. #19214
  • ESP8266: The native arduino toolchain is now the default. To keep the previous behaviour, set toolchain: platformio under esp8266: or pass --toolchain platformio on the command line. A custom framework source, a framework version other than 3.1.2, or an unlisted board still requires the PlatformIO toolchain, which now emits a deprecation warning and will be removed in 2027.4.0. #19886

Component changes

Section titled “Component changes”
  • Light: Added a new restore_state: option that replaces restore_mode:. The old key still works and remains valid, but is now deprecated. A light configured with initial_state: {state: on} and no explicit restore_mode: now actually boots on, instead of being silently forced off by the previous ALWAYS_OFF default. Monochrome colour mixing for on/off state now prefers ON/OFF tokens. #18997
  • Speaker: Removed the deprecated codec_support_enabled option from the speaker media player. Configs that still set the key now fail validation; use the pipeline format: setting, with format: NONE replacing the old all mode. #19074
  • Speaker: In the speaker media player, volume and mute are now independent. Setting the volume to zero is silent but no longer reports the player as muted, on_mute / on_unmute no longer fire from volume changes, and changing the volume while muted keeps the mute on. #19307
  • Speaker Source: The same volume/mute independence now applies to the speaker_source media player: a saved volume of zero no longer forces mute on at boot, and on_mute / on_unmute no longer fire from volume changes. #18412
  • Serial Proxy: Added a tap interface and port mode (RAW / PROTOCOL), controlled only by the live subscriber via a new API request. Every port write, configure, modem-pin, flush and mode operation now requires being the current subscriber. #18955
  • USB Host / USB UART: Added manufacturer and product descriptor filters for the usb_uart platform. Validation is stricter: two usb_uart entries can no longer match the same USB device, so configurations with overlapping VID/PID entries now fail at validation time. #19095
  • Remote Receiver: On ESP32 with the current RMT driver, the ring buffer is now sized from receive_symbols by default (four slots, around 3136 bytes at the defaults) instead of a fixed 10kb. Explicit buffer_size: values still override it. #19100
  • Remote Receiver: On ESP8266, RP2040, LibreTiny, ESP32-C2 and ESP32-C61, buffer_size: is now interpreted as bytes rather than entries, matching the validator. The default moves from 1000b to 4000b so the number of buffered pulses stays the same; an explicit value must be multiplied by 4 to keep the same pulse count. #19101
  • E-Paper SPI: Monochrome colour conversion now uses Rec.601 luma, so some saturated colours render differently (pure green (0,255,0) was black and is now white; magenta (255,0,255) was white and is now black). Grays, black, white, red, blue, yellow and cyan are unchanged. full_update_every above 1 is rejected on panels without partial refresh, seeed-reterminal-sticky now requires psram:, SSD1677 panels with partial refresh allocate a second frame buffer, and seeed-reterminal-sticky-gray4 requires a width that is a multiple of 8 when dimensions: is overridden. #19213
  • Climate IR: CLIMATE_MODE_HEAT_COOL is no longer advertised when either supports_heat: or supports_cool: is false. A new supports_heat_cool: key overrides the default when a device does not follow the rule. Platforms built on climate_ir (except mitsubishi, which is unchanged, and gree, which changes only for supports_cool: false) no longer offer the heat_cool mode in those configurations. #19483
  • Hoermann HCP: Commands are now sent once per status answer, following the Hoermann bus accessory. Open, close, set position, vent and half-open requests issued while the door is already moving now only stop the door, so a burst of commands can no longer reverse or restart it at speed. The lamp is tracked as an absolute state. #19765
  • Sendspin: The sendspin switch platform now requires a type: option. The only supported value today is enabled. #20189

Undocumented API changes

Section titled “Undocumented API changes”

These are C++ API changes that are not covered by the formal breaking change policy because the methods are internal or undocumented. Lambda users and external component authors may still want to be aware of them.

Removed deprecated members

Section titled “Removed deprecated members”

  • Sensor: The public raw_state member is gone. Use get_raw_state() instead. #19077

    // Before
    float v = id(my_sensor).raw_state;
    // After
    float v = id(my_sensor).get_raw_state();

  • Modbus Controller: The forwarding shims in the modbus_controller namespace for value_type_is_float(), modbus_register_read_function(), modbus_register_write_function(), c_to_hex(), the *_from_hex_str() family, the vector overload of get_data(), mask_and_shift_by_rightbit(), number_to_payload(), payload_to_number() and float_to_payload() are removed. The replacements live in modbus::helpers. The span overloads and coil_from_vector() are kept until 2027.2.0. #19076

    // Before, in a lambda
    modbus_controller::c_to_hex('A');
    // After
    modbus::helpers::c_to_hex('A');

Remote base protocol methods are no longer virtual

Section titled “Remote base protocol methods are no longer virtual”
  • Remote Base: encode, decode and dump on RemoteProtocol<T> are now plain members. External protocol classes must drop override on these methods, and listeners / dumpers that previously registered themselves from setup() must register from to_code() using the new remote_base.add_listener(), remote_base.add_dumper() and remote_base.attach_receiver() helpers. A protocol used only from C++ or a lambda (for example id(tx).transmit<remote_base::NECProtocol>(data)) needs remote_base.request_protocol("<name>") to keep its source in the build. #19084

NFC: tags passed by reference, records in a fixed-size list

Section titled “NFC: tags passed by reference, records in a fixed-size list”

The nfc stack now avoids per-tag heap churn. Most lambdas keep compiling, but the shape of tag and get_records() changed.

