Reversed Rain Bird ESP-TM2 local protocol for Home Assistant integration

The Rain Bird ESP-TM2 Home Assistant app provides local control of sprinkler controllers, eliminating reliance on the manufacturer's cloud services and mobile application. The project implements a local protocol to manage watering programs, including start times, run durations, and seasonal adjustments. It supports live status monitoring for active zones, remaining time, and rain sensor states. The app includes a program editor and provides Home Assistant entities via MQTT. Security is managed through an AppArmor profile, and the app operates without internet access. The developer reports that the local protocol was reverse-engineered by the community, specifically referencing pyrainbird and the Hubitat Rain Bird LNK driver. Development and implementation were assisted by Claude Opus 5.5. The app is compatible with ESP-TM2 controllers using LNK WiFi modules. It does not support ESP-RZXe or ST8x-WiFi models due to differences in scheduling protocols. Users are advised against migrating to Rain Bird 2.0 firmware, as it disables local access. Full documentation is available at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abmina/rainbird-tm2-addon/HEAD/README.md.