tuyapi VS localtuya

If I want to buy switches or sensors from Ali/Tuya can I pair them to any hub or do I need to use the tuya api: https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi?

If you prefer Zigbee in general - cool. But saying Zigbee is better than Wi-Fi because there's this one sucky application Smart Life that forces your phone connected to 2.4 to let you setup doesn't make sense. Just use a different application to set it up. Or you can block Tuya IPs for fully local operation. https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi/

My LED lights are by a company called Smart Life, and their service is provided by Tuya (don't know if they're the same) But I essentially looked into this code repository and followed the guidelines https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi then all I had to do was connect it to a twitch bot running on my computer and converting the color into numbers that the lights understood :)

You can link your account to their developer tools, and use tuyapi (https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi ) to get them set up, and use BN-Link devices that are $25 for a 4-pack

It doesn't seem like Smartlife has any public/open API. There's an unofficial hack but it seem to communicate over TCP/IP which Automate currently doesn't support: https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi

Try these steps https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi/blob/master/docs/SETUP.md

By the way, those Minoston outdoor outlet switches use the Smart Life app which seems to be also used by Tuya devices, and there is some talk of controlling Tuya stuff in C4 with an MQTT driver. There is some Tuya code on the web (https://github.com/codetheweb/tuyapi) so you could probably control that with a little bit of work in C4.

Tuya devices, and the Tuya-based Monster, Greeni, etc stuff can be connected to HA using the Tuya Integration, or converted to local-only using Tuya Cloudcutter and connected to HA using Local Tuya, or even flashed with Tasmota, ESPHome/Libre Tiny, or OpenBeken.

It's still on my list of things to try so I don't have personal experience, but I think https://github.com/rospogrigio/localtuya can help you. Maybe start with reading the readme to see what limitations exist for Tuya devices.

localtuya

You can control them locally with this integration for Home Assistant: https://github.com/rospogrigio/localtuya

We got some cheap Tuya bulbs from Kogan. Unfortunately they were too new to flash with tuya-convert, but they can still be controlled locally through Home Assistant with localtuya.

There is the [Local Tuya](https://github.com/rospogrigio/localtuya) integration for Home Assistant. This will eliminate the cloud dependency of the Tuya devices you have. Once you have them in Home Assistant you can expose them to HomeKit just like HomeBridge does.

Don't the Treatlife devices just use the Tuya backend? If so, you can add them directly to HA using the cloud based official Tuya Integration, or the local-only Local Tuya via HACS.