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ESPHome 2026.5.0: Device Builder enters public beta

ESPHome 2026.5.0: Device Builder enters public beta
Jesse Hills
Jesse Hills
ESPHome Developer
Sendspin
Sendspin ​Media ​Source
Sendspin ​Group
Sendspin ​Sensor
Sendspin ​Text ​Sensor
Radio ​Frequency ​Core
Audio ​HTTP ​Media ​Source
Modbus ​Server

Release Overview

Section titled “Release Overview”

The headline change in ESPHome 2026.5.0 is the public beta of the new ESPHome Device Builder, a from-scratch web app that replaces the legacy in-tree dashboard with a real configuration editor, a firmware job queue, multi-select bulk actions, labels and areas, out-of-sync detection, cross-config search, distributed builds, and a proper settings UI. On the firmware side, a fundamental rework of the main loop, scheduler, and task watchdog recovers measurable CPU and power on every platform, alongside a broad set of measured optimizations across the API, audio, and helper hot paths. A native ESP-IDF toolchain ships next to PlatformIO with ESP-IDF v6.0.1 readiness work, and the audio decoder pipeline is modernized on top of the new microMP3 / microWAV / microFLAC streaming libraries. OTA gains its most expansive feature set in years with partition-table and bootloader updates, web-server OTA, and soft-brick recovery, while ESP32-based Zigbee, the new Sendspin multi-room audio component family, a fresh radio_frequency entity type, expanded nRF52 / Zephyr platform work, and a substantial codebase correctness sweep round out the release.

Upgrade Checklist

Section titled “Upgrade Checklist”
  • If you use modbus_controller in server mode, migrate to the new modbus_server component and rename server_registers to registers and server_courtesy_response to courtesy_response
  • If you rely on more than 5 concurrent API connections on esp32, bk72xx, rtl87xx, or ln882x, set api.max_connections explicitly (the default dropped from 8 to 5)
  • If you play WAV files only via YAML actions to arbitrary URLs (not embedded, not set as the preferred pipeline format), add audio: codecs: wav: so WAV decoding is still compiled in
  • If you use codec_support_enabled on the speaker media player, drop it and use the pipeline format: setting instead (format: NONE includes all codecs, format: WAV matches the old none/false mode)
  • If you embed audio files larger than 5 MB into your speaker media player via the files: block, compress them or pick a more efficient codec before upgrading
  • If you have multiple ota: - platform: esphome entries on different ports, consolidate to a single entry on one port
  • If you use throttle_average filters with a time_period longer than 24 hours, lower it (the new schema cap is 24 h)
  • If your lambdas call id(...).set_min_power(...), set_max_power(...), or set_zero_means_zero(...) on a FloatOutput, add min_power: 0% (or any of the scaling keys) to one of your output: entries so the runtime setters stay compiled in
  • If your external component implements ComponentIterator and doesn’t handle media players, add bool on_media_player(media_player::MediaPlayer *obj) override { return true; } guarded by #ifdef USE_MEDIA_PLAYER
  • If your external component or lambda calls OneWireBus::skip(), handle the new bool return value (false means the reset/presence pulse failed; bail out instead of writing to a dead bus)
  • If your external component constructs PollingComponent() with no argument and never calls set_update_interval(), pass an interval explicitly; the default constructor no longer polls at all
  • If your external component uses esphome::RingBuffer from esphome/core/ring_buffer.h, switch to esphome::ring_buffer::RingBuffer from esphome/components/ring_buffer/ring_buffer.h and add AUTO_LOAD = ["ring_buffer"]
  • If your external component uses heap-allocating helpers like str_lower_case, format_hex, format_mac_address_pretty, value_accuracy_to_string, or base64_encode, include esphome/core/alloc_helpers.h directly (the helpers.h re-export is temporary)
  • If you maintain an external climate platform, replace the deprecated set_supports_* / get_supports_* accessors with add_feature_flags() / has_feature_flags() (note two_point_target_temperature maps to CLIMATE_REQUIRES_TWO_POINT_TARGET_TEMPERATURE)
  • If you hold long-lived BLE connections via ble_client and notice WiFi throughput drops, this is the new esp32_ble_tracker coex behavior; open an issue with your config if it materially affects your workload
  • If your ektf2232 config still uses rts_pin, rename it to reset_pin (the friendly migration error has been removed)

Introducing the New ESPHome Device Builder (Beta)

Section titled “Introducing the New ESPHome Device Builder (Beta)”

The new ESPHome Device Builder, announced at State of the Open Home 2026 and now in public beta, is a from-scratch replacement for the legacy in-tree dashboard. It lives in two new repos, device-builder (Python backend) and device-builder-frontend (web UI), and consumes ESPHome through stable public interfaces instead of reaching into internal modules. The work is driven by the Open Home Foundation Ecosystems department, which expanded significantly last year so OHF could deliver more to the community, working alongside the existing maintainer community. Most of the rewrite goes toward dashboard capabilities the existing user base has been blocked on for years (job queue, multi-select bulk actions, labels/areas, out-of-sync detection, cross-config search, distributed builds, real settings UI). Visual editing and pairing with hardware like the Apollo Automation ESPHome Starter Kit (ESK-1) make the same app a reasonable starting point for newcomers as well.

Capabilities the legacy dashboard didn’t offer:

  • Visual component and automation builder alongside Monaco YAML, with a left-sidebar device navigator. Legacy was an Ace text editor over a .yaml file with no first-class component or automation objects.
  • Component catalog with dependency resolution and a per-board pin info viewer that maps GPIO capabilities and shows which component is using each pin.
  • Firmware job queue with progress, history, and cancel for compile / install / clean. Legacy ran one operation at a time with no concurrency or history.
  • Remote builder. One Device Builder instance can offload compile/install jobs to another over a peer-paired link (mDNS discovery, SHA-256 fingerprint confirmation, identity rotation, per-peer auto-route).
  • Labels (colored, searchable, filterable), areas as a first-class field, friendly name as a separate editable field, device cloning, and multi-select bulk actions (update / delete / archive on an arbitrary subset of devices). Legacy’s only bulk action was an all-or-nothing “update all”.
  • Out-of-sync detection with per-device badges for version, config-hash, and encryption-state mismatches. Legacy showed only “update available.”
  • YAML diff view, cross-config YAML search with surrounding context, and a command palette (⌘K / Ctrl-K).
  • Card and table views with configurable columns and faceted filters (platform / status / area / labels). Legacy was cards only.
  • Real settings UI with light/dark/system theme, English / Français / Nederlands localization, editor layout, and remote-builder controls. Legacy exposed almost nothing in-UI.
  • First-run Wi-Fi onboarding and USB-plug detection with a “set this up” prompt when a board is connected.

