Dashie Voice brings premium voice and AI to your Dashie tablets and Home Assistant voice satellites — with the brain running in Dashie's cloud or on your own local model. This guide walks you through installing the two Home Assistant pieces you need, signing in, and configuring everything from the Dashie Console.
Beta program
Dashie Voice is currently in a limited beta. Your Dashie account must be enabled for the beta before the Voice & AI controls appear in the Console. Request beta access here.
What you'll need
- A Home Assistant instance (HAOS or supervised) you can install add-ons on
- HACS installed (for the Dashie integration)
- A Dashie account enabled for the beta
- One or more Dashie tablets, and/or an HA voice satellite
- (Optional) A local LLM endpoint if you want to run the AI on your own hardware
The pieces, and what each does
Dashie Voice on Home Assistant uses two components that work together:
- The Dashie Console add-on — runs inside Home Assistant, signs in to your Dashie account, and is your control panel. It's the login and credential hub for the whole household.
- The Dashie integration — the runtime gateway. It lets your tablets and satellites reach Dashie Voice over your existing Home Assistant URL (on your LAN or remotely), and provides the voice entities for HA satellites.
Part 1: Install the Dashie Console add-on
Open the Add-on Store
In Home Assistant, go to Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store.
Add the Dashie repository (if needed)
If "Dashie Console" isn't listed, click the three-dot menu in the top right → Repositories, paste the Dashie add-on repository URL, and click Add. The add-on will then appear in the store.
Install and start
Open Dashie Console, click Install, then Start. Turn on Start on boot and Show in sidebar so it's always available.
Open the Console and sign in
Click Open Web UI (or the Dashie Console entry in the HA sidebar) and sign in with your Dashie account. This account holds your household's credits and is what the whole house shares.
Add-on configuration
In the add-on's Configuration tab you can set the environment (leave it on the default unless we tell you otherwise) and the log level. Most people never need to change these.
Part 2: Install the Dashie integration
The integration is what lets your tablets and satellites actually use Dashie Voice. The easiest way to install it is through HACS.
Open the install link from the Console
In the Dashie Console, look for the Install the Dashie integration button (a HACS one-click link). Click it to open the Dashie repository directly in HACS, then click Download.
Or add it in HACS manually
Alternatively, open HACS, search for Dashie, and click Download.
Restart Home Assistant
After downloading, restart Home Assistant so the integration loads. It will set itself up automatically; if HA prompts you to configure a discovered Dashie device, confirm it.
Why both pieces?
The add-on holds your login and credits; the integration is reachable over your Home Assistant URL, so it works on your LAN and through remote access (Nabu Casa / reverse proxy) with no extra setup. You need both for Dashie Voice to reach your devices.
Part 3: Choose your Assistant
Everything from here happens in the Console. Open Dashie Console → Voice & AI. The top-level choice is Assistant, with two options:
- Home Assistant — routes voice through a Home Assistant Assist pipeline you select. HA handles speech, the agent, and the response. Free, no Dashie credits used.
- Dashie Voice — Dashie orchestrates the whole thing. This is what unlocks premium speech recognition, AI models (cloud or local), built-in tools, and personality voices.
Select Dashie Voice. You'll see a one-time privacy summary — read it, then continue. Choosing Dashie Voice reveals three groups: AI Model, Voice, and Tools.
Local vs. cloud, color-coded
As you configure each component, Dashie marks it Local or Cloud. Anything cloud is called out at the moment you pick it, so "local model" never quietly pairs with cloud speech. To go fully private, choose a local model and local speech and local voice.
AI Model
Pick which brain answers open-ended questions:
- Claude or Gemini — Dashie's cloud models, tier-labeled so you can see which are economical and which are premium. Cloud
- My Local LLM — point Dashie at your own model. You'll enter an endpoint URL and pick a model from the supported (“blessed”) list, or choose “custom.” Dashie validates the endpoint and warns you if the model isn't on the supported list. Local
Local-model hardware matters
A reliable local model wants a capable, always-on host — roughly a 20B-class model on 16 GB+ of VRAM, kept warm. Smaller boxes (a Raspberry Pi, HA Green/Yellow) can't run a usable model for voice. If you're unsure, start with a cloud model and switch to local once your hardware is set up.
