Safety: bulbs and fittings must be used according to the manufacturer's instructions, and fixed wiring is a job for a licensed electrician in Australia. Treat Wi-Fi lights as IoT devices on a separate VLAN.
Local versus cloud
LIFX has two documented control paths. The LAN protocol uses UDP and a packed binary message format on your local network. The HTTP API is for control over the internet (cloud or WAN). The Home Assistant LIFX integration controls lights over your local network without going through the LIFX cloud, so the lights keep responding if your internet is down.
What the Home Assistant integration offers
Per the docs: it supports every LIFX light, with features depending on the hardware. It covers white, colour, multizone lights (Beam, Neon Flex, Lightstrip, Z and others) and matrix lights (such as the Ceiling), with extra effects and the ability to paint a theme across zones. Matrix lights on firmware 4 or later can run the Sky effect. The LIFX Switch is not supported, because it does not use the LIFX LAN protocol.
Discovery and network design
The docs say lights are discovered by UDP broadcast, Zeroconf, HomeKit and DHCP. Broadcast, Zeroconf and HomeKit discovery need Home Assistant to have a network interface on the same subnet as the lights.
- Simple setup: lights and Home Assistant on the same IoT VLAN. Discovery just works, and you block that VLAN from the internet if you want local-only.
- Separate VLANs: the docs say that if the lights are on a separate network Home Assistant cannot reach directly, add each light manually by its host. A serial number alone will not work in that case, because Home Assistant has to broadcast to resolve it.
- Give each light a DHCP reservation. The docs say Home Assistant usually picks up address changes, but manual entries on routed networks are easier to keep stable with reservations.
- The LAN protocol documentation I read describes UDP messages and does not describe authentication, so assume anything that can reach the light on your network can control it. Use a VLAN and a firewall.
- Only allow LIFX lights to reach the internet if you actually use the LIFX app or cloud features. Otherwise block it.
- Do not port-forward lights. Use a VPN for remote access.
- LIFX's documentation warns that undocumented messages or excessive message rates can cause unexpected behaviour, so do not write aggressive polling scripts.
- Check that the model you want is on the supported list and whether it has multizone or matrix features.
- Think about whether you want the lights controlled via switches. Wall switches that cut power to a smart bulb are a common source of "unavailable" lights.