HomeGenie

The Programmable Intelligence, with 100% Local Agentic AI.
www.homegenie.it

HomeGenie is an open-source, cloud-independent ecosystem for smart automation. It delivers a complete, privacy-focused, local-first experience. This includes firmware for DIY devices, an efficient backend service, and dedicated mobile and tablet apps.
Take absolute control over your environment while keeping your data strictly private.

Create automations easily with the Visual Editor, or activate the built-in AI features to control devices, build custom widgets, or create complex automations in seconds.

Getting started is effortless. HomeGenie's UI supports more than 90 languages, and a built-in demo configuration guarantees an immediate, practical experience from the very first moment. The entire setup is portable and lightweight: just download the ZIP, extract, and run.

✨ Key Features

• 100% Local Agentic AI: Run state-of-the-art LLMs directly on your HomeGenie server for autonomous reasoning, context awareness, and natural language control. Your data stays private, your intelligence stays local.
• AI Vision Suite: Full integration of YOLO (Object Detection, Instance Segmentation, Pose Estimation) directly on server, ESP32-CAM modules, and generic IP cameras.
• Universal API & Programmability: Automate anything with a fluent API programmable in C#, JavaScript, and Python. Create custom programs and widgets with full developer tools.
• Advanced Scheduler with Genie Commands: Supports extended cron expressions, variables, conditions, and AI-driven natural language tasks for flexible automations.
• Customizable Dashboard & Widgets: A modern, responsive UI with a powerful built-in editor to create and customize your own widgets using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
• Multi-protocol Support: Integrated drivers for X10, Z-Wave, ZigBee, GPIO, SPI, I2C, IR/RF, and more.
• Smart Display & FPV Car Integration: Transform ESP32 hardware into interactive smart displays or AI-powered FPV robotic platforms.
• Visual Programming: Create complex scenarios intuitively with the Visual Program editor—no coding skills required.
• Voice Control & i18n: Integrated support for voice commands and a fully localized UI across over 90 languages.
• Extensible: Features groups, configuration backup, a package repository, and much more.

Full Features and Image Gallery

Documentation

For detailed guides, API references, and tutorials, visit the official documentation website:
https://genielabs.github.io/HomeGenie

💾 Installation

You can find the latest release assets on the GitHub Releases page.

1. Choose your version

Download the .zip archive corresponding to your operating system, architecture, and hardware acceleration needs:

Platform	Architecture	Variant	Optimized For	Technical Notes
Windows	x64	win-x64	Standard (CPU only)	Maximum stability, no GPU requirements.
	x64	win-x64-cuda12	NVIDIA GPUs	High performance via CUDA 12 (LLM & Vision).
	x64	win-x64-vulkan	AMD, Intel & NVIDIA	LLM via Vulkan, Vision via DirectX 12 (DirectML).
Linux	x64	linux-x64	Standard (CPU only)	For servers or PCs without dedicated GPUs.
	x64	linux-x64-cuda12	NVIDIA GPUs	High performance via CUDA 12 (LLM & Vision).
	x64	linux-x64-vulkan	Generic GPUs	LLM via Vulkan, Vision via CPU (No DirectML on Linux).
	ARM64	linux-arm64	Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5, Zero 2	Optimized for 64-bit ARM SoCs (CPU-based).
	ARM	linux-arm	Raspberry Pi 2	Legacy 32-bit ARM support.
macOS	x64 / ARM	osx-x64	Intel & Apple Silicon	Metal support for Apple M1/M2/M3 acceleration.

2. Which one should I choose?

• 🚀 NVIDIA Users: Download the cuda12 variant for the best performance in LLMs and Computer Vision. (Requires up-to-date NVIDIA Drivers).
• 🎮 AMD / Intel / Windows Users: Use the vulkan variant to leverage your GPU for AI tasks. It's the best choice for non-NVIDIA hardware on Windows (via DirectX 12).
• 🍎 macOS Users: The osx-x64 build supports Apple Silicon (Metal) and Intel natively for maximum speed on Mac devices.
• ☁️ Server / Older PCs: If you don't have a dedicated GPU or are running a headless server, the standard versions (without suffixes) are the most stable and lightweight.
• 🍓 Raspberry Pi / ARM: Choose linux-arm64 (for Pi 4/5 64-bit) or linux-arm (for older 32-bit systems).

3. Setup

After downloading, unzip the archive to your preferred location.

🚀 Starting HomeGenie

Inside the extracted folder, you will find the homegenie directory containing the application binaries, along with a handy startup script specifically tailored for your operating system.

