Control Home Assistant with Alexa for Free Using Emulated Hue
The easiest supported way to connect Alexa and Home Assistant is Home Assistant Cloud from Nabu Casa. If you want a free alternative and are happy doing a little configuration, Emulated Hue can expose selected Home Assistant devices to Alexa.
Before you start
Give Home Assistant a fixed IP address. Emulated Hue needs Alexa to be able to find the same Home Assistant address reliably.
Alexa Devices integration
The Amazon Devices integration can also bring compatible Echo devices into Home Assistant so automations can send text commands, sounds and notification messages to them. Follow the authentication requirements carefully and protect your Amazon credentials.
Configure Emulated Hue
Edit configuration.yaml and configure emulated_hue with your Home Assistant IP address and port 80. Expose only the entity types or individual entities that you actually want Alexa to discover.
Why limit the exposed devices?
Emulated Hue is not designed to expose an unlimited Home Assistant installation. Keeping the list small also stops Alexa filling itself with duplicate or meaningless entities.
Restart and discover
After checking the configuration, restart Home Assistant. Then ask Alexa to discover devices. The Home Assistant lights you exposed should appear as Hue-style devices and can then be controlled by voice.
Free versus easiest
This route works, but free is not the same as simplest. Home Assistant Cloud is the easier option and supports the Home Assistant project. Emulated Hue is useful if you specifically want to avoid the subscription and understand the limitations.