Home Assistant 2026.11: HACS is built in, and your entity names change

Home Assistant 2026.11 came out on November 4, 2026, and its release notes call it the biggest release so far. HACS is now built in as the Marketplace, under Settings. Entity names are rebuilt from their device and area, so dashboards will look different. There are 38 new integrations, Matter 1.5 camera support, LoRaWAN, Zigbee Green Power in ZHA, and a local disk option for backups and media.

Short version: good for a local-first house, but this is a big update with a one-way HACS migration in it. I’d wait for 2026.11.1 and take a backup first. Before updating, check Z-Wave server versions, Ring and Telegram automations, and templates that use integration_entities('hacs'). Your entity IDs and automations don’t change with the new names.

What’s new for a local-first house

HACS is now the Marketplace

Marketplace is at Settings > Marketplace with nothing to set up. If you use HACS, Home Assistant migrates it on the first start after the update. Your downloads stay and keep updating, and the HACS integration is removed. You can no longer install HACS separately on this version.

• Installs: most land straight in the setup flow with no restart. The docs say some integrations still need one, such as those using YAML.
• Updates: integration updates still need a restart. A repair tells you, and can do the restart for you.
• The notice: you have to accept a risk notice before you can install or update anything. Community projects aren’t tested, audited or supported by the Home Assistant project, and the docs warn they can reach your home, your data and the system underneath.
• GitHub: catalog installs don’t need an account. Custom repositories do, through a device sign-in that only reads public information.

For installing, custom repositories and the GitHub connection step by step, see my Marketplace guide. My earlier Marketplace brief has the full migration detail, written before the release from the docs and code. The stable notes and docs match it on the points below: AppDaemon apps and Python scripts stop getting updates, and custom repositories with no hacs.json file stay installed but can’t update.

Entity names change

An entity’s full name is now built from its own name plus its context, usually the device. Cards with no name set show the device name and then the entity name. The release notes’ example is “Off-peak consumption” on a “Power meter” device, which now shows as “Power meter Off-peak consumption”.

Entity IDs, automations and scripts aren’t affected. If a full name changes, the old name stays as an alias for voice assistants. The friendly_name attribute stays for now, but the naming post says it’s planned for deprecation, so templates should move to entity_name(), device_name() and area_name().

Devices with several parts can now split into child devices. Z-Wave, MQTT and ESPHome support this now; Matter and ZHA are listed as in progress. I’d expect to tidy up some dashboard cards after this update, and setting a name on a card is the quick fix.

New local integrations

Not all 38 are local. Bosch Smart Camera needs the Bosch cloud and a SingleKey ID account, so check the class on the docs page before you plan around a new one.

LoRaWAN also gets its own page under Settings > Connectivity. You connect ChirpStack or The Things Network, and Home Assistant offers the matching device integration. The Things Network connection also works with a self-hosted The Things Stack server.

Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter and cameras

• Zigbee: ZHA now supports Green Power, the batteryless kind of switch. Friends of Hue switches are the example the notes give. ZHA can also use an adapter behind an ESPHome serial proxy, and each group now gets its own device. If you’re choosing a stack, here’s Zigbee2MQTT vs ZHA.
• Z-Wave: multi-endpoint devices get child devices. I run Shelly Wave 1PM relays on Z-Wave, so the server version requirement below lands in my house.
• Matter: Matter 1.5 cameras show up with live video over WebRTC and snapshots, if your Matter server is recent enough.
• Two-way audio: a Labs preview adds a talk button for Matter and Reolink cameras. Turn it on in Settings > System > Labs. It only works when you open Home Assistant over HTTPS, and a Reolink camera has to use RTSP.

Backups, energy and troubleshooting

• Local disk storage: Settings > System > Storage can now add a local disk for backups, media or shared files. The disk must already be formatted. My restore guide still applies; keep a copy off the machine too.
• Energy dashboard: add a device, solar panel or home consumption with only a power sensor, and Home Assistant offers to derive the energy sensor when you save. Gas and water flow-rate sensors work the same way. This softens the kWh advice in my energy dashboard guide, though a device with its own kWh sensor is still simpler.
• Finding out why something happened: the Activity panel has a Triggered by filter, integrations get a Show logs button, and there’s a new Action history tab under Settings > Tools.

Automations and dashboards

You can now exclude entities, devices, areas, floors and labels from a target. Exclusions are re-checked each time, so a light you add to an excluded kitchen next month stays out. On dashboards, sections can be copied and pasted between views, and new automatic sections pick their own cards as devices come and go.

Voice and AI

You can expose entities to voice assistants in bulk from the entities table. The MCP server can be limited to read-only tools, which I’d do for anything experimental. Alexa can also show WebRTC camera live view on an Echo Show.

Breaking changes that will bite someone

The login change only affects a non-local address, and the notes say most setups are fine. If you run Core outside a virtual environment, packages no longer go in the deps folder. If you own a Ring doorbell and want out, that guide still stands.

The Flipr integration has been removed because the company behind it was liquidated. The full list is in the backward-incompatible changes section.

Update now, or wait for 2026.11.1?

Last month, 2026.10.1 arrived three days after 2026.10.0. Nothing says the same will happen this time, and no 2026.11.1 was out when I wrote this.

• Wait if you use HACS, depend on Home Assistant with no fallback, or run custom cards. The development docs I read in October said to restore a backup rather than use “Install another version” to go back, so this one is harder to step back from.
• Update now if you don’t use HACS, nothing in the table above is yours, and you want Green Power or LoRaWAN. Take a backup first.

Which of my guides this touches

• Energy dashboard from scratch. A power-only sensor can now feed the dashboard without you setting up the conversion yourself.
• Frigate NVR build and blueprints worth installing first. Anything they install “through HACS” now comes from Settings > Marketplace on 2026.11.

None of my product picks change. I’ll update this page if a 2026.11 patch fixes anything that matters for a local-first setup.