Flame Services Browser vs HomeBot for HomeKit

Flame is a browser for Bonjour (also known as ZeroConf) network services. It lists the services advertised on your wireless network and you can browse them by server. When selecting a service, its advertised details are displayed. You can copy any of the service details by long-pressing a row. If an application on your iPhone or iPod touch can handle any of the advertised services, a command to open it right away is provided.

HomeBot for HomeKit lets you automate your home with Shortcuts and the command line. It includes two powerful actions to manage your HomeKit setup: • Run Home Action: Control scenes and devices in bulk, adjust device properties, or change your primary home. • Get Home Items: Find and filter scenes, devices, device groups, rooms, and homes by name, item type, service type, room, home, activation status, or supported actions and properties. Results include item details, device properties such as light brightness and thermostat target temperature, and sensor readings such as temperature, humidity, and air quality. Action Types: • Trigger Scene: Trigger one or more scenes. • Switch Scene Status: Activate, deactivate, or toggle one or more scenes. • Switch Device Status: Activate, deactivate, or toggle one or more devices or device groups. • Change Device Property: Adjust supported device or device group properties, such as light brightness, thermostat target temperature, or the position of blinds. • Change Primary Home: Set the default HomeKit home. Changing your primary home propagates the change to all your devices, and Siri automatically uses the selected home by default. Explore the included example shortcuts to get started: • Trigger Scenes: Choose scenes in your primary home and trigger them together. • Switch Lightbulbs in Room: Toggle, activate, or deactivate all lightbulbs in a room. • Get Home Status: Export the status of all items in your primary home to a JSON file. • Get Temperature Measurements: Read each temperature sensor in your HomeKit setup. • Set Thermostats Temperature: Set the target temperature of one or more thermostats. • Set Light Brightness in Room: Set the light brightness of all lightbulbs in a room. • Change Lightbulb Colors: Cycle lightbulbs through the colors of the rainbow. • Change Primary Home: Choose which HomeKit home to use as your primary home. Automation Systems: • Shortcuts: Build advanced HomeKit workflows by combining HomeBot’s powerful actions with the built-in Shortcuts actions and automation triggers. • Command-Line Automation on Mac: Automate HomeKit from Terminal, scripts, or AI agents with the included "homebot-cli" tool. Export HomeKit data as JSON for use in your scripts. HomeBot supports macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Notes: • HomeBot can detect and control the following types of devices: outlets, lightbulbs, switches, thermostats, fans, air purifiers, heaters, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, windows, window coverings, faucets, valves, irrigation systems, doors, garage door openers, and locks. • HomeBot also supports reading measurements or detections from the following types of sensors: temperature, humidity, air quality, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, contact (doors, windows, and window coverings), smoke, leak, motion, light, and occupancy sensors. • HomeBot supports changing and reading light brightness and color, thermostat and heating/cooling modes, target temperatures and thresholds, humidity targets and thresholds, fan and air purifier modes, rotation speed and direction, swing, physical controls lock, and the position of doors, windows, blinds, or shades. • HomeBot also reads detailed air-quality measurements, battery levels, and filter status when available. • HomeBot Command-Line Automation requires macOS 26 or later. Privacy by Design: HomeBot works completely on-device and does not store or send any information outside of the protected app sandbox.