I think the answer largely depends on the devices you use. Many devices require an internet connection to integrate with HA. Fortunately, each HA integration should list whether or not they can work locally.

Here are some device suggestions:

• Bluetooth
• Zigbee/Zwave/Zwhatever (local radio control). I don’t use this, but a lot of HA gripes I notice tend to center around support for these devices.
• The HomeKit spec requires local only control at least as an option. HA can act as a HomeKit hub through the HomeKit Devices integration, so you don’t need any Apple hardware to use HomeKit devices.
• Shelly makes great wifi and Bluetooth devices that work locally.
• If you get wifi devices, put them on a separate network and/or have firewall rules that deny them internet access.
• Use a VPN like Tailscale to access your HA from the internet, rather than exposing your HA instance to the internet through port forwarding.

Just as an example, I have Ecobee thermostats that are HomeKit compatible. Ecobee provides a cloud service, but I don’t use it at all, and my thermostats are denied internet access at the network level. They still work great through the HomeKit Devices integration.

Good luck!

Not audio specific but…

Shelly products (smart relays, plugs, sensors, etc.) all work over local network control and I’ve been very happy with them. I have a bunch throughout the house, and they are all denied internet access at the network level.

Also, all HomeKit devices must, by the specification, allow local control. You should be able to use those devices locally using the Home Assistant HomeKit Device integration without having any Apple devices. My Ecobee thermostats work great through this integration even though they are also denied internet access.

Good luck, and have fun nerding out on your new home!

You only pay if you want to use > 1GB of their cloud storage, which you wouldn’t if you self-hosted it or relied entirely on P2P syncing.

https://anytype.io/pricing

Anytype: Free, open source, offline first, P2P sync, end to end encrypted.

For Resilio Sync mobile it is both on-the-fly and a configuration. You can mark individual files and folders as ones that always needs to be synced at all times and available for offline use. For files that are not synced already, simply tapping them will download it. I’m not sure how it behaves on Desktop since I don’t have the Pro version with selective sync.

Synology Drive is pretty much the same as far as being able to mark things for offline use, but the OS integration is nice because all un-synced files and folders still appear in the filesystem, and opening any files will magically sync them if needed.

I would hope Resilio Sync Pro desktop has the same OS-level integration, but I couldn’t say for sure.

Update: For both systems, selecting which content is always synced is a per-device configuration. For example, If you want different files always available on your phone vs your tablet, you just mark those files however you wish using the app on each device.

Synology Drive has all the features you want and with desktop (macOS, windows, Ubuntu) and mobile clients (iOS and Android). The potential downside is that you have to buy a Synology NAS to run it. I’ve had one for a number of years and I’m still very happy with it.

I also really like Resilio Sync. The downside there is that while the mobile client supports selective sync (you choose which files and folders to always have on-device) only the paid “pro” version of the desktop client supports it.