Existing features like Web Serial flashing and Take Control / Adopt carry over and are surfaced more prominently in the new install-method dialog, which adds server-side USB, Home Assistant host USB auto-detection, and web.esphome.io download as transports.

Supporting ESPHome-side plumbing landed in 2026.5.0: stable backend API surface (#16206) with documented helper contracts like write_file (#16290); stable WiFi capability helpers (#16300) and the new esphome.upload_targets module (#16346); the config-hash CLI command (#15548) plus an mDNS config_hash TXT record (#16145) that let Device Builder skip re-flash when the running config matches; schema visibility hints for the visual editor (#16267, #16276); tightened esphome rename (#16296); restored ProgressBar under --dashboard mode (#16357); downstream CI against PR Python code (#16214); and legacy-dashboard guardrails on contributor PRs (#16378).

The legacy dashboard remains the default in 2026.5.0. Home Assistant users can try Device Builder today by installing the ESPHome (beta) app (formerly add-on), where it is enabled by default. The stable and beta apps run side by side, or stable-app users can opt in via the Use new Device Builder Preview toggle in the add-on’s Configuration tab:

Toggle "Use new Device Builder Preview" under the ESPHome Device Builder Configuration tab in Home Assistant

Feedback from beta testers shapes the next release, and we’re excited to already be seeing the first community pull requests landing on the device-builder and device-builder-frontend repos.

Main Loop and Watchdog Architecture Overhaul

Section titled “Main Loop and Watchdog Architecture Overhaul”

This release lands one of the most consequential changes to ESPHome’s runtime in years: a fundamental rework of how the main loop, scheduler, and task watchdog interact. Led by @bdraco, with @rwrozelle contributing the configurable ESP32 watchdog timeout (#15908) that the new auto-scaling feed interval keys off and the OpenThread proof-of-concept that produced the 2.0 mA → 1.1 mA power-savings measurement, these changes recover meaningful CPU on every supported platform and finally make App.set_loop_interval() work the way the documentation has always described.

Main-loop cadence decoupled from the scheduler (#15792):

  • Every component’s loop() now actually runs at the configured loop_interval_ cadence (default ~62 Hz) instead of being silently pulled forward to ~128 Hz by unrelated scheduler activity.
  • Background-driven events (MQTT RX, USB RX, BLE, mWW, espnow, lwIP sockets, etc.) still wake their component within a single tick via wake_loop_threadsafe(), even with multi-second loop_interval_ values for deep power-save configurations.
  • App.set_loop_interval() now actually enables power savings. Independent testing on an OpenThread proof-of-concept measured average current drop from 2.0 mA to 1.1 mA on top of an earlier version of this work.

Watchdog feed rate corrected after a 1000x cost regression (#15846, #15984):

  • The 3 ms feed throttle dated to ESPHome’s 2019 C++ port, when feeding the watchdog cost a hundred nanoseconds. The 2021 switch to ESP-IDF made each feed cost ~10-12 µs without the constant being revisited. The bug only surfaced under raised loop_interval_, where 26% of CPU was being burned inside arch_feed_wdt().
  • The idle-tick feed interval is now per-platform instead of a universal 3 ms: 1000 ms by default on ESP32 (1/5 of the configured watchdog timeout, scaling automatically with the new esp32.watchdog_timeout knob from #15908), 100 ms on ESP8266, 2000 ms on LibreTiny BK72xx, and 300 ms on the remaining platforms. Real ESP32+BT proxy measurements show the wdt bucket dropping from 46.5 ms to 21.6 ms per 60 s window with no loss of safety margin.

Loop-when-idle gated everywhere it makes sense (#15636, #15642, #15884 and many more): the esphome OTA component, status_led, bl0906, and others now disable their own loop() when idle and rely on wake hooks (socket-event callbacks, ISR-safe wake flags, etc.) to come back to life only when there is real work to do. OTA in particular ran every tick forever just to check whether a client had connected; on Xtensa each idle tick pulled a memw plus a volatile load, paid for the entire lifetime of every ESPHome device that exists.

Scheduler self-keyed timer API (#16127) lets small action and filter classes drop Component inheritance entirely. Follow-ups across #16129, #16131, #16132, and #16191 migrate DelayAction and the binary_sensor / sensor filter family (DelayedOnFilter, DelayedOffFilter, DebounceFilter, HeartbeatFilter, SettleFilter, AutorepeatFilter, and others), saving ~8 bytes per instance baseline (and ~32 bytes more when runtime_stats: is enabled).

Performance Optimizations

Section titled “Performance Optimizations”

Beyond the structural changes above, this release contains an unusual concentration of measured micro-optimizations across the codebase, particularly on the API and audio paths. Led by @bdraco and @kahrendt, with @swoboda1337 contributing the CallbackManager copy reduction (#16093) and a sweep of performance-unnecessary-copy-initialization fixes (#16101).

Cross-platform millis() overhaul. A coordinated rewrite hits every supported runtime. ESP8266 (#15662) drops from 3348 ns/call to 1077 ns/call (2.7x) by wrapping Arduino’s millis() at link time with a 32-bit accumulator, replacing four 64-bit multiplies routed through the LX106’s software __umulsidi3 helper. ESP32 (#15661) switches to xTaskGetTickCount() directly when the FreeRTOS tick rate is 1 kHz; LibreTiny (#15918) inlines the same xTaskGetTickCount() fast path; the host platform (#15994) replaces floating-point math with integer arithmetic; and Millis64Impl::compute() is force-inlined on single-threaded platforms (#15684). On a typical 10-component ESP8266 device, runtime stats showed main_loop active_total drop by 41 ms per minute of CPU, roughly 7% of the scheduler+overhead budget reclaimed for actual work.

