Virtual device or the equivalent

[topaz fossil]

I have a Python script that periodically emits JSON objects on standard out, and I'm about to rewrite it to use sockets. I would like to create a virtual device for Home Assistant that connects to the appropriate port, parses the JSON objects to update the virtual device's internal state, then makes that state available via HA. Is there a generic virtual device out there that I can use as a template?

[loud cosmos]

my initial thought is that you could try using MQTT? host the broker on home assistant. then you could have your python script connect to it and send the outputs to it as a device?

[topaz fossil]

I've never used MQTT. Do you know of an example that I could learn from?

I do have Mosquitto installed already so that's one thing