Getting started: making changes to a library used by a custom integration

Development
1

Hi there,
I’m new to HomeAssistant development so I’m looking for pointers.
I’m trying to make some changes to GitHub - MindrustUK/Heatmiser-for-home-assistant: Heatmiser Neo-Hub / Neostat support for home-assistant.io and for this to happen, I also have to make changes to its dependency, neohubapi / neohubapi · GitLab

I’m running homeassistant in a docker container (in virtualbox, on mac!) and I’m not sure how I can try my changes without having to wait for the new version of the libraries to be updated. Specifically, I’m struggling to get the docker container with home assistant to use dependency of the custom component (neohubapi)

I’ve tried to run a ‘pip install -e .’ from within the container to point to my local development folder but when I restart the container, the setting is lost (and I’m left with no version of the api at all).

Is my best option to run homeassistant without docker?

Thank your for any pointers

2

I am running my Home Assistant development environment in venv, and start it from the macOS command line. I use PyCharm for development and this way I have full control over the whole environment, write unit test, tweak any dependencies, etc. Works reasonably well for me

3

Thanks!
And you run a different “production” copy of homeassistant?

4

Yes, my production environment is completely separate.

I just remembered that there is a guide explaining different options and steps to set up a development environement - using a container or venv.