Simply run the startup script to launch the server:

• Windows: Double-click start.bat
• macOS: Double-click start.command
• Linux / Raspberry Pi: Run ./start.sh from the terminal (or double-click if your file manager supports executing shell scripts).

To gracefully stop the application, press CTRL + C in the terminal window.

🎨 Desktop App Experience (PWA)

By default, HomeGenie now launches as a desktop-style Progressive Web App (PWA). The startup scripts (start.bat, start.sh, etc.) are pre-configured to pass the --start-browser argument to the HomeGenie executable, opening the UI in a dedicated, app-like window for a seamless experience.

Tip: If HomeGenie is already running in the background, launching the startup script again will not start a second server. Instead, it will conveniently open a new app window connected directly to your existing session.

For a traditional server-only or headless experience, simply edit the startup script and remove the --start-browser flag from the execution command.

🛡️ Securing Your Installation (Sandboxing)

Since HomeGenie features advanced AI automation engines (like Gemini Automan) capable of generating, compiling, and executing C# code on the fly, we highly recommend running the application in a restricted, sandboxed environment to ensure maximum system security when executing AI-generated code.

• Dedicated System User (Linux - Recommended): Run the server using a dedicated, non-root user (e.g., homegenie) with a nologin shell. Grant this user read/write permissions strictly to the HomeGenie installation folder, isolating it from the rest of your OS.
• Containerization: Alternatively, deploy HomeGenie using Docker, utilizing read-only volume mounts for the host system and restricting write access exclusively to the data directory.

Running as a System Service

HomeGenie can be run directly from a terminal for easy setup and testing, or installed as a system service for continuous, unattended operation.

Linux (systemd)

1. (Recommended) Create a dedicated user for the service and move the application files:

   # Create a new system user named 'homegenie' with its home directory
   sudo useradd -r -m -s /bin/false homegenie
   
   # Copy the application files into the new home directory
   # Assumes you are in the directory where you extracted the zip
   sudo cp -ar ./homegenie/* /home/homegenie/
   
   # Ensure the ownership of all files is correct
   sudo chown -R homegenie:homegenie /home/homegenie

2. Create a service definition file at /etc/systemd/system/homegenie.service:

   [Unit]
   Description=HomeGenie Automation Server
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   Type=notify
   User=homegenie
   Group=homegenie
   WorkingDirectory=/home/homegenie/
   ExecStart=/home/homegenie/HomeGenie
   Restart=on-failure
   RestartSec=15s
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Reload the systemd daemon, then start and enable the service:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl start homegenie.service
   sudo systemctl enable homegenie.service

   You can check the service status with sudo systemctl status homegenie.service.

Windows

HomeGenie can be installed as a Windows Service using the built-in commands. Open a Command Prompt as an Administrator, navigate to the homegenie directory, and run:

HomeGenie.exe --service install
HomeGenie.exe --service start

For more options, see the official .NET documentation.

Accessing the UI

Once running, the HomeGenie user interface can be accessed from any web browser at: http://<server_ip>:<port>/

• <server_ip> is the IP address of the machine running HomeGenie.
• The default <port> is 80, or the first available port starting from 8080.

You can find the exact address and port used by checking the serviceaddress.txt file in the homegenie application folder.

🛠️ Post-Installation (Linux)

To grant HomeGenie access to hardware like serial ports, USB devices, and GPIO, you may need to run additional commands.

Audio & Voice Synthesis

# For audio playback
sudo apt install alsa-utils lame
# For embedded text-to-speech
sudo apt install libttspico-utils

Serial Port & GPIO Access

Add the homegenie user to the dialout and gpio groups:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout homegenie
sudo usermod -a -G gpio homegenie

X10 (CM15/CM19) USB Controller

1. Install the required library:

   sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0

2. Create a udev rule to grant access. Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/98-homegenie.rules with the following content:

   # CM15 and CM19 X10 USB controllers
   SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bc7", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0001", MODE="0660", GROUP="dialout"
   SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bc7", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0002", MODE="0660", GROUP="dialout"
   

3. Reload the udev rules and reconnect the device:

   sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

💻 Development

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the CONTRIBUTING.md file for guidelines.

Repository Structure

The main solution file is HomeGenie.sln located in the repository root.

• src/HomeGenie: The main application project, (.NET 10).
• src/HomeGenie.Tests: Unit and integration tests.
• src/SupportLibraries: Utility libraries used by HomeGenie.
• assets/: Contains build assets, UI source code, and deployment scripts.

Related Projects

• https://github.com/genielabs/mig-service-dotnet
• https://github.com/genielabs/homegenie-mini
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glabs.homegenieplus
• https://github.com/zuixjs/zuix

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Disclaimer

This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. See the LICENSE file for more details.