Local first: why a door should not depend on the internet

Access control has to work when the internet is down, when a provider changes its prices and in ten years’ time. That is why the KLOKL Bridge talks only to the reader and to your own MQTT broker, without any server of ours in between.

Many smart locks and access systems send every opening through a manufacturer’s cloud. That is convenient to set up, but it makes the front door depend on things you do not control: your internet connection, the provider’s servers and its business model.

When the cloud goes away

This is not a theoretical risk. In April 2022 the smart home company Insteon switched off its servers practically overnight, and many devices lost their app control. A door is a device you expect to use for ten or twenty years; few cloud services last that long unchanged.

What “local” means with the bridge

• The reader talks to the bridge over OSDP on a cable, not over the internet.
• The bridge talks to your MQTT broker in your own network, optionally encrypted.
• Home Assistant decides and opens the lock; no KLOKL server, no account, no subscription.
• The PIN is checked on the bridge itself, so the code never travels over the network.

Faster and more private

A local path is short: card, bridge, broker, Home Assistant and back takes a fraction of a second. And the information who came home when stays in your house. In a company, such access logs are personal data of employees; keeping them on your own systems makes data protection much simpler.

What you still need to plan

Local does not mean indestructible. A few things belong to every access setup:

• Power: a small UPS for router, Home Assistant and the bridge’s 12 V supply bridges short outages.
• Fallback: keep the lock’s usual way to open, a key or its own code, for the case that Home Assistant is down.
• Updates and backups of Home Assistant, as for any important system.

How the pieces work together in practice is shown in our guide to card and PIN.