Documentation
These are the project's own documents, shown in full and not rewritten. They are pulled from release v3.18.1 each time this site is built.
New here? Start withIs it for me? The live demo
Start here
- Crop Steering AcademyThe free Crop Steering Academy: beginner video lessons from water and roots to daily operation, the learning routes and how each lesson works.
- Learner workbookThe Academy's learner workbook: glossary, calculations, graph exercises, setup record, daily routine and explained answers.
- Validated feature matrixEvery feature with how it was tested, the evidence behind it and its limits, and what has and has not been verified on a live installation.
- Current workspace screenshotsCurrent screenshots of the main pages, from all-rooms status and a phone view to tank, dosing, irrigation and history, captured with demo data.
Set up
- Equipment and setup: start with one zoneEquipment and setup for one zone: functional kit, compatibility sheet, water and control paths, and staged commissioning.
- Installation, upgrade and rollbackWhat gets installed, requirements, the guided steps, the Docker controller, upgrading and restoring a prior version.
- First-run setupAfter the install: examine the installation, set up a room, and the checks before the first watering, with watering off until the last step.
- Water supply, pump queue and flow checksPump flow and sharing, the pump queue and flow-meter checks. They order shots and raise alerts; they never hold a shot.
- CalibrationMoisture probe offsets and curves, 2-point feed pH/EC calibration, and dosing pump prime and calibrate.
- Batch-tank dosingBatch-tank dosing: feed schedule and hardware profile, single doses, timed runs, whole batches, the mix check, holds and the dosing alerts.
- Optional InfluxDB historyOptional InfluxQL or Flux history, protected credentials, capped reads and Recorder fallback.
Use it every day
- User guideEvery page of the dashboard, step by step: status, zones, timelines, timer programs, grow plans, history and equipment, and what each action changes.
- Dashboards and displayThe menu, every page and its address, display units and clock, the Home Assistant sidebar, and wall and tablet dashboards.
- Steering and whole-grow planningSteering and whole-grow schedules, reading the combined graph, pot and dripper sizing.
- Timer programs and irrigation modesWater a zone by steering, by timer or not at all. Timer shots pass the same safety checks as steering shots.
- Presets and copying settingsSave a room's or zone's settings as a preset, or copy them to other zones. You see a preview first, and the saved values are read back after.
- History, changes and putting things backThe event Journal, History › Changes with who changed what and why, putting an earlier value back, Undo, and the shot Timeline.
- Alerts: rules, the inbox and quiet hoursSet your own alert rules and test them against yesterday's data before saving. Also the alerts inbox and quiet hours per phone.
- Notifications: who gets which alertsWhich phone gets a push for which kind of alert, and the events you can subscribe to.
- System statusEvery mapped device, online, offline or silent, its 7-day uptime and each room's controller heartbeat.
Upgrade
- Upgrade to 3.18: the planRead this before you update. What stays the same, what the update carries across, what needs you, a first-hour checklist and how to go back.
- 3.18 upgrade report, line by lineOne section per line of each room's Upgrade report: what the update did, what it left for you, and the safe defaults.
Fix a problem
AI assistant (optional)
- AI assistantThe optional Claude assistant: how it works, starting it, its budget and dry run, the judges, its safety limits and powers, and who writes which setpoint.
- AI instructions and room contextThe exact controller-built prompt, reviewed room context, revisions and cache breakpoints, and how the prompt describes the restored options.
- Set up an install with an AI assistantLet an AI assistant prepare your setup through the MCP server. Every change is previewed, you approve it, then it is saved and read back.
- Configure Crop Steering through MCPAn assistant can inspect rooms and prepare reviewed configuration changes. Read-only by default.
- Crop Steering MCPConnect Claude Desktop or another local MCP client to the Crop Steering MCP server: install, client settings and a first workflow with its approval token.
Reference
- Entity Reference: Complete SchemaThe entities the integration creates, including numbers, selects, switches and sensors.
- System overviewThe responsibilities of each part, and the order of checks before any equipment is switched.
- Crop Steering ControllerThe companion controller app: install and configure it, the optional AI assistant and its judges, plans and operation, visible targets and updating.
- Legacy: Moving a room from the first AI editionMoving a room from the Jev edition to this repository, one time, with its state and settings.
For contributors
- Repository mapWhere each part lives in the source repository: the integration, the controller app, the dashboard, the MCP server, the tests and the docs.
- TestingRunning the project's checks for the decision engine, integration helpers, controller and dashboard.
- ReleasingHow a release is verified on staging hardware before it is promoted to a production room.