/ha-voice

Home Assistant Voice Control

Configure Assist pipelines, custom intents, wake words, and voice satellites for local voice control.

What This Skill Does

Provides expert guidance for Home Assistant Assist voice control capabilities, including:

• Assist pipeline configuration (connecting STT, TTS, intents, and conversation agents)
• Custom intent creation with sentence patterns, slots, and lists
• Wake word setup (openWakeWord, Porcupine)
• Speech processing configuration (local Piper TTS + Faster Whisper STT, or cloud alternatives)
• Voice satellite setup for ESPHome devices (ESP32-S3, I2S microphones, speakers)
• Multi-language support and performance tuning
• Integration with OpenAI, Anthropic, and custom conversation agents

Core Capabilities

• Configure Assist pipelines with custom STT/TTS engines
• Create natural voice commands using sentence patterns, slots, and lists
• Set up local wake words (Alexa, Hey Google, Hey Siri or custom)
• Build voice satellites with ESPHome hardware (INMP441 mic, MAX98357A speaker)
• Configure TTS engine selection (Piper local, Google Cloud, OpenAI)
• Configure STT engine selection (Faster Whisper local, Google Cloud, Whisper API)
• Debug intent matching with Assist Developer Tools
• Optimize performance for single-board computers

Auto-Trigger Keywords

Primary Keywords

Exact terms that strongly trigger this skill:

• Assist pipeline
• Voice control
• Wake word
• Custom intent
• Sentence pattern
• STT (speech-to-text)
• TTS (text-to-speech)
• Piper
• Whisper
• Voice satellite

Secondary Keywords

Related terms that may trigger in combination:

• Voice assistant
• Voice command
• Wake detection
• Speech processing
• Intent recognition
• Conversation agent
• Wyoming protocol
• ESPHome voice
• Audio pipeline
• Voice feedback

Error-Based Keywords

Common error messages that should trigger this skill:

• "No matching intent"
• "Engine not found"
• "TTS engine not available"
• "STT engine not available"
• "Wake word entity not found"
• "Pipeline configuration error"
• "Sentence pattern syntax error"

Known Issues Prevention

When to Use

Use This Skill For

• Setting up or troubleshooting Assist pipelines
• Creating custom voice commands with sentence patterns
• Configuring TTS/STT engines (local or cloud)
• Building ESPHome voice satellites
• Debugging intent recognition issues
• Optimizing voice control performance
• Integrating custom conversation agents

Don't Use This Skill For

• General Home Assistant installation (use home-assistant-core skill)
• YAML validation for non-voice components
• Cloud service setup (use service-specific documentation)

Quick Usage

# Complete working Assist pipeline example
assist_pipeline:
  pipelines:
    - language: en
      name: Default Pipeline
      stt_engine: faster_whisper
      tts_engine: tts.piper
      conversation_engine: conversation.home_assistant
      wake_word_entity: binary_sensor.wake_word

# Minimal custom intent
custom_sentences/en/custom.yaml:
---
language: en
version: 1

intents:
  TurnOn:
    data:
      - sentences:
          - "turn on {name:list}"
        lists:
          name:
            - "bedroom light"
            - "kitchen light"

Token Efficiency

File Structure

ha-voice/
├── SKILL.md                # Detailed instructions, patterns, troubleshooting
├── README.md              # This file - discovery and quick reference
└── references/            # Supporting documentation
    └── intent-patterns.md # Common intent configuration patterns

Dependencies

No external Python packages required. Skill uses Home Assistant's native components:

Official Documentation

• Home Assistant Voice Control
• Assist Pipeline Integration
• Intent Recognition Guide
• Conversation Integration
• Piper TTS Documentation
• Faster Whisper Documentation

Related Skills

• ha-dashboard - Configure Lovelace UI for voice control testing
• ha-automations - Create automations triggered by voice intents
• esphome-config-helper - Configure ESP32 voice satellites

License: MIT