Per-Device Default Dashboard

A Home Assistant custom integration that opens a different default dashboard per device type for the same user — e.g. Home Mobile in the iOS/Android companion app and Home Desktop in a desktop browser — configurable from the UI, with no automations and no per-browser registration.

Home Assistant's default dashboard (defaultPanel) is a per-user setting applied by the frontend; there is no native way to vary it by device. This integration serves a small ES module into the frontend that, on launch, classifies the client by User-Agent and redirects to the mapped dashboard.

How it works

• On every page it injects router.js (via frontend.add_extra_js_url).
• At launch the module classifies the client (ios_app / android_app / mobile_web / desktop), fetches the mapping over a websocket command (device_dashboard/get_config), and — only from a launch/landing page, once per launch — redirects with a full navigation (location.replace) so the target dashboard loads fresh.
• Mappings are per-user with a global default fallback, edited from the UI.

Deep links (e.g. a notification opening a specific view) and manual navigation are left alone, so you won't get "bounced" back.

Installation (HACS)

1. HACS → ⋮ → Custom repositories → add https://github.com/skidank/ha-device-dashboard, category Integration.
2. Install Per-Device Default Dashboard, then restart Home Assistant.
3. Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Per-Device Default Dashboard.

Configuration

Open Configure on the integration and use the menu:

• Edit default (all users) — the mapping applied to everyone without an override.
• Edit a user override — pick an HA user, then set their mapping.
• Remove a user override — delete a user's override (they fall back to the default).

For each device type, pick a dashboard or leave it as “(no override — use default)” — an unset class does nothing, respecting the user's normal default.

Device classification

Class	Matched when the User-Agent…
ios_app	contains io.robbie.HomeAssistant (incl. iPad app)
android_app	contains io.homeassistant.companion.android
mobile_web	looks like a phone/tablet browser (not the app)
desktop	anything else (fallback)

iPadOS Safari masquerades as macOS, so the iPad browser classifies as desktop; the iPad app classifies as ios_app.

Known limitations

• Launch flash. Because the decision happens client-side, the launch briefly renders the frontend's default panel before swapping to the mapped dashboard. This is inherent to any client-side approach.
• Removal needs a restart. The frontend has no public API to un-inject a module, so after removing the integration the module keeps being served until Home Assistant restarts (a known frontend limitation, shared with browser_mod).
• Map only to dashboards the user can access, or the frontend will show its normal "not found/allowed" page.
• Relies on frontend internals (the <home-assistant> element and the hass object); a frontend release could change these — the CI checks re-run on schedule.

Development / validation

python -m py_compile custom_components/device_dashboard/*.py
python -m json.tool custom_components/device_dashboard/manifest.json > /dev/null

CI (.github/workflows/validate.yml) runs hassfest and the HACS Action.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.