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Franck Nijhof

Franck Nijhof

Netherlands

Franck Nijhof, better known as Frenck, is one of the maintainers and the Lead of the Home Assistant project. Over two million households use this home automation platform, which is the most active open-source project on GitHub. A passionate advocate for community-driven and sustainable development, Franck focuses on empowering contributors to bring their ideas to life and successfully ship their creations. In 2024, his team supported over 21,000 individuals in contributing code, making Home Assistant a top project for first-time contributors. Beyond code, Franck enjoys speaking at events, schools, and appearing on podcasts. He finds inspiration in mentoring newcomers and exchanging ideas with fellow developers. At home, he’s a proud father who balances work and family while staying true to his personal motto: "Make a positive difference every single day: Be the change ❤️"

Community Contributions

Newsletter #3: I’m melting ☀️ 🫠

My first summer in a new house during a record European heatwave, and what it actually takes to keep the place livable: 40 solar panels, four air conditioners, shading over Matter and Somfy, a robot mower that panics at stepping stones, and inherited Hydrawise irrigation wired into Home Assistant. The through-line is that comfort is infrastructure, and the unglamorous systems are the ones that carry you when the weather gets weird. Plus why Samsung charging for SmartThings API access is the whole case for local control.

Other / 06-26-2026

More power, less complexity

Making software easier usually has a lazy version and a hard version. The lazy version removes options. The hard version keeps the power, but moves complexity out of your way. That is the direction we are taking with Home Assistant automations. There is also an open-source story here that I think is worth calling out. Home Assistant has proven over the last few years that an open-source project can grow from a technical product into a user-friendly product that is accessible to almost anyone, while keeping the power that made it special in the first place.

Blogpost / 06-23-2026

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