BLE advertisement encode is 20-33% faster (#15988). A new (mac_address) proto field option unrolls the varint encoder for 48-bit MAC addresses into a 7-byte fast path. CodSpeed measured the CalculateSize_BLERawAdvs12 benchmark improving by 33% and the full CalcAndEncode_BLERawAdvs12 benchmark by 22.5%. On real ESP32 hardware, encode dropped 27.6% (11647 ns/op to 8430 ns/op) on a 12-advertisement batch.

API socket fast-path tightened (#15996, #15888, #15889). The Xtensa memw instruction in the per-socket ready check is now hoisted to once per main-loop iteration; api_is_connected() is inlined and reduced to a single byte load; the proxy message families (Z-Wave, IR/RF, serial) are now marked speed_optimized and have CodSpeed coverage (#16157, #16159).

Scheduler fast paths force-inlined (#15683, #15685, #15686, #15947). cleanup_(), process_to_add(), and process_defer_queue_() are inlined at the call site; the multi-threaded-no-atomics path now uses lock-free __atomic builtins.

Defer queue: don’t sleep while non-empty (#15968). The scheduler now skips its select/sleep when the defer queue still has items pending, eliminating a per-tick latency spike on action chains that defer between steps (script.execute, delay, etc.). Latency-sensitive automations no longer pay an extra select round-trip per deferred step.

HAL trivial dispatches inlined (#15977, #16111-#16116, #16183). The HAL split moves bodies into per-platform hal.cpp files and inlines the trivial wrappers (millis(), micros(), feed_wdt(), etc.) at the call site, removing a per-call function-call overhead that compounded across every component’s main-loop work.

zwave_proxy and bluetooth_proxy loop() fast paths inlined. On zwave_proxy (#15887) the response_handler_ and process_uart_ hot-path branches are now inlined at the loop() call site. On bluetooth_proxy, a partial revert of an earlier loop()→set_interval migration (#15992) restores tighter scheduling for proxy traffic, and a redundant remote_bda_ write in the connect handler (#16000) is gone. Bluetooth proxy is one of the most-deployed ESPHome configurations, so these compound across thousands of devices.

mDNS update polling event-driven on ESP8266 and RP2040 (#15961). MDNS.update() is now driven by IP-state events on ESP8266 and RP2040 instead of being polled every main-loop tick. Idle devices stop touching the mDNS state machine entirely.

i2s_audio software volume control is 45% cheaper (#16278). The new Q31 scaling factor uses Xtensa’s mulsh instruction (30 bits of precision) and a precomputed scalar generated only when volume changes. Speaker-task CPU usage at 48 kHz stereo drops from 7.8% to 4.3%.

value_accuracy_to_buf got a non-snprintf fast path (#15596). Sensor value formatting now uses a direct integer-to-decimal conversion for the common case (accuracy 0-3 with finite, in-range values), with snprintf kept as the fallback for NaN, infinity, larger accuracies, and out-of-range values. This is a major win for web_server, which formats every sensor state into JSON on each SSE push and on every REST request; high-update-rate dashboards and devices with many sensors see noticeably lower CPU per push, with the largest gains on ESP8266 where snprintf carries the most overhead.

Light, callback, and helper hot paths all saw improvements: LightCall flag accessors are force-inlined (#15729), format_hex_internal was rewritten to avoid snprintf (#15594), and CallbackManager call paths reduce copies (#16093).

Memory Footprint Reductions

Section titled “Memory Footprint Reductions”

A parallel effort by @bdraco and @kahrendt, with @schdro contributing the static loop-task allocation, focused on shrinking the per-instance and static-RAM cost of common components.

APIServer client list moved to a compile-time array (#15889) eliminates the persistent heap-held vector that grew via doubling reallocations. Measured -92 B flash on ESP32-S3, -152 B flash on ESP8266, plus zero heap fragmentation. At one client connected (the typical Home Assistant deployment), net RAM is -4 B. The new compile-time MAX_API_CONNECTIONS constant lets the array size and accept-time cap derive from one source.

FloatOutput power scaling gated (#15998) saves 12 bytes per output instance plus ~248 bytes flash, applied across every PWM channel, DAC channel, LEDC output, and dimmer-chip channel. On a 5-channel H801 RGBWW LED Controller this measured at -64 B static RAM and -248 B flash.

Per-instance action fields folded into stateless lambdas: every YAML automation that calls a light.control / light.toggle / light.dim_relative (#16037, #16038, #16039, #16118), climate.control (#16044), cover.control / cover.template.publish (#16046), fan.turn_on (#16122), or valve.control (#16123) action previously stored every optional parameter (transition lengths, RGB/brightness targets, modes, position, direction, etc.) as fields on the Action instance, costing 60-120 bytes of RAM per action instance depending on the action type. These are now packed into a single stateless lambda captured at compile time, so unused parameters cost nothing per action instance and every action drops to 20 bytes or less per instance. A config with 20 light.* automations reclaims well over a kilobyte of RAM, and configurations with many such automations see the largest savings.

ThrottleAverageFilter packed (#16169) drops from 28 B to 24 B per instance by packing the have_nan_ flag alongside the 31-bit n_ field in a single 32-bit word.

LD24xx sensors and template restorers inlined (#15676, #15883) eliminate heap allocations for small fixed-purpose objects.

Loop task uses static allocation (#15659): ~152 bytes of heap metadata reclaimed by moving the ESP32 loop task TCB and stack into .bss instead of being allocated at boot from the heap.

Ring buffer can target internal memory (#16187). A new memory-preference parameter on RingBuffer::create() allows audio paths to skip the slow ESP32 PSRAM cache when small buffers benefit from the faster internal SRAM.

