Running it in Docker and configuring Home Assistant to use MQTT is a straight forward process. I have a few MQTT projects upcoming/completed that I’ll write about over the next few weeks: Building a smart garage door opener using a Shelly 1 relay. Add-ons for Home Assistant, allow you to extend the functionality around your Home Assistant setup. These add-ons can consist of an application that Home Assistant can integrate with (e.g., a MQTT broker or database server) or allow access to your Home Assistant configuration (e.g., via Samba or using the Configurator).
Home Assistant on Docker is easier than running it with HASSIO IMO.
Here is a high-altitude overview of how I run Home Assistant -and- then I’ll dig into the details of my setup.
Okay, details… here is how I run Home Assistant on Docker on a Raspberry Pi 4.
/root/docker-compose.yml
consisting of the following (NOTE: I use the Aeon z-wave stick at /dev/ttyACM0):/etc/systemd/system/home-assistant.service
systemctl enable home-assistant.service
systemctl enable docker
docker
home-automation
home-assistant
]