A user reports that a new Home Assistant setup card simplifies the existing MCP connection to Claude. Starting setup is easier, but Claude’s cloud cannot directly reach a local-only address, so an externally reachable endpoint or a service such as Nabu Casa is still required. Entities are selected for exposure through Assist settings; the reported environment showed four read-only tools and 19 write or delete tools. Settings, logs, history and automation installation are not all available, and some generated YAML still needs manual application. The change improves connection convenience rather than introducing a new protocol.