Scheduler pool replaced with intrusive freelist (#16172). The previous std::vector-backed SchedulerItem pool grew via doubling reallocations and hung on to its peak capacity for the lifetime of the device. The replacement is an unbounded intrusive freelist that recycles freed items in O(1) without ever resizing or fragmenting an external container. Scheduler-heavy configurations stop carrying high-watermark vector capacity around as dead RAM.

safe_mode and rtttl callback storage gated (#16002, #16003). on_safe_mode callbacks now use a StaticCallbackManager, and rtttl’s on_finished_playback callback storage is gated behind a #define that only activates when the YAML actually subscribes. Both are tiny per-instance wins, but safe_mode is on essentially every device and rtttl is on every speaker setup that uses RTTTL playback.

light validate_ clamp shrunk (#15728). The unit-range clamp helper used by every light component dropped its branch count and code size, with the speed-up showing up across PWM, RGB, RGBW, RGBWW, monochromatic, and addressable light platforms.

dsmr no longer allocates during parsing (#15875). The DSMR rewrite eliminates dynamic allocations in the parse path entirely and decrypts in place, saving roughly 1500 bytes of runtime allocation per telegram. See Other Notable Features for the security-fix and OBIS-sensor side of the same PR.

Native ESP-IDF Toolchain Support

Section titled “Native ESP-IDF Toolchain Support”

@diorcety delivered a substantial new build pathway in #14678: ESPHome can now build firmware directly with the native ESP-IDF toolchain via idf.py, alongside the existing PlatformIO build path. This is independent of framework.type, which still selects the runtime framework (arduino vs esp-idf); the new toolchain key selects the build system used to compile it.

Opt in by setting toolchain under the esp32: block:

esp32:
  board: esp32dev
  toolchain: esp-idf  # or 'platformio' (default)
  framework:
    type: esp-idf

The same selection is available on the command line and overrides the YAML value for one-off builds:

Terminal window
esphome --toolchain esp-idf compile my-device.yaml

Precedence is --toolchain (CLI), then esp32.toolchain (YAML), then platformio (default toolchain).

Key Benefits:

  • Automatic ESP-IDF installation on first run with toolchain: esp-idf, into <data_dir>/idf/ (or $ESPHOME_ESP_IDF_PREFIX when set). ESPHome downloads the matching ESP-IDF release plus its Python environment, then builds through idf.py directly.
  • Automatic conversion of PlatformIO library entries into ESP-IDF components (including the patches required), so projects that rely on lib_deps from the PlatformIO ecosystem keep working under the native toolchain.
  • CI workflow added to compile components against the native toolchain on every PR so the path stays building as the codebase evolves.

The default toolchain remains platformio in 2026.5.0, so existing projects keep building exactly as they did before. The native path is opt-in for power users and contributors who want to work against the unmodified upstream IDF.

ESP-IDF v6.0.1 readiness lands across a chain of supporting PRs, primarily by @swoboda1337 with @diorcety and @luar123 contributing the dependency bumps: a new ESP-IDF 6.0.1 platform entry (#16146), an esp_wireguard bump to 0.4.5 for v6 compatibility (#15804), newlib compatibility for the Zigbee SDK on IDF 6 (#16174) plus init-order and missing-field warning fixes on native ESP-IDF (#16389), relaxed -Werror=reorder and -Werror=maybe-uninitialized for managed components built under IDF 6 (#16392), and a PlatformIO-style RAM/Flash summary printed after native ESP-IDF builds for parity with the existing flow (#16394).

Audio Stack Modernization

Section titled “Audio Stack Modernization”

@kahrendt led a comprehensive rewrite of the audio decoder pipeline across more than a dozen PRs, aligning ESPHome with a new family of streaming codec libraries published by the esphome-libs organization.

New microDecoder family of libraries:

  • microMP3 (#16236), microWAV (#16251), microFLAC (#16279) replace the older Helix/esp-audio-libs decoders. Every codec now either streams from its source or buffers internally, which eliminates a memmove operation on the transfer buffer that, for MP3, used more CPU than the decoding itself.
  • The unified microDecoder library (#15679, #16237) handles HTTP source reads, decoding, and threading internally. audio_file and the new audio_http media source (#15741) both build on it.
  • esp-audio-libs was bumped to v3.0.0 (#16263), keeping the resampler and optimized gain helpers but dropping the codec decoders to reduce compile time.

New audio_http media source (#15741) plays audio from arbitrary HTTP URLs and serves as a replacement for prior workarounds. 48 kHz stereo MP3 now decodes with ~40% less CPU on an ESP32-S3 thanks to the eliminated staging buffer and memmove.

Advanced codec configuration (#16166) exposes per-codec options under audio.codecs.* so users can pick memory locations (internal vs PSRAM), enable specific codecs additively, and tune options like Opus’s pseudostack size. Users of slower ESP32s (no fast PSRAM) can now configure decoder buffers to live in internal memory and reduce stuttering at the start of playback.

RingBuffer made a first-class component (#16298) by moving the core ring buffer into a dedicated ring_buffer helper component. External component authors can now iterate on it via external_components; the deprecation period for the old esphome/core/ring_buffer.h location is 6 months. A new RingBufferAudioSource (#16314, #16315, #16316) consolidates the speaker and mixer audio-source plumbing.

Users with audio files referenced only via YAML actions (rather than embedded or set as the preferred format) may need to add audio.codecs.wav: to keep WAV decoding compiled in; see the Breaking Changes section for migration details.

OTA Platform Enhancements

Section titled “OTA Platform Enhancements”

OTA gained the broadest set of capabilities it has had in any single release, led by @Mat931.

Partition table updates (#15780) make it possible to convert devices from other firmwares (such as Tasmota) to ESPHome over the air. The updater verifies the new partition table, runs sanity checks, and only commits if it can prove the device will boot. Setting allow_partition_access: true under ota: platform: esphome enables the workflow; the docs walk through the Tasmota conversion step by step.

Bootloader updates (#16238) build on the new extended OTA protocol (#16164) and let esphome upload --bootloader push a fresh bootloader image.

