Getting started w/ esphome - blocked installing integration

ESPHome
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I’m just getting started with HA, and have gotten it up and running on an RPi4. I connected it to my ecobee thermostat as a HomeKit device, so I’m fairly confident the server part of HA is working.

My plan is to use an ESP32 with a couple of WS2812 LEDs to indicate presence/occupancy/motion in an office to the other side of a building. I think I need ESPHome.. I started to write this software myself, planning for just two ESP32s talking over the local network. Then I remembered HA, figured it could probably already do most of what I want and much more without writing my own custom software for the ESP32s.

The first ESPHome step appears to be adding the integration to HA. I found the integration, but unlike the instructions, the UI immediately asks for “connection settings of your ESPHome device.”

I’m very confused because I don’t have an ESP32 set up for HA yet. I thought ESPHome was going to help me build firmware, but if I can’t install the integration, I can’t build the firmware to get the ESP32 to function as an ESPHome device?

Am I missing some obvious step?

thanks

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maybe not obvious, but you need the device builder to build devices. The integration lets you use them after you build them.

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There are two parts to ESPHome. You need to also install the APP; ESPHome Device builder. Then the ESPHome Integration will find any device that has ESP firmware already installed or you will need to write the ESPHome config/compile/update file for each device you want to use in HA. Hope that helps you out.

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That makes much more sense now, thanks. I needed to start with https://web.esphome.io/ to get the ESP32 set up as an ESPHome device. After that, it looks like via HA device discovery and setting up, the ESPHome integration automatically installed.

Thanks again for such a quick reply.