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mqtt-presence 0.2.9, released by developer Bjoern Boeckle, is a lightweight open-source utility designed for MQTT-based presence detection in smart-home and IoT environments. The program listens to configurable MQTT topics—typically published by smartphones, wearables, or beacons—and translates the received Last-Will messages or heartbeat payloads into a binary “present / away” state. When a tracked device disappears from the broker or sends an explicit leave message, mqtt-presence can trigger a set of user-defined actions: sending another MQTT message, executing a shell command, toggling a Raspberry Pi GPIO pin, or even initiating a controlled shutdown of the host itself. This combination makes the tool equally suitable for switching lights on arrival, logging room occupancy statistics, or safely powering down a headless edge device after the last person leaves. Version 0.2.9 is the fourth public iteration, following earlier releases that progressively added GPIO support, systemd integration, and more granular timeout settings; all four versions remain accessible for users who need legacy compatibility. Written in portable Python, the package runs unobtrusively on Raspberry Pi OS, Debian, Ubuntu, and other Linux flavors, occupying only a few megabytes of RAM and adding negligible CPU load. Because it merely subscribes to existing broker traffic, no extra hardware or proprietary hubs are required, letting home-automation enthusiasts embed presence awareness into open platforms such as Node-RED, openHAB, or Home Assistant without vendor lock-in. The software is available for free on get.nero.com, with downloads provided via trusted Windows package sources (e.g. winget), always delivering the latest version, and supporting batch installation of multiple applications.
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