KEF for Home Assistant

Local-first KEF support for Home Assistant, built to support both newer KEF speakers and older generations in one integration.

🎯 What This Is

This project is a custom KEF integration for Home Assistant with a strong bias toward:

• local control
• clean Home Assistant setup
• no dependency on external KEF transport libraries
• one codebase for modern and legacy KEF families

🔊 Device Support Direction

Modern KEF family

The most mature support today is for speakers using KEF's newer local HTTP API, including:

• LSX II
• LSX II LT
• LS50 Wireless II
• LS60
• XIO

Older KEF family

Older first-generation KEF speakers matter too. This repo already includes a separate legacy transport path so the integration can support earlier LSX / LS50 Wireless-style devices without forcing them through the newer API model.

Current live validation is strongest on LSX II, but broad KEF coverage is the goal, not just the newest models.

✨ What You Get

• zeroconf discovery and UI setup
• media player controls
• source selection
• volume and mute
• source-aware playback controls on modern KEF sources
• startup-volume controls
• standby and wake-source settings
• LED and hardware behavior controls where supported
• event-assisted refresh on modern KEF speakers
• optional diagnostics

🏠 Installation

HACS

1. Open HACS.
2. Add https://github.com/EvotecIT/homeassistant-kef as a custom repository of type Integration.
3. Install KEF.
4. Restart Home Assistant.
5. Go to Settings -> Devices & services and add KEF.

Manual

1. Copy the custom_components/kef folder into your Home Assistant config/custom_components directory.
2. Restart Home Assistant.
3. Add the integration from Settings -> Devices & services.

✅ Current Status

• strongest real-device validation today: LSX II
• modern KEF support is already practical and expanding, including event-assisted refresh on LSX II-era devices
• legacy KEF support is part of the design, not an afterthought
• compatibility is handled by transport and capability detection, not just hardcoded firmware guesses

The current LSX II investigation notes are in docs/kef-lsx2-investigation.md.

Feature tracking checklist: docs/feature-checklist.md

🧱 Reusable Python Package

This repository now ships two usable layers:

• kef_client for direct Python access to KEF local APIs
• the Home Assistant integration in custom_components/kef

Library docs: docs/python-library.md

Runnable example: examples/python_client.py

Example:

from aiohttp import ClientSession
from kef_client import ModernKefClient

async with ClientSession() as session:
    client = ModernKefClient("192.168.1.20", session)
    snapshot = await client.async_refresh()
    print(snapshot.device.device_name, snapshot.source)

That keeps the protocol layer reusable for scripts and apps while the integration stays focused on Home Assistant setup and entities.

🛣️ Roadmap

• next tracked work lives in docs/feature-checklist.md
• top priorities are writable cable mode, older-device validation, and continued capability polishing
• the long-term direction remains one integration with strong modern and legacy support

🛠️ Development

python -m pip install -e .[test]
ruff check .
python -m compileall kef_client custom_components tests examples
pytest

Note:

• the full Home Assistant pytest stack runs best in Linux CI
• on Windows, pytest-homeassistant-custom-component imports fcntl, so complete local HA pytest runs are limited

❤️ Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Source: GitHub Repository