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Also take a look at https://github.com/smartHomeHub/SmartIR and https://github.com/smartHomeHub/SmartIR/blob/master/docs/MEDIA_PLAYER.md . This is more or less the de facto implementation for ir integrations within home assistant (I guess). You can see many of the codes available are in base64, but I guess the command sent to the device would be JSON anyway. Again, just posting ideas/links. In my personal experience, I made all of this work with a tasmota ir flashed Chinese device, plus smart ir, plus getting the codes from the tasmota console (which was kind of painful, but hey, ACs are really easy heh).
I have written several MQTT bridges for my own use, including one to Harmony Hub (https://github.com/i8beef/HomeAutio.Mqtt.Harmony). I bring this up, because I think the MQTT topic approach I use here could be a good example for you as I support the full gamut of options exposed by Harmony, which should be a pretty close approximation of your problem space.