esphome take a yaml description and generates μC code from a wealth of pre-existing libraries and frameworks (platformio, etc). That makes it not just ideal for DIY home-automation but also for building quick and dirty proof of concepts.

The only downside being, it's hard to integrate esphome into anything without a WIFI connection. The only know exception so far, being modbus.

This custom component allows an esphome to be controlled via an extremely simple serial protocol. One single character triggers one single action.