OpenHome Abilities

Open-source voice AI plugins for OpenHome — build, share, and remix.

Dashboard • Docs • Discord

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What Are Abilities?

Abilities are modular voice AI plugins that extend what OpenHome Personalities can do. They're triggered by spoken phrases and can do anything — call APIs, play audio, run quizzes, control devices, have multi-turn conversations.

Each Ability is just one file: main.py — your Python logic.

Write your code, zip it, upload it to OpenHome, set your trigger words in the dashboard, and your Personality can do something new.

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Quick Start — Your First Ability in 5 Minutes

1. Pick a template

git clone https://github.com/openhome-dev/abilities.git
cp -r abilities/templates/basic-template my-first-ability

2. Edit main.py — here's the simplest possible Ability:

import json
from src.agent.capability import MatchingCapability
from src.main import AgentWorker
from src.agent.capability_worker import CapabilityWorker

class MyFirstCapability(MatchingCapability):
    worker: AgentWorker = None
    capability_worker: CapabilityWorker = None

    # Do not change following tag of register capability
    #{{register capability}}

    def call(self, worker: AgentWorker):
        self.worker = worker
        self.capability_worker = CapabilityWorker(self.worker)
        self.worker.session_tasks.create(self.run())

    async def run(self):
        await self.capability_worker.speak("Hi! Tell me what's on your mind.")
        user_input = await self.capability_worker.user_response()
        response = self.capability_worker.text_to_text_response(
            f"Give a short, helpful response to: {user_input}"
        )
        await self.capability_worker.speak(response)
        self.capability_worker.resume_normal_flow()

Note: The #{{register_capability}} This line is required boilerplate — copy it exactly. The platform handles config.json automatically; you never need to create or edit it.

3. Upload to OpenHome

• Zip your folder
• Go to app.openhome.com → Abilities → Add Custom Ability
• Upload the zip
• Set your trigger words in the dashboard (the phrases that activate your Ability)
• Test it in the Live Editor

4. Trigger it — Say one of your trigger words in a conversation and your Ability takes over.

📖 Full guide: docs/getting-started.md

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🔷 Official Abilities

Maintained by the OpenHome team. Tested, stable, and supported.

Ability	Description	Example Triggers	API Required	Docs
Basic Advisor	Daily life advice	"give me advice", "help me"	None	README
Quiz Game	AI-generated trivia	"start a quiz", "quiz me"	None	README
Sound Generator	AI sound effects	"make a sound", "create a sound"	ElevenLabs	README
Weather	Current weather by location	"what's the weather"	None	README
Music Player	Play music from URL or file	"play music", "play a song"	None	README

Trigger words are configured in the OpenHome dashboard when you install an Ability, not in the code.

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🔶 Community Abilities

Built by the community. Reviewed for security and SDK compliance before merging.

Ability	Description	Author	API Required
Your Ability here	Contribute one →

Note: Community Abilities are reviewed for security and SDK compliance. OpenHome does not guarantee ongoing maintenance. See Contributing for details.

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📁 Starter Templates

Don't start from scratch — grab a template:

Template	Best For	Pattern
basic-template	First-timers	Speak → Listen → Respond → Exit
api-template	API integrations	Speak → Call API → Speak result → Exit
loop-template	Interactive apps	Loop with listen → process → respond → exit command

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome community Abilities! Here's the short version:

1. Fork this repo
2. Copy a template into community/your-ability-name/
3. Build your Ability
4. Open a Pull Request

Full guide: CONTRIBUTING.md

First time? Look for issues labeled good-first-issue.

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🏆 Community → Official Promotion

Exceptional community Abilities can be promoted to Official status. We look for:

• Stability — No critical bugs for 30+ days
• Quality — Clean code, good voice UX
• Maintenance — Author is responsive

When promoted, the Ability moves to official/, gets the blue badge on Marketplace, and the author is credited permanently. Learn more →

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📖 Documentation

Doc	Description
Getting Started	Build your first Ability in 5 minutes
CapabilityWorker	Full SDK reference
Patterns Cookbook	Common patterns with code examples
Publishing to Marketplace	How to ship your Ability to users
Promotion Path	How community Abilities become official
OpenHome SDK Reference	Complete guide to SDK
Building Great OpenHome Abilities	Guide to buil great OpenHome abilities

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

All contributions to community/ are licensed under the same terms. By submitting a PR, you agree to these terms. Original authorship is always credited.