Community guidelines

Be kind and useful

• Assume good intent. Everyone was new once.
• Answer the question that was asked, and say what worked for you.
• Search first, and add to an existing topic rather than starting a copy.
• Mark the answer that solved it, so the next person finds it straight away.
• No selling, advertising or affiliate links. No personal attacks, harassment or hate.

Keep your home safe

• Never post passwords, Home Assistant tokens, API keys, license keys or recovery keys. The forum refuses posts that look like one.
• Leave out your address, camera snapshots of your home's outside, door codes and alarm details.
• Nobody from PorchIQ, person or AI, will ever ask for those. Report anyone who does.
• In an emergency, don't post: leave and call your local emergency number. PorchIQ isn't a monitored alarm service.

The PorchIQ Expert

The PorchIQ Expert is an AI assistant trained on the PorchIQ guide. It reads new questions, answers when the guide covers it, links what it used, and hands everything else to a person on our team. Its posts are always labelled AI assistant. It can't see your house or change anything in it.

Billing, refunds, privacy requests and anything about safety always go to a person.

How moderation works

• Posts with links from new members, and anything our filters aren't sure about, wait for a quick look before they appear.
• Press ⚑ Report on anything that breaks these rules. When two people report a member's post, it's hidden until our team looks.
• Our team can close, move, hide or pin topics, and suspend accounts that keep breaking the rules.
• Questions about a decision? Email [email protected].