The new rules I have come to use are:

- buy the cheapest hardware that gets the job done

- ignore negative reviews that are software related

- upon receipt of devices, ask claude for local-first cfw

- have fun for a few hours acting as a meat proxy

- boom, cheap local-only smart home is done

Use a SBC or nas for home assistant. This process worked for me for switches, a thermostat, an air quality monitor, a thermometer, and a window fan.

Would’ve paid ~2.5x for hardware that had the appropriate local-first capability out of the box. Instead this all fit within an existing $20 subscription to an inference provider. DS 4.1 running locally was on track too just more slowly.

My take currently. Exactly thos. Buy Sonoff things, Raspberry Pi, and do some vibe coding. All local first.

My rules seems much simpler and lower effort:

1. buy the Zigbee version

2. boom, local only smart home is done

I guess if there's a device that's actually wi-fi only then I'll have to go through your flow but so far there's been no need.