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Public Addon Config

· 2 min read
Mike Degatano

Add-ons can now have a public folder for config or data files, which users can see and modify, but it is still backed up with the add-on.

Many add-ons ask users to provide files as part of the addon configuration. Or generate files that they want users to be able to see and potentially modify. They typically handle this by including config and/or share in the list of folders to map.

The problem with this is twofold:

  1. Nothing in config or share is backed up with the add-on. So, backups of that add-on do not include all the necessary files to run it after restore.
  2. Add-ons that map config have far more access than they should since config includes all secrets and credentials used in your Home Assistant integrations.

There is now a better solution for add-on developers. Add-ons can include addon_config in the list of folders to map. Then, the supervisor will create a folder for that add-on at /addon_configs/<your addon slug> and map that to /config within the add-on container. If your addon needs to be able to create and modify files in this folder in addition to collecting files from users, use addon_config:rw instead.

To read more about this feature and some of the use cases, see Add-on advanced options.

Backwards compatibility with /config​

You may notice that the new public config folder is mapped to /config. Which is previously where Home Assistant's config folder was mapped if you added config to the map field.

This option is intended to replace the need for add-ons to map Home Assistant's config into their container. As such, an add-on cannot include both config and addon_config in the map field.

Going forward, if you do need to make Home Assistant's config available to your add-on, you should list homeassistant_config as a folder in the map field. Then Home Assistant's config folder will be mapped to /homeassistant within the container.

New addon_configs folder​

Some add-ons need access to all these add-on-specific config folders. For example:

  1. Samba
  2. SSH
  3. Studio Code Server

Essentially, these add-ons provide alternative means of editing the configuration files of Home Assistant and its add-ons. Add-ons like these should add all_addon_configs:rw to the list of folders in the map field. This will map the entire addon configs folder within the container at /addon_configs.