System Architecture Overview
The System Architecture section offers a high-level understanding of how the Smart Panel organizes and interacts with devices and their capabilities. This virtual structure ensures that a wide variety of hardware can be integrated consistently, regardless of brand or protocol.
By breaking down physical or virtual devices into abstracted models — such as devices, channels, and properties — the platform can offer robust customization, clear structure, and future-proof extensibility.
Devices
A device is a representation of a real-world object — for example, a light bulb, a sensor, a speaker, or a thermostat. Each device:
- Belongs to a category (e.g., lighting, heating, media)
- Has a unique name and identifier
- Contains one or more channels that define its capabilities
This abstraction allows the system to treat all devices uniformly, even if they originate from different ecosystems (e.g., Zigbee, MQTT, HomeKit).
Channels
A channel encapsulates a specific feature or functionality of a device. For example:
- A light device may have a brightness and color channel
- A thermostat may include a temperature and humidity channel
- A speaker may include a volume and playback channel
This modular design allows capabilities to be reused across device categories and makes the interface predictable and scalable.
Purpose
The goal of this section is to document how devices and channels are modeled in the Smart Panel ecosystem. This structure is essential for:
- Developers building custom integrations or plugins
- Users configure devices manually through the Admin interface
- Contributors who want to expand supported device types
You don’t need to be a developer to benefit from this overview — just a curious mind and a desire to customize your smart home.
What’s Next?
Now that you understand how the Smart Panel structures devices and channels, it’s time to dive into the actual components.
👉 Head over to the Supported Devices section to explore each device category and its associated capabilities.