Soft-brick recovery via factory partition (#16339). When OTA is impossible because the alternate app partition is the wrong type but contains a valid app (for example, a Tasmota safeboot image), safe_mode can now boot into the factory partition so the device can be re-flashed instead of requiring a USB cable.

Web server OTA platform (#16207). A new --ota-platform {esphome,web_server} flag on esphome upload and esphome run lets users force the HTTP-based web_server OTA path, which is auto-selected when only platform: web_server is configured. The native API path remains the default because it uses challenge-response auth with hashed nonces (the OTA password is never on the wire), while web_server uses HTTP Basic auth.

Host platform OTA backend (#16304) implements working OTA for the host target via execv, unlocking integration-test coverage of one of the highest-risk regression surfaces in ESPHome. Tests can now exercise the full native OTA wire protocol (handshake, MD5, chunked transfer, automation triggers, reboot) on every CI run without needing real hardware.

Better OTA error messages (#16327) and the use of WatchdogManager during ESP32 OTA writes (#16138) round out the package.

Faster Configuration Validation and CLI Startup

Section titled “Faster Configuration Validation and CLI Startup”

Four related changes by @bdraco make esphome compile, esphome upload, and especially esphome logs noticeably faster on projects with remote dependencies, and shave wall-clock time off every CLI invocation.

Deferred heavy module-scope imports (#15955). esphome.__main__, esphome.loader, and esphome.config no longer pull voluptuous, codegen, and the component registry at import time; the heavy imports happen lazily inside the codepaths that actually need them. Every esphome CLI invocation, including esphome version, esphome config, and the dashboard’s per-request shells, starts faster, and the dashboard’s import-time regression is now guarded by CI.

Skip external file refresh on esphome logs (#16016). The skip_external_update flag is unified into a single CORE.skip_external_update source of truth and external_files.download_content() now honors it. For a Home Assistant Voice PE config (16+ remote audio files, several micro_wake_word models), the validation phase no longer spends ~20 sequential HTTP HEAD requests before logs can start streaming.

Parallel external_files downloads (#16021) fan out per-file checks across an 8-worker thread pool. Wall time drops from sum(latency) to roughly max(latency) when the cache is warm.

Cached validated configs (#16381). esphome compile now writes the fully validated config to disk; upload and logs reload it instead of re-running read_config() from scratch. The cache is regenerated by every compile, so a follow-up upload to a freshly compiled binary skips the entire validation pipeline. No flag, no opt-in.

Sendspin Synchronized Multi-Room Audio

Section titled “Sendspin Synchronized Multi-Room Audio”

@kahrendt built a complete new component family for Sendspin, a multi-room synchronized audio protocol, across a chain of PRs:

  • Hub component (#15924) provides the basic connection and group state distribution.
  • Controller role and switch action (#15929) lets devices move between active groups.
  • Group media player platform (#15948) controls playback for a whole group (volume, transport, repeat, shuffle) without producing audio itself.
  • Media source platform (#15950) plays synchronized audio, with fixed and runtime-tunable delay compensation for downstream DAC/amp latency.
  • Metadata text and numeric sensors (#15969, #15971) report title/artist/album plus a polling track-progress sensor designed to drive displays.
  • Stutter reduction via sendspin-cpp v0.4.0 (#16178) marks decoder paths hot, allows player buffers in internal memory, and raises the player task priority above the websocket server. Combined with the new audio codec configuration, this enables real-time stereo Opus playback on a plain ESP32.

Radio Frequency Entity Type

Section titled “Radio Frequency Entity Type”

@kbx81 introduced a new top-level radio_frequency entity type (#15556) for representing RF transceivers in Home Assistant, alongside an ir_rf_proxy platform (#15744) that extends the existing infrared proxy with RF capability advertising (tunable frequency range, supported modulations).

A driver-agnostic on_control trigger (#16368) lets any RF front-end chip (CC1101, RFM69, SX127x, custom externals) integrate with radio_frequency entities through YAML triggers alone, with no custom C++ wiring required. Chip-state turnaround for transmit/receive is handled through remote_transmitter’s existing on_transmit / on_complete triggers, keeping radio_frequency itself driver-agnostic. The implementation shares wire messages with the IR proxy to conserve protobuf message IDs.

LVGL Improvements

Section titled “LVGL Improvements”

@clydebarrow continued landing LVGL refinements throughout the release:

  • Flexible grid layouts (#16041) accept new shorthands like 3x (3 rows, columns auto-derived) and x4 (4 columns, rows derived from widget count). Either grid_rows or grid_columns can now be a single integer that expands to that many equal FR(1) cells.
  • Checked-state binary sensors (#16073) report toggle widget state directly, not just press state.
  • Percentage line points (#16209) make resolution-independent line widgets straightforward.
  • Touch coordinates in event lambdas (#16272). on_pressed, on_pressing, and on_release now receive an additional point parameter with object-relative coordinates.
  • on_update trigger and trigger: option (#16312) distinguish programmatic value changes from user interactions for numbers and sensors.

The standalone mapping component also gained default values and metadata for cross-component validation (#15861).

Zigbee Expanded to ESP32 H2 and C6

Section titled “Zigbee Expanded to ESP32 H2 and C6”

@luar123 brought ESP32-based Zigbee support to ESPHome in #11553, porting the standalone zigbee_esphome external component into core. The implementation runs on the radio-equipped ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 variants and publishes ESPHome binary_sensor entities as Zigbee binary_input clusters, recognized automatically by ZHA and zigbee2mqtt. Zigbee router and end devices are supported.

