The Briefing

23 October 2026

A Friday of small ships. Core 2026.10.3 lands as a patch for nine integrations, HAOS 18.4.rc2 fixes a Bluetooth adapter regression, and Z-Wave JS UI 11.25.1 bundles this week's Z-Wave driver.

01 · Home Assistant

Core 2026.10.3: a Friday patch for nine integration fixes

What happened: Core tagged 2026.10.3 at 18:50 UTC. The fixes: Proxmox VE update version detection, duplicate access events in UniFi Access, missing Omada controller update fields, a fresh SSL context per connection in the SMTP integration, EnergyZero gas prices before 06:00, errors in Synology DSM button-press actions, the KNX telegram store no longer tripping the bootstrap timeout while it initializes, FRITZ!SmartHome's mixed-up lock and device-lock sensors, and the Home Connect event listener stopping on token-refresh errors. Under the hood: Python 3.14.8, base image 2026.10.1, frontend 20260930.5.

Why it matters: If you run Proxmox VE, UniFi Access, KNX or a FRITZ!SmartHome lock, this patch is worth taking once it reaches your channel. The rest is polish.

Primary source

core 2026.10.3

02 · Home Assistant OS

HAOS 18.4.rc2: kernel 6.18.58 fixes the RTL8761B Bluetooth dropout

What happened: Home Assistant OS tagged 18.4.rc2 at 21:15 UTC — "another candidate for the 18.4 release," in the project's words. It brings Linux kernel 6.18.58, Buildroot 2025.02.19 and Go 1.27.3, and fixes the regression that broke RTL8761B (0bda:a728) Bluetooth adapters since kernel 6.18.45.

Why it matters: If a Realtek-based Bluetooth adapter went quiet after the 18.3 kernel update, this is where it comes back. Candidates are for testing; 18.3 remains the stable OS.

Primary source

HAOS 18.4.rc2

03 · Z-Wave

Z-Wave JS UI 11.25.1 bundles node-zwave-js 15.31.2

What happened: Z-Wave JS UI tagged 11.25.1 at 08:31 UTC. It picks up yesterday's driver release, and the Docker images bump to Node 24.22.1.

Why it matters: The driver fixes from yesterday — the controller-migration device class, preset handling and ten new device presets — are now one click away for UI users.

Primary source

zwave-js-ui 11.25.1

04 · The rest of the rail

No change elsewhere: Zigbee2MQTT 2.14.2, matter.js 0.18.0

What happened: Zigbee2MQTT is still 2.14.2 — no tag since 1 October — and matter.js holds at 0.18.0 from Tuesday. ESPHome sits at Wednesday's 2026.10.0 stable.

Why it matters: The Friday rhythm: Core patches, the rest of the rail steady. If you're current, there is nothing to do this weekend.

Primary source

Zigbee2MQTT releases; matter.js releases