Start here — what GenieClaw is, what works today, where to get unstuck

[ai-hpc]

GenieClaw is a private, on-device AI agent for your home. Voice in, voice out, Home Assistant control, no cloud. This is the developer-facing layer of the Genie ecosystem. It runs on Jetson Orin Nano-class hardware today.

This post is the read-this-first landing for the Discussions tab. Most questions get answered faster if the relevant doc was read first.

What works today (alpha.4)

• End-to-end local voice loop: wake word → Whisper STT → LLM → Piper TTS → action
• Local memory (SQLite) — conversations and household context stay on the device
• Home Assistant integration behind a safety gate (rate limits, confirmation tokens, append-only audit ledger)
• Verified deploy on Jetson Orin Nano Super 8 GB, 25 W mode (see CHANGELOG.md — alpha.5 verified-deploy notes, alpha.7 verified voice cycle)

What's still rough

• Setup is 30–60 min on Jetson (Whisper / Piper / llama.cpp / HA token). Not one-line.
• Decode performance is below llama.cpp's reference on the same hardware; tracked in genie-ai-runtime#19.
• Demo video coming. Until then, you're trusting the README + CHANGELOG.

Read in this order

1. README.md — what GenieClaw is and isn't (the "What It Is Not" section matters)
2. GETTING_STARTED.md — Option A (dev machine, ~10 min) or Option B (Jetson appliance, 30–60 min)
3. ARCHITECTURE.md — ecosystem stack and what each layer owns
4. genie-ai-runtime — the Jetson-only LLM runtime that's replacing llama.cpp inside GenieClaw

Where to file what

You want to…	Use
Report a bug, hang, or crash	Issues
Propose a new skill, integration, or hardware idea	Ideas category here
Get help with setup, Jetson bring-up, HA config	Q&A category here (read the question template first)
Share your GeniePod setup, custom skills, home photos	Show and tell
Discuss local AI, smart-home design, privacy models	General
Watch for releases and verified-deploy notes	Announcements (here)

Ground rules

• Be respectful and constructive. Assume good intent.
• Real findings beat hot takes. If something doesn't work, paste the error.
• Keep security-sensitive details responsible — open an Issue and tag it security instead of posting reproduction details publicly.
• This is early alpha, run by a small team. Slow replies happen. PRs are the fastest path to getting your issue fixed.

Stay in the loop

• ⭐ Star the repo if you want this to keep going
• 🛠️ Open a PR if you fix something
• 🏠 Bug reports from real homes are the most valuable thing you can send

Welcome.