--- title: "Architecture overview" --- Home Assistant provides a platform for home control and home automation. Home Assistant is not just an application: it's an embedded system that provides an experience like other consumer off-the-shelf products: onboarding, configuration and updating is all done via an easy to use interface. - The [operating system](operating-system.md) provides the bare minimal Linux environment to run Supervisor and Core. - The [Supervisor](supervisor.md) manages the operating system. - The [Core](architecture/core.md) interacts with the user, the supervisor and IoT devices & services. <img src='/img/en/architecture/full.svg' alt='Full picture of Home Assistant' /> ## Running parts of the stack Users have different requirements for what they want from a home automation platform. That's why it is possible to run only part of the Home Assistant stack. For more information, see the [installation instructions](https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/).