Home Assistant or Open Voice OS?

Home Assistant Assist if the house already runs HA (the published path). Open Voice OS if you want the Mycroft-shaped runtime without the HA dashboard.

Is this Ring or Nest?

No. Cameras are /replace/wyze and /replace/ring — Frigate. This page is voice.

Will it speak every Alexa skill?

No. You get local intents you wire. Vendor skill stores stay behind.

Stacks / Monitoring

Medium

Home Assistant Assist / Open Voice OS

A voice assistant on hardware you run. Home Assistant Assist is Apache-2.0; Open Voice OS is Apache-2.0 — Amazon Alexa and Google Home without the vendor speaker cloud.

The problem

Amazon Alexa and Google Home are speaker clouds: voice goes to their buildings. You wanted local wake-word and intents on a LAN box. Home Assistant core is Apache-2.0; Assist is the voice layer on that dashboard. Open Voice OS (ovos-core) is Apache-2.0 — the maintained Mycroft-shaped runtime (Mycroft core is archived). openWakeWord is Apache-2.0 for wake-word detection; wyoming-openwakeword is the Wyoming protocol server Home Assistant documents. This is not Alexa Skills, Google Home routines in their cloud, or every smart-speaker SKU. Cameras stay on /replace/ring. Signal-server is not this page.

Replaces

Amazon Alexa / Google Home

Replace Amazon Alexa Replace Google Home See all best open-source voice assistants

Estimated SaaS saved

$1,200

per year, small team, before lock-in

Start on Railway

Frigate if this is cameras, not voice

Sponsor this stack Tip jar

A LAN box is the honest path. USB mics, wake-word, and mDNS do not belong on a random container. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Cameras stay on /stacks/frigate-nvr.

The stack

Home Assistant
Apache-2.0 automations box; Assist is the local voice layer
Catalog entry →
Open Voice OS
Apache-2.0 Mycroft-shaped voice runtime (ovos-core)
Catalog entry →
openWakeWord
Apache-2.0 wake-word detection library
Catalog entry →
Wyoming openWakeWord
Apache-2.0 Wyoming protocol server for openWakeWord
Catalog entry →

Cost table

You stop paying	Typical / year	Self-host instead
Amazon Alexa / Google Home (household)	$1,200	Home Assistant Assist or Open Voice OS

Agent setup prompt

Replace Amazon Alexa or Google Home with Home Assistant Assist (preferred if you already run HA) or Open Voice OS.

- A LAN box with a mic. Wake-word via openWakeWord / wyoming-openwakeword as HA documents. Do not claim Alexa Skills or Google's speaker catalog.
- Mycroft core is archived — OVOS is the maintained runtime. Cameras stay on /stacks/frigate-nvr. Write AGENT_PROMPT.md.

Also as markdown: /stacks/home-assistant-voice.md

FAQ

Home Assistant or Open Voice OS?: Home Assistant Assist if the house already runs HA (the published path). Open Voice OS if you want the Mycroft-shaped runtime without the HA dashboard.
Is this Ring or Nest?: No. Cameras are /replace/wyze and /replace/ring — Frigate. This page is voice.
Will it speak every Alexa skill?: No. You get local intents you wire. Vendor skill stores stay behind.