Valetudo Vacuum Setup

Valetudo replaces the vendor cloud on supported robot vacuums, such as rooted Dreame and Roborock models. It runs on the robot alongside the vendor firmware, with no vendor app, account, or cloud, and connects to Home Assistant over MQTT. Home Assistant creates the robot’s device and entities on its own once both are connected to the same MQTT broker.

Before You Start

1. Valetudo is installed. Installing it means rooting the robot, a bench job that depends on the exact model and board revision. Follow the rooting instructions for the robot and test the robot with its own buttons before opening it, since rooting voids the warranty.
2. An MQTT broker is running. Install the Mosquitto broker app, and create a dedicated user for the robot, as described in Install Mosquitto MQTT Broker .
3. Home Assistant 2026.5.2 or later and Valetudo 2026.05.0 or later, for room cleaning by area.

Step 1: Connect the Robot to Wi-Fi

1. Join the robot’s own Wi-Fi hotspot from a phone or laptop. If it has none, hold the two outer buttons (usually Home and Spot) until the robot speaks. Some models use a dedicated button: check the robot’s page in Valetudo’s supported robots list.
2. Open the Valetudo interface at http://192.168.5.1, http://192.168.8.1, or http://10.201.126.1, depending on the model, and enter the Wi-Fi network and password.
3. Reserve the robot’s IP address in the router. Valetudo’s interface is then at that address.
4. Under Connectivity Options > Auth Settings, set a username and password for the interface: anyone on the network can otherwise control the robot.

On Android, turn off mobile data while joining the hotspot, or the phone will not reach the robot.

Step 2: Connect Valetudo to the MQTT Broker

1. In the Valetudo interface, go to Connectivity Options > MQTT Connectivity.
2. Turn on MQTT enabled.
3. Under Connection, enter Home Assistant’s IP address as the Host and 1883 as the Port.
4. Under Authentication, turn on Credentials, then enter the MQTT user’s Username and Password.
5. Save.

Step 3: Confirm the Robot in Home Assistant

Go to Settings > Devices & Services > MQTT. The robot appears as a new device with a vacuum entity, battery and status sensors, consumables, and controls for its fan speed and settings. MQTT discovery does not show a “new device discovered” notification: the device is simply there.

If it does not appear, check the logs of Valetudo (Log in its menu), the Mosquitto broker app, and Home Assistant. The cause is usually the network or the MQTT user’s credentials.

Step 4: Map the Rooms to Home Assistant Areas

Name the rooms in the Valetudo interface first, then link them to Home Assistant areas:

1. Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Entities and select the robot’s vacuum entity.
2. Select the cogwheel, then Map vacuum segments to areas.
3. The robot’s rooms are listed on the left. For each one, select the matching Home Assistant area on the right, then select Save.

Clean rooms from an automation with the Clean area with vacuum cleaner action (vacuum.clean_area). Valetudo cleans them in the order they are listed:

action: vacuum.clean_area
target:
  entity_id: vacuum.valetudo_robot
data:
  cleaning_area_id:
    - kitchen
    - living_room

Step 5: Block the Robot’s Internet Access

Valetudo needs no internet connection. Before blocking it:

1. Under Connectivity Options > NTP Connectivity, point the robot at a local time server, such as the router, or the robot’s clock drifts and schedules run at the wrong time.
2. Put the robot on the IoT network and block its internet access in the firewall. Keep its connection to the MQTT broker on TCP 1883, access to the Valetudo interface on TCP 80 from the networks that manage it, and its default gateway reachable: some robots check the gateway and misbehave when it does not answer.

Show the Map

The Valetudo interface always has the live map. To show it on a Home Assistant dashboard, use the Valetudo Map Card .