Follow-ups in this release expand the feature set:

  • Sensors over Zigbee (#16026) exposes ESPHome sensor entities through the analog Zigbee data model.
  • on_join trigger (#16060) fires when the device joins or rejoins the Zigbee network, with a bool indicating which case.
  • power_source option (#16062) lets devices advertise their power source (battery vs mains).

nRF52 and Zephyr Platform Improvements

Section titled “nRF52 and Zephyr Platform Improvements”

@tomaszduda23 continued landing the work that turns nRF52/Zephyr into a first-class ESPHome target, with substantial follow-ups across deep sleep, Zigbee, OTA, and native builds:

  • Deep sleep with Zigbee wakeup (#13950) lets battery-powered nRF52 Zigbee devices sleep between events while still being woken by the radio.
  • nRF52 Zigbee router (#16034) extends the existing Zigbee end-device support to router devices.
  • Loop-wake primitives implemented (#16032): wake_loop_threadsafe() and wakeable_delay() now have real nRF52 implementations, so components that depend on these primitives (sockets, BLE, etc.) work the same way they do on ESP32.
  • Optional reset pin for DFU (#11684) makes the nRESET pin optional during DFU entry; less reliable, but feasible on boards that don’t break the pin out.
  • zephyr_ble_server numeric comparison pairing (#14400) adds the on_numeric_comparison_request trigger for secure BLE pairing flows.
  • Bootloader reserve area (#16204) carves out a dedicated flash region so bootloader updates don’t collide with app flash.
  • Crash logging on Zephyr (#16203, #16330) gives the logger a chance to print before reset, with a separate fix for a long-standing logger crash on Zephyr.
  • OTA-safe watchdog feeding (#16218) feeds the watchdog early during OTA so the device doesn’t roll back mid-update.
  • west update progress messaging (#16321) makes it clear when Zephyr is fetching modules rather than hanging.
  • Native build preparation (#16193) and run_compile hook for external components (#16179) set up the path for the nRF52/Zephyr toolchain to follow the same native build model as the new ESP-IDF pathway above.
  • CI coverage (#16188) adds nRF52 component tests so Zephyr-only changes actually get exercised in CI, and the Zephyr main loop drops a redundant yield() (#15694).

@rwrozelle landed two OpenThread fixes that ride along on the same platform pathway: a coroutine-with-priority COMMUNICATION profile (#16318) and removal of a stale freertos/portmacro.h include that broke builds against newer toolchains (#16338).

New Hardware and Display Support

Section titled “New Hardware and Display Support”
  • ESP32-P4 USB High Speed (#14584) by @p1ngb4ck: a new max_packet_size option on usb_host lets ESP32-P4 use 512-byte USB transfers instead of being fragmented to 64-byte Full Speed packets.
  • Configurable ESP32 watchdog timeout (#15908) by @rwrozelle: esp32.watchdog_timeout accepts 5-60 seconds for power-managed configurations.
  • esp32_ble PSRAM allocation (#15644) by @edwardtfn: a use_psram: true option directs Bluedroid to allocate from SPIRAM, freeing approximately 40 kB of internal RAM on PSRAM-equipped ESP32 boards.
  • SPDIF speaker output (#8065) by @johnboiles: a new I2S-based SPDIF speaker platform sends digital audio to optical receivers via any GPIO pin.
  • modbus_server split (#15509) by @exciton: a new dedicated modbus_server component, with flash savings of roughly 60% over the old wedged-in server mode (1.8 KB vs 4.5 KB) and 40% off the client-mode modbus_controller (3.9 KB vs 6.4 KB).
  • New display variants: epaper SSD1683 + Goodisplay GDEY042T81 (#13910), Waveshare 3.97” e-paper (#15466), Waveshare ESP32-C6 LCD 1.47 (#15776), Sunton ESP32-2424S012 (#15812), Sunton 5”/7” mipi_rgb displays (#15858), Seeed reTerminal D1001 DSI display (#15867).
  • WiFi phy_mode for ESP8266 (#16055) lets users pin the radio to 11B, 11G, or 11N from YAML to work around routers that misbehave with ESP8266 802.11n associations.

BLE Reliability Fix for Bluetooth Proxies

Section titled “BLE Reliability Fix for Bluetooth Proxies”

@plazarre tracked down a long-standing status=0x85 (133) error class in #16036 that hit bluetooth_proxy users with sustained WiFi traffic, most visibly Yale/August lock owners. The fix tracks CONNECTED and ESTABLISHED clients (not just transient connecting states) and holds ESP_COEX_PREFER_BT for the lifetime of any active connection. Same lock, same firmware, before vs after the patch:

  • Heavy WiFi traffic: status=133 timeout after 19 s becomes status=0 success in 228 ms.
  • Production validation against a Yale BETA211123 lock with host BlueZ disabled: clean unlock via the patched proxy.

Other Notable Features

Section titled “Other Notable Features”
  • Voice assistant second audio channel (#16265) by @synesthesiam: a MULTI_CHANNEL_AUDIO feature flag and a second microphone source let voice-pipeline stages receive separately optimized audio.
  • config-hash CLI command (#15548) by @ccutrer: determines whether a re-flash is required by comparing a config hash to what is currently on the device.
  • round_to_significant_digits filter (#11157) by @gapple: useful for ambient-light style sensors that span six orders of magnitude.
  • AC dimmer zero-crossing interrupt type (#15862) by @aselafernando: user-configurable interrupt edge for zero-cross detection.
  • lock open states (#15120) by @egormanga: the lock entity gained OPENING and OPEN states.
  • SX126x cold sleep (#16144) by @swoboda1337: a new cold: option on the sleep action reaches ~0.6 µA (roughly 1000x lower than warm sleep) for ESP32-deep-sleep-paired use.
  • DSMR rewrite (#15875) by @PolarGoose removes the Crypto-no-arduino dependency, eliminates dynamic allocations during parsing, in-place decrypts (saving ~1500 bytes), fixes a potential event-loop hang, fixes a missing GCM tag verification (a security vulnerability), and adds several missing OBIS sensors.
  • Climate / water heater temperature unit API (#15815) by @jhenkens: protobuf-level support for native Fahrenheit operation; the C++ implementation is staged for a follow-up release.
  • Mitsubishi CN105 remote temperature API (#15558) by @crnjan: override the AC unit’s internal sensor with a value from an external sensor.
  • nRF52 optional reset pin (#11684) by @tomaszduda23: DFU entry without the nRESET pin (less reliable but feasible).

