Alfred 2 Workflow for controlling a Nest

This workflow is no longer maintained. It uses the unofficial Nest API and may break at any time. I have a new Nest workflow that uses the official API, so you may want to try that one.

This workflow lets you control the basic features of a Nest thermostat. It provides several commands, accessible via nest [command]:

• away - show and toggle away mode
• fan - show and toggle the fan mode
• mode - show and toggle the heat/cool mode (heat, cool, or heat/cool)
• status - show general Nest status
• target - get and set the target temperature or temperature range
• weather - show local weather (according to the Nest servers)
• nest - choose the currently active Nest (if you have more than one)

Your location (for weather) and your temperature scale preference are read from your Nest account.

The first time you run any of the commands you'll be asked for your Nest account information. This information is only used to authenticate with Nest and get a session cookie. It isn't stored anywhere permanent, which means you'll have to re-login once a month. At some point I should probably look into using the Keychain for longer term storage.

Installation

The easiest way to install the workflow is to download the prepackaged workflow. Double-click on the downloaded file, or drag it into the Alfred Workflows window, and Alfred should install it.

Requirements

The only requirements are:

• Python 2.7+
• requests
• My jcalfred python library (included in the workflow download)

If you have Lion or Mountain Lion, the prepackaged workflow includes everything you need.

Credits

I borrowed the idea for using AppleScript dialogs to get login information from gharlan's GitHub workflow. I wasn't terribly happy with my first implementation, which just had you enter your information in the Alfred command pane, because there doesn't seem to be a way to keep things out of Alfred's command history.

Nokipore's alfred-python package showed me a cleaner way to structure my Alfred interface code.