  • NFC: on_tag and on_tag_removed triggers now receive const nfc::NfcTag & instead of a copy; nfc::get_ha_tag_ndef() / nfc::has_ha_tag_ndef() now take const NfcTag &. Range-for loops, tag.get_uid(), tag.get_tag_type(), tag.has_ndef_message() and tag.get_ndef_message() compile unchanged. Code that modified its local copy of the tag will now modify the shared reference. #19902
  • NFC: NdefMessage::get_records() now returns const nfc::NdefRecords & (a StaticVector of unique_ptr) instead of const std::vector<std::shared_ptr<NdefRecord>> &. Iteration with const auto &record : ... and record->... still works. Copying an element out (auto r = records[0];) or copy-assigning one NdefMessage to another no longer compiles. #19912

PN71xx (PN7150 / PN7160) shared base

Section titled “PN71xx (PN7150 / PN7160) shared base”
  • PN71xx: pn7150 and pn7160 now share a pn71xx base. set_tag_emulation_message() and set_tag_write_message() now take (const std::string &, bool) instead of optional<> values; lambdas passing a plain string are unaffected. The action and condition classes (pn7150::EmulationOnAction and friends) are removed in favour of register_apply_action / register_apply_condition. TestMode moved from the pn7150 and pn7160 namespaces to pn71xx, so lambdas calling set_test_mode() must now use pn71xx::TestMode. #19589

Climate IR mode storage

Section titled “Climate IR mode storage”

  • Climate IR: The protected supports_cool_, supports_heat_, supports_heat_cool_, supports_dry_ and supports_fan_only_ fields are replaced by one climate::ClimateModeMask modes_. External components that derived from ClimateIR and read or wrote the booleans must switch to the mask. #19580

    // Before
    if (this->supports_heat_) { ... }
    this->supports_dry_ = true;
    // After
    if (this->modes_.count(climate::CLIMATE_MODE_HEAT)) { ... }
    this->set_mode_supported_(climate::CLIMATE_MODE_DRY, true);

Audio files are flash constants

Section titled “Audio files are flash constants”
  • Audio File: Codegen now emits each audio_file entry as a constexpr audio::AudioFile in flash and the id resolves to const audio::AudioFile *. SpeakerMediaPlayer::play_file, AudioPipeline::start_file, AudioReader::start and NamedAudioFile::file now take const audio::AudioFile *. Passing id(my_file) still works; only C++ that stored the id in a non-const audio::AudioFile * needs a const added. #20072

Home Assistant action internals

Section titled “Home Assistant action internals”

  • API: HomeAssistantServiceCallAction, the internal class codegen builds for homeassistant.action, homeassistant.event and homeassistant.tag_scanned, no longer has set_service, init_data, init_data_template, init_variables, add_data, add_data_template or add_variable, and its constructor changed; TemplatableStringValue and TemplatableKeyValuePair are removed. External components should use the documented CustomAPIDevice methods. A map with more than 255 entries is now rejected at config validation. #20237

    // Before
    auto *a = new HomeAssistantServiceCallAction<>(global_api_server, false);
    a->set_service("light.turn_on");
    a->init_data(1);
    a->add_data("entity_id", "light.kitchen");
    a->play();
    // After
    this->call_homeassistant_service("light.turn_on", {{"entity_id", "light.kitchen"}});

Hoermann HCP lamp control

Section titled “Hoermann HCP lamp control”
  • Hoermann HCP: toggle_light() and cancel_light_toggle() are removed; lambdas that drove the lamp through them should use id(hcp).set_light(!id(hcp).is_light_heading_on()). #19765

Breaking changes for developers

Section titled “Breaking changes for developers”
  • Light: LightState and the restore pipeline were rewritten so a light’s state is now assembled by generated lambdas rather than a fixed restore_mode switch; subclasses that reached into those internals need updating. #18997
  • Light: LightState shrunk by 12 bytes per light; internal field layout changed. #19711
  • Core: Action::stop_complex and Action::is_running are no longer virtual; overrides must be removed. #19662
  • Core: Controller updates are now dispatched through generated direct calls rather than virtual overrides. #19588
  • Core: select options are now stored in a shared ConstVector kept in flash; direct access to the old option vector no longer compiles. #20117
  • Core: Static FreeRTOS task TCBs now live in internal RAM; code that relied on the previous placement must adjust. #19426
  • HTTP Request: set_url() and set_method() now take const char * instead of std::string. #19215
  • Modbus Controller: Removed deprecated helper shims from the modbus_controller namespace; use the equivalents under modbus::helpers. #19076
  • Modbus: Removed the deprecated send() entry point and the disable_crc validation stub. #19079, #19078
  • Sensor: Removed the deprecated public raw_state member; use get_raw_state(). #19077
  • Template: Removed the deprecated bypass_before_arming() helper. #19075
  • Nextion: Removed the deprecated get_wave_chan_id(). #19080
  • Remote Base: encode, decode and dump on RemoteProtocol<T> are no longer virtual; protocol classes must drop override. Listener and dumper registration moves from C++ setup() to codegen via remote_base.add_listener() / remote_base.add_dumper(); a protocol used only from C++ or a lambda must call remote_base.request_protocol(). #19084
  • Network: Removed the deprecated IPAddress::str() from the host build. #19528
  • PN532 / NFC: Removed runtime heap allocation from the frame and tag paths; NfcTag is passed to triggers by reference and the internal listener list is now in static storage. #19744, #19902, #19912
  • nRF52: Builds now fetch only the nRF Connect SDK projects they need; external components relying on the full checkout must declare the modules they require. #19735

For detailed migration guides and API documentation, see the ESPHome Developers Documentation.

Full list of changes

Section titled “Full list of changes”

For the complete list of every merged pull request in this release, see the full 2026.10.0 changelog.

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