Codebase Correctness and Developer Tooling

Section titled “Codebase Correctness and Developer Tooling”

A substantial sweep of correctness work landed alongside the features, led by @swoboda1337 (59 PRs this release) with help from @bdraco on the HAL split and CodSpeed coverage, @jpeletier on substitution error messages, and @Komzpa on reproducible builds.

  • clang-tidy 22.1 (#16078) replaces the years-old 18.1.8, surfacing latent issues across components.
  • Nested namespace concatenation (#16294-#16307) walks the entire component tree (a→c, d→h, i→m, n→r, s, t→z plus tests) collapsing namespace foo { namespace bar { ... } } into the modern namespace foo::bar { ... } and enabling the check to prevent regression.
  • bugprone-unchecked-optional-access fixes (#16102, #16103, #16107, #16121, #16124) eliminate a class of unchecked std::optional access bugs across sprinkler, pn532, feedback, time (CronTrigger), tormatic, and haier.
  • CodSpeed coverage expansion (#15593, #15688, #15696, #15995, #16157, #16402) adds benchmarks for hot helper functions, SubscribeLogsResponse encode, Z-Wave/IR/RF/serial proxy messages, and the compiled-config cache fast path. The benchmark target now matches firmware optimization level (-Os).
  • HAL split per platform (#15977, #15978, #16111-#16116, #16183) moves HAL bodies into per-platform files under components/<platform>/hal.cpp and inlines trivial dispatches.
  • Substitution error messages (#15874) by @jpeletier: undefined-variable errors now show a full include stack trace (Included from packages[3] in my_project.yaml 11:2) instead of a flat packages->3->packages->net->wifi->ssid path.
  • Reproducible ESP-IDF builds (#16008, #16053) make ESPHome builds bit-for-bit reproducible.

Thank You, Contributors

Section titled “Thank You, Contributors”

This release includes 395 pull requests from over 50 contributors. A huge thank you to everyone who made 2026.5.0 possible:

  • @swoboda1337 - 59 PRs including the seven-part nested-namespace clang-tidy sweep across the entire component tree, a clang-tidy 22 upgrade with the resulting correctness fixes, the SX126x cold sleep option, and substantial native ESP-IDF build polish
  • @kahrendt - 37 PRs including the audio stack rewrite on top of the new microMP3, microWAV, microFLAC, and microDecoder libraries, the ring_buffer helper component, the new audio_http media source, and the new Sendspin multi-room synchronized audio component family
  • @clydebarrow - 17 PRs including LVGL layout, gradient, percentage-line-point, touch-point, and on_update trigger improvements, new mipi_spi and mipi_dsi display models, and ESPNOW method-visibility cleanup
  • @jesserockz - 16 PRs including least-privilege workflow tokens, CI tooling tightening, and various build/release infrastructure improvements
  • @tomaszduda23 - 13 PRs including nRF52 + Zephyr native-build preparation, deep sleep with Zigbee wakeup, an nRF52 Zigbee router, and Zephyr OTA/watchdog/logger fixes
  • @Mat931 - 10 PRs including OTA partition-table and bootloader updates, the extended OTA protocol, safe_mode soft-brick recovery via the factory partition, and WatchdogManager fixes
  • @kbx81 - 7 PRs including the new experimental radio_frequency entity type, the ir_rf_proxy RF extension and driver-agnostic on_control trigger, and i2s_audio refactoring
  • @luar123 - 5 PRs expanding ESP32-based Zigbee support with binary sensors, sensors, the on_join trigger, and the power_source option
  • @crnjan - 5 PRs including mitsubishi_cn105 remote temperature API, half-degree setpoints, unified timeout handling, and vane / wide-vane support
  • @diorcety - 4 PRs including the native ESP-IDF toolchain support and ESP-IDF v6 readiness work
  • @rwrozelle - 3 PRs including the configurable ESP32 watchdog_timeout and OpenThread improvements
  • @Komzpa - 3 PRs making ESP-IDF and Arduino builds bit-for-bit reproducible
  • @egormanga - 2 PRs adding OPENING and OPEN states to the lock component and its API protocol
  • @guillempages - 2 PRs including the tm1637 brightness setter and Sunton mipi_rgb display definitions
  • @edwardtfn - 2 PRs including the esp32_ble use_psram option and a nextion TFT upload fix
  • @jpeletier - 2 PRs including the include-stack-trace substitution error messages and a remote-packages vars substitution fix
  • @PolarGoose - 2 PRs rewriting dsmr for performance, dropping the Crypto-no-arduino dependency, and adding missing sensors and a GCM tag verification fix
  • @johnboiles - the new SPDIF speaker output platform
  • @exciton - the new modbus_server component split out of modbus_controller
  • @plazarre - the esp32_ble_tracker coex fix that resolves long-standing status=133 GATT failures on bluetooth_proxy setups
  • @synesthesiam - the second audio channel for voice_assistant

Also thank you to @bdraco, @gapple, @lboue, @balloob, @Eelviny, @CircuitSetup, @ximex, @p1ngb4ck, @mikeytdisco, @angelnu, @puddly, @rwalker777, @TimoPtr, @Farmer-shin, @ccutrer, @SaVi456, @DidierA, @schdro, @rishabmehta7, @yvesf, @Bl00d-B0b, @jhenkens, @ruimarinho, @aselafernando, @dbl-0, @GelidusResearch, @oarcher, @RubenKelevra, @dmik, @ssieb, and @ggalt for their contributions, and to everyone who reported issues, tested pre-releases, and helped in the community.

