What is Pivot?
Pivot turns your Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition into a physical control dial for Home Assistant while preserving its core voice functionality, including wake word activation. It provides four colour-coded banks, each assigned to a different controllable entity, script, scene, or a custom automation. By default, simply turn to adjust the entity assigned to the active bank, or press to toggle or activate it.
Rather than opening apps, navigating dashboards, or relying on voice commands, you can simply reach out and control your home directly. The LED ring shows which bank is active and provides real-time feedback on its current value (e.g. brightness, volume, or temperature) and, where relevant, its RGB colour. It can also be used more creatively, for example, displaying sensor values, scrubbing through scenes, or reflecting changes made elsewhere in your system.
Pivot also includes an optional timer feature that can be controlled by the knob, by voice, from a dashboard, or through any combination of the three. If a timer bank is assigned, the LED ring provides a live visual countdown, while the timer state can also be exposed to dashboards for full visibility and control.
Pivot can be enabled or disabled at any time with a double press, allowing you to switch between physical control and the standard Voice Preview Edition behaviour whenever you need.
Note: This documentation covers the firmware, integration and setup process for Pivot. For the broader project overview, demonstrations and Pivot Dial enclosure, visit the Pivot project page.
A better way to control Home Assistant
-
No apps, no menus
Just turn to adjust, press to activate. -
Always know what you’re controlling
Each bank represents a different entity or action, with clear visual feedback from the LED ring and optional spoken announcements when switching banks or adjusting values. -
Fast and instinctive
Make adjustments in seconds, without breaking your flow. -
Works with (almost) anything
Works with controllable entities out of the box and can be extended further through custom automations - from adjusting light colour to displaying sensors or triggering scenes, scripts and other shortcuts. If Home Assistant can control it, Pivot can too. -
Fully local and open source
Built on ESPHome and Home Assistant, with no cloud dependency.
Designed for real use
Pivot adds a physical layer of control to Home Assistant for the things you use most often. Not just to adjust them, but to quickly see their current state.
Use it for the things you change (or check) often:
- Lighting brightness/state
- Thermostat temperature
- Speaker volume
- Fan speed
- Blinds position
- Countdown timers
With each bank assigned to something useful, Pivot gives you a faster way to control an entity and/or understand its current state - all without opening a dashboard or asking a voice assistant.
How it works
Pivot consists of two parts that work together, both of which are required for the Pivot experience to work:
Pivot firmware: Custom ESPHome firmware you flash to your VPE. It adds four control banks, knob turn handling, LED colour feedback, and sends events to Home Assistant. It can be removed at any time by reinstalling the stock firmware.
Pivot integration: A HACS integration for Home Assistant that provisions all the required entities, handles button toggle natively, and offers blueprint files for optional timer automations. See Architecture for a full breakdown of what it does, what it reads, and what it writes. See Timer for timer blueprints.
Get started
New to Pivot? Follow the getting started guide to walk you through flashing the firmware, installing the integration, and assigning entities.
Repositories
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| alistairmerritt/pivot-integration | HACS integration |
| alistairmerritt/pivot-firmware | ESPHome firmware |
| alistairmerritt/pivot | This documentation site |