Credential
A supported phone or digital credential starts the access interaction.
OPEN-SOURCE ACCESS CONTROL · ESP32
v0.3 beta · hardware verified
Build the key.
Understand the lock.
Aliro HomeKey is an open-source ESP32 reader exploring standards-based digital access through Aliro, NFC and Matter. It is built in public, tested on real hardware and documented around what actually works.
Real milestone: the development setup reached phone discovery. v0.3 also adds the first real PN532 frontend and a Matter Door Lock endpoint.
CURRENT BUILD
v0.3 [beta]
PN532 · Matter Door Lock · OTA validation · web authentication · Wi-Fi setup
ESP32-WROOM-32 · 4 MBOPEN SOURCE
WHAT IT IS
A reader you can inspect.
The project separates the physical NFC transport, Aliro reader lifecycle, access policy, persistent configuration and network integrations so each layer can be understood and changed without turning the whole firmware into a black box.
NFC transport
The PN532 frontend carries the ISO 14443-4 interaction to the reader.
Aliro reader
The reader stack handles protocol state, authentication and credential identity.
Access decision
Access policy decides whether the credential can drive the configured output.
LATEST ENGINEERING WORK
The website follows the code, not the other way around.
Recent development has focused on making the reader more reliable in the real world: WebSocket liveness and reconnect handling, live metric rendering, Matter relock behavior and correcting the ESP-IDF WebSocket lifecycle documentation.
LATEST · WEB / RELIABILITY
Live connections that actually stay live.
The WebSocket path now checks for pong responses, closes dead connections deliberately and keeps live device metrics synchronized instead of waiting for the device to disconnect.
View recent commits ↗RECENT · MATTER
Auto-relock behavior.
Matter Door Lock handling now tracks the configured AutoRelockTime and updates the physical lock behavior from the device state.
EXPLORE THE PROJECT
Seven pages. One repository.
01 / DOCS
Architecture
Component boundaries, transaction flow and design constraints.
02 / HARDWAREHardware
ESP32 targets, PN532, buses, lock output and security boundaries.
03 / TESTINGFirst test
Flash v0.3, boot the board and understand what each test proves.
04 / ROADMAPRoadmap
Completed milestones, open questions and the next engineering layer.
05 / VERSIONSVersions
v0.1, v0.2, v0.3 and reproducible firmware downloads.
06 / WEBWeb interface
Setup AP, configuration API, MQTT and authentication.
07 / PROJECTAbout & licensing
Foundations, attribution, Apache-2.0 and project boundaries.
STATUS
Experimental hardware. Real progress. No fake certification.
Aliro HomeKey deliberately distinguishes compiled, booted, detected and end-to-end verified. A project that controls a door deserves that level of honesty.