Quickstart

Log in

Go to app.openhome.com and sign in with your email and password, or continue with Apple or Google.New to OpenHome? Click Sign up to create an account: a username, name, email, and password are all it takes.

Find your way around

The Dashboard is your home screen. The sidebar on the left holds Agents, Abilities, Voices, AI Twin, and OpenHome DevKit, with Create and Discover (Marketplace) grouped below them.On a new account the Dashboard opens with a Quick-start Guide listing three steps: Connect device, Create an agent, and Add ability. Once you have created something it is replaced by Insights, which counts your published Agents and active Abilities. This page covers creating an Agent and adding an Ability. For connecting hardware, see What is OpenHome DevKit.

Create an Agent

On a new account, click Create on the Create an agent card. Otherwise go to Create → Create New in the sidebar and pick Agent. Either way you’ll be asked how you want to build it:

• Design Agent with AI: describe the Agent you want in your own words and it’s built for you.
• Pick from a Template: start from a pre-configured personality and customize it. This is the fastest path, and the one this guide follows.

Templates are grouped by theme: Famous People, Home, Companion, Role Play, Education, and Games. Pick one, for example Hearth (a smart home assistant) or Kindred (a companion), to open the Agent workspace.The workspace has an AI chat pane on the left for describing changes in plain language, and an editable form on the right with everything the template pre-filled: avatar, name, visibility, category, starting message, description, voice, and model. Sections marked with a red dot have required fields still to fill in. A section header gets a checkmark once it’s complete.At minimum, give it a name, a description, and a category, then click Save Agent.

Talk to your Agent

Saving opens your new Agent’s conversation view, with Agent Settings (Conversation, Behavior, and Identity controls) on the right. Type a message or use voice to try it out immediately. This is the core experience: a working Agent you can talk to right away.

Give it an Ability

Talking is what your Agent does by default. To have it do more, such as controlling a device, looking something up, or running a task, give it an Ability. On a new account, click Create on the Add ability card. Otherwise go to Create → Create New in the sidebar and pick Ability. As with Agents, you choose between designing one with AI or starting from a template.Templates here map directly to the ones in the OpenHome Abilities repository. They include Music Player, Wikipedia, OpenClaw, Smart Home, and Hermes, among others.Pick one, give it a name, and review the trigger words that activate it by voice, then confirm.This opens the Live Editor: the Ability’s code on one side, and Settings, Triggers, and Local Abilities controls on the other, with Start Live Test to try it by voice right there. For everything the Abilities page can do, see Abilities.