Voice
Choose how Dashie speaks back. This is independent of the model, so "local model + premium personality voice" is a perfectly valid combo.
- Local / native voice — free, on-device or HA-side text-to-speech. Local
- Dashie personality voice — premium character voices your family picks. Draws on credits. Cloud
Tools
Turn individual knowledge tools on or off: Web search, Sports, Weather, Places, and more. These let Dashie answer real-world questions with live, accurate data instead of guessing.
HA Voice Agent
When Home Assistant is connected, set the HA Voice Agent — the Home Assistant conversation agent
that Dashie routes device commands to. Leave it on the default conversation.home_assistant (Home
Assistant's fast, free, built-in agent) unless you have a specific reason to change it. Dashie handles general and
world-knowledge questions itself; device control goes here.
AI defaults reference
These live under Voice & AI and apply to every device on your account:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Web search | Lets the AI search the web for answers it doesn't already have. |
| Retrieve pictures | Lets the AI reference your family photos in responses. |
| Conversation memory | Remembers the last few turns so follow-ups make sense. Set how long it's kept. |
| Keep transcripts | Saves voice transcripts and replies so you can review them in Usage. |
Part 4: Set up personalities
Personalities shape how Dashie talks — tone, character, and which voice it uses. They're shared across your whole household. In the Console, open the Personalities section under Voice & AI.
Start from a built-in template
Browse the built-in personalities (Dashie is the default). You can add a Family notes override to any template — private context about your household that helps responses feel personal — without editing the template itself.
Or create a custom personality
Click New Personality and fill in the name, overview, adjectives, topics, and a few example phrases. Add family notes for household context.
Pick a voice
Choose the voice for this personality. Preferred lets a device override it; Fixed locks the personality to that voice everywhere.
Part 5: Turn on household sharing (optional)
Household sharing lets anonymous Dashie tablets (no Dashie login) and HA voice satellites on your network use Dashie Voice through your account — one login powering a whole house of devices.
Open Account & Credits
In the Console, go to Account & Credits. This section appears when you're signed in through the add-on.
Enable Household Dashie Cloud Sharing
Toggle Household sharing on. It's off by default. Once on, kiosk tablets and satellites in your home can use Dashie Voice without their own login.
Sharing uses your credits
Every device that uses Dashie Voice through household sharing draws on your account's credit balance. That's the point — one account funds the household — but it's why the toggle is off by default and shows a disclaimer.
Part 6: Test it
You can test without saying a word out loud. In the Console, open the AI Chat tab under Voice & AI. Pick a personality and model, type a question, and send it. You'll see the response along with the model used, token usage, and latency — a quick way to confirm everything is wired up.
Then try it by voice on a device:
- "Hey Dashie, what's the weather this weekend?" — should answer with live weather.
- "Hey Dashie, turn on the living room lights." — should run locally through Home Assistant.
- "Hey Dashie, what was the score of the game?" — should pull live sports data.
One config, every device
Everything you set here is account-level. Add a second tablet or satellite and it adopts the same Assistant, model, voice, tools, and personality automatically — no per-device setup.
Troubleshooting
The Voice & AI page is missing in the Console
- Your account may not be enabled for the beta yet — request access or check back after we confirm.
- Make sure you're signed in to the right Dashie account in the add-on.
A kiosk tablet can't use Dashie Voice
- Confirm the add-on is signed in and household sharing is on.
- Confirm the Dashie integration is installed and Home Assistant has been restarted.
- Check that the tablet can reach your Home Assistant URL.
Device commands go to the AI instead of running locally
- Set the HA Voice Agent to
conversation.home_assistantso device control uses HA's fast local agent.
Responses are slow with a local model
- Your host may be too small, or the model is cold-loading. Use a capable, always-on host and keep the model warm, or switch to a cloud model.
Need more help?
Still stuck? Contact us with details about your setup and any error messages. Beta participants: please share what you're seeing — it directly helps us improve the product.