Breaking Changes

Section titled “Breaking Changes”

Component Changes

Section titled “Component Changes”
  • Modbus: server mode has been split out of modbus_controller into a new modbus_server component. Move server_registers to registers and server_courtesy_response to courtesy_response under a top-level modbus_server: block #15509
  • API: default max_connections lowered from 8 to 5 on esp32, bk72xx, rtl87xx, and ln882x. Set api.max_connections explicitly if you need more than 5 concurrent API connections #15889
  • OTA (esphome platform): multiple ota: - platform: esphome entries with different port: values are now rejected at config time. Use a single entry on one port #15636
  • Output: FloatOutput runtime power scaling (min_power, max_power, zero_means_zero, output.set_min_power / output.set_max_power actions) is now gated behind a build flag. You are only affected if you call id(...).set_min_power(...) / set_max_power(...) / set_zero_means_zero(...) from a lambda without ever using the YAML keys or actions. Add min_power: 0% (or any of the other keys) to a single output: entry to re-enable the runtime setters; the build will emit a clear static_assert error with the fix when this applies #15998
  • Sensor: the throttle_average filter now rejects time_period values longer than 24 hours #16169

Audio Stack

Section titled “Audio Stack”
  • Audio / Media Player / Speaker: WAV decoding is no longer always compiled in. WAV is still automatically enabled when you embed a WAV file, set format: WAV as the preferred pipeline format, or use the speaker media player with format: NONE. If you only ever play WAV from arbitrary URLs via YAML actions, add audio: codecs: wav: to your configuration #16244
  • Media Player / Speaker / Speaker Source: codec_support_enabled on the speaker media player is now inert and deprecated. Codec inclusion is determined from the pipeline format: setting (use format: NONE to include all codecs, equivalent to the old all mode; format: WAV is the closest equivalent to the old none/false mode) #14771
  • Speaker Media Player: files built into firmware via the files: block now have a 5 MB per-file size limit. Compress oversized files (or switch to a more efficient codec) before upgrading #16266

Behavior Changes

Section titled “Behavior Changes”
  • Core (main loop): every component’s loop() now actually runs at the configured loop_interval_ cadence (default ~62 Hz) instead of being pulled forward to ~128 Hz by unrelated scheduler activity. Background events (MQTT RX, USB RX, BLE, etc.) still wake their components within one tick. If your YAML implicitly depended on loop() being pulled forward by other scheduled work, components will now run less often; use HighFrequencyLoopRequester for fast wakes #15792
  • ESP32 BLE Tracker: ESP_COEX_PREFER_BT is now held for the full lifetime of any active BLE connection rather than reverting to balanced coex as soon as the handshake settles. This fixes status=0x85 / 133 GATT failures on bluetooth_proxy setups under heavy WiFi load (notably Yale/August locks). Configurations holding long-lived BLE connections (for example a ble_client persistent sensor) may see lower WiFi throughput while the connection is up #16036
  • One Wire: OneWireBus::skip() now performs a bus reset before issuing the SKIP ROM command, fixing a long-standing 1-Wire protocol violation that could cause unreliable readings (such as the DS18B20 power-on 25 °C / 85 °C values). External components or lambdas calling skip() must handle the new bool return value (false if reset/presence pulse failed) #14669

Undocumented API Changes

Section titled “Undocumented API Changes”

Breaking Changes for Developers

Section titled “Breaking Changes for Developers”
  • OneWireBus::skip() signature: now returns bool (true on successful presence pulse, false on reset/no-device); also performs a bus reset before the SKIP ROM command. Callers must handle the return value #14669
  • ComponentIterator::on_media_player is now pure virtual: subclasses that don’t handle media players must add an override { return true; } stub guarded by #ifdef USE_MEDIA_PLAYER #15618
  • Heap-allocating helpers moved to alloc_helpers.h/alloc_helpers.cpp: functions like str_lower_case, str_snprintf, format_hex, format_hex_pretty, format_mac_address_pretty, value_accuracy_to_string, base64_encode, base64_decode (vector overload), get_mac_address, get_mac_address_pretty and similar have been moved. helpers.h re-exports alloc_helpers.h for backward compatibility until 2026.11.0; update your includes before then #15623
  • PollingComponent() default constructor: now initializes to SCHEDULER_DONT_RUN (UINT32_MAX) instead of 1. External components that bypass codegen, call PollingComponent() with no argument, and never call set_update_interval() will stop polling. Pass an interval to the constructor or call set_update_interval() explicitly #15832
  • API clients_ storage: APIServer::clients_ changed from std::vector to compile-time std::array; the set_max_connections() runtime setter was removed and the cap is now the MAX_API_CONNECTIONS compile-time define populated from YAML #15889
  • FloatOutput power scaling members gated: min_power_, max_power_, zero_means_zero_ and the corresponding setters are now gated behind USE_OUTPUT_FLOAT_POWER_SCALING. Lambdas that call these setters require the YAML to opt in (see the user breaking-changes section); a compile-time static_assert documents the fix at the call site #15998
  • ESPNOW method visibility and naming: play() is now correctly protected (was public); some methods/properties have been renamed for consistency with the YAML triggers (e.g. broadcasted → broadcast). External components extending the ESPNOW classes will need to update method names and visibility expectations #16109
  • Climate ClimateTraits accessors removed: the 10 deprecated get/set_supports_* accessors (current_temperature, current_humidity, two_point_target_temperature, target_humidity, action) are gone after their 6-month window. Use add_feature_flags() / has_feature_flags() with the matching CLIMATE_* flag; note two_point_target_temperature maps to CLIMATE_REQUIRES_TWO_POINT_TARGET_TEMPERATURE #16289
  • EKTF2232 rts_pin migration shim removed: the schema-level rts_pin → reset_pin rename helper is gone; configs still using rts_pin get a generic schema rejection instead of the friendly renamed-to error #16289
  • Core ring buffer moved to ring_buffer helper component: include from esphome/components/ring_buffer/ring_buffer.h and use the esphome::ring_buffer::RingBuffer namespace instead of esphome::RingBuffer. The old esphome/core/ring_buffer.h location is deprecated with a 6-month removal window; add AUTO_LOAD = ["ring_buffer"] to your component’s codegen #16298

For detailed migration guides and API documentation, see the ESPHome Developers Documentation.

Release 2026.5.1 - May 25

Section titled “Release 2026.5.1 - May 25”

Release 2026.5.2 - June 2

Section titled “Release 2026.5.2 - June 2”

Release 2026.5.3 - June 5

Section titled “Release 2026.5.3 - June 5”

Full List of Changes

Section titled “Full List of Changes”

For the complete list of every merged pull request in this release, see the full 2026.5.0 changelog.

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