I've had good success implementing the native ESPHome socket protocol. Not an easy protocol to implement as it uses Google Protobuf RPC along with a custom ESPHome on-wire transmission format. The good news is that because Protobuf is a highly optimized binary format it results in tiny packets (a few bytes for most commands) direct communication but its over 1,000 lines of code so far!
Unfortunately Hubitat still does not support MDNS so until it does you'll need to hardcode the device IP address and I do not plan to support encrypted communications at this time.
ESPHome itself defines 64 types of command and my plan is to provide protocol support for all of them just like Home Assistant does.
There isn't a one-size fits all driver for ESPHome devices so my solution will be more of a "toolkit" with a common library and example "skeleton" drivers that can be customized to the particular device capabilities with the goal to make it quick and easy to get up and running.
In order to prioritize the creation of the skeleton drivers I'd like to know what kinds of things ESPHome is being used for, e.g. are you using it for sensors, or things like switches etc.
Thanks!
