OpenHue CLI

Control Philips Hue lights and scenes via a Hue Bridge from the terminal.

Install

Releases ship ARCHIVES, not bare binaries. The asset names are openhue_<OS>_<arch>.<ext>, e.g. openhue_Windows_x86_64.zip, openhue_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz, openhue_Darwin_all.tar.gz. A URL built as openhue-linux-amd64 does not exist and returns 404.

# Windows: download, extract, put on PATH
$dst = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\openhue"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $dst | Out-Null
$url = "https://github.com/openhue/openhue-cli/releases/latest/download/openhue_Windows_x86_64.zip"
Invoke-WebRequest $url -OutFile "$env:TEMP\openhue.zip"
Expand-Archive "$env:TEMP\openhue.zip" -DestinationPath $dst -Force
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "$env:Path;$dst", "User")

# Linux
curl -sL https://github.com/openhue/openhue-cli/releases/latest/download/openhue_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz \
  | tar -xz -C ~/.local/bin openhue

# macOS
brew install openhue/cli/openhue-cli

Verify before anything else: openhue version (note: --version flag doesn't exist on recent versions, use the version subcommand instead). If the command is not found, it is NOT installed, whatever ~/.openhue/config.yaml contains: the config file survives the binary and is not proof of an install.

First run: press the button on your Hue Bridge to pair. The bridge must be on the same local network.

Configuration

OpenHue stores its configuration in ~/.openhue/config.yaml:

bridge: <BRIDGE_IP>
key: <API_KEY_GENERATED_AT_PAIRING>

• The API key is generated automatically when you press the bridge button during pairing. There is nothing to create by hand.
• It stays valid until the bridge changes or is factory reset.
• To re-pair from scratch, delete ~/.openhue/config.yaml and run the setup again.
• Never print that file's contents. The key grants control of every light to anyone who can reach the bridge on the LAN. To check the pairing, run openhue get light and look at whether it answers, not at the key.

Discovery

openhue get light    # list all lights with exact names
openhue get room     # list rooms
openhue get scene    # list scenes

Light and room names are case-sensitive - always verify with openhue get.

Control Lights

openhue set light "Bedroom Lamp" --on
openhue set light "Bedroom Lamp" --off
openhue set light "Bedroom Lamp" --on --brightness 50        # 0–100
openhue set light "Bedroom Lamp" --on --temperature 300      # 153 (warm) – 500 (cool) mirek
openhue set light "Bedroom Lamp" --on --color red
openhue set light "Bedroom Lamp" --on --rgb "#FF5500"        # color-capable bulbs only

Control Rooms

openhue set room "Bedroom" --off
openhue set room "Bedroom" --on --brightness 30

Scenes

openhue set scene "Relax" --room "Bedroom"
openhue set scene "Concentrate" --room "Office"

Useful Presets

# Bedtime: dim warm
openhue set room "Bedroom" --on --brightness 20 --temperature 450

# Work: bright cool
openhue set room "Office" --on --brightness 100 --temperature 250

# Movie: dim living room
openhue set room "Living Room" --on --brightness 10

# All off (adapt room names to your setup)
for room in "Bedroom" "Office" "Living Room"; do openhue set room "$room" --off; done

Notes

• Bridge and the machine running LaRuche must share the same local network.
• Colors (--color, --rgb) only work on color-capable bulbs, not white-only models.
• Pair well with cron_create for scheduled lighting (dim at bedtime, bright at sunrise).