Xiaomi Open-Sources AI Hardware HachimoDock, Self-Build Cost Around 150 Yuan

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A small screen, three buttons, one joystick, and a West Highland White Terrier on the screen that is sometimes busy, sometimes worried, sometimes celebrating.

This is HachimoDock (Hajimi Machine), an open-source AI hardware recently incubated by Xiaomi, with a hardware self-build cost of about 150 yuan.

At first glance, this highly popular product looks like a mini game console housing an electronic pet.

But what this little dog can do goes far beyond keeping you entertained; in fact, it is an all-purpose desktop companion that integrates various powerful capabilities such as a personalized desktop pet, voice-controlled PC-side Agent, smart home integration, and custom component creation.

Its extremely low DIY cost, exquisite appearance, broad compatibility with various Agent tools, and the rich ways to freely "tinker" according to preference have quickly attracted users from different circles since its launch, and a large number of replication guides and tutorials have gradually appeared on social media and in open-source communities.

HachimoDock comes from a small innovative product team inside Xiaomi. What they initially focused on was: as various AI Agents (such as Codex, WorkBuddy, etc.) rapidly become widespread, how can people interact with them more efficiently?

Along this path, the most obvious direction is to make a voice input hardware that "combines a microphone and buttons" to meet a very real need—voice input.

In office scenarios, voice is often several times more efficient than typing.

But a pure voice input tool is somewhat lacking in creativity, and many similar products have already appeared on the market, such as ChatGPT's official Codex Micro, and even the Xiaomi Bluetooth remote control has gained a new lease on life.

So they began to think more broadly around Vibe Coding/Working scenarios:

As their insight into these questions deepened, the form of HachimoDock became increasingly clear.

That is not the case. A simpler and more natural interaction is real-time voice interaction where "you only need to speak, not use your hands." HachimoDock should be a companion that can interact with users in real time, not merely a voice input tool.

Whenever you have an idea, you can tell it at any time in a chat-like manner, and after assigning it to an Agent for execution, the results are quickly fed back to the user.

The user is the "requester of needs," not the "voice input operator"—this is the origin of HachimoDock's positioning as a "companion."

The product definition of "companion" determines that HachimoDock needs its own appearance, persona, and voice. It is both an assistant and a supervisor: it can direct various Agents to look up information, organize files, and write code, and it also displays task states such as thinking, executing, and waiting for confirmation on the screen in sync, reminding users of progress through the desktop pet's expressions, movements, and sounds.

Say to it, "Help me sort and organize the files on my computer desktop, and change to a nice-looking wallpaper," and the Agent on the computer takes over execution, while the little dog on HachimoDock changes its movements with task progress and reports back with text and sound.

The "custom appearance capability (hardware appearance + pet image)" extended from the "companion" concept is also a major reason HachimoDock broke out of its niche.

For a little companion that will reside on your desktop for a long time, people will naturally be picky: why must it be a West Highland White Terrier, and not your own cat or your boyfriend/girlfriend?

HachimoDock leaves this choice to users. In addition to the built-in dog, pet photos, couple photos, cartoon characters, and more can all be used as materials for making a companion, and users can also choose from tens of thousands of images created by community netizens and apply their favorite with one click.

Combined with keycaps and shells that can be printed at will, the character on the screen and the body color scheme can be matched as a set, further enriching the visual effect of the desktop ornament.

When HachimoDock changes from a "tool" into a character that users are familiar with and like, and is paired with an exquisite appearance, it makes people feel that just quietly placing it on the desk to accompany you while working, or occasionally having a voice chat, can already provide good emotional value, and it has therefore won the affection of a large wave of young users outside the geek circle.

Optimizing input interaction improves communication efficiency in the Vibe Coding process.

But the greater value of Vibe Coding lies in truly bringing to life the beautiful things imagined by each person, turning ideas into works that can be used and experienced.

At present, Vibe Coding has already shown rich possibilities in computer software and mobile app development, while exploration in hardware scenarios has only just begun.

The number of embedded devices around people far exceeds that of computers and mobile phones. If these devices could also be freely customized through Vibe Coding, what changes would that bring?

A thousand people have a thousand kinds of imagination and ways to play. Just thinking about scenarios where smart home devices at home and wearable devices on the body can all be personalized and customized by oneself is exciting.

HachimoDock carries such expectations. It has added a "minute-level personalized component creation" feature, hoping to become the first AI hardware for the general public to get started with Vibe Coding. The team hopes to let everyone start with this small device and experience the fun of hardware Vibe Coding at a relatively low cost.

The retro mini game console's exterior design is precisely intended to give creation more possibilities. The combination of four interaction methods—buttons, joystick, voice, and touchscreen—allows almost all types of games and tools to be perfectly implemented.

Users can use natural language to turn ideas into components that can run directly on HachimoDock: watchlist quotes for checking prices and gains/losses, to-do lists, computer status, and Token usage dashboards for displaying work information, while the almanac, Pomodoro timer, weather, and water-drinking reminders serve daily scheduling. When resting, you can also listen to programs from different cities through the radio component, or play daily news.

Games and fun tools can likewise become creative content. Users can experience gameplay such as Snake, mazes, ball catching, and Fruit Ninja, or try components such as virtual pets, spinning wheels, drawing lots, coin flipping, tarot cards, and wooden fish tapping, and modify them according to their own ideas.

At the same time, works created by open-source enthusiasts in the community are also available to experience and discuss, and components completed by users themselves can also be shared, allowing others to use and improve them.

Programming and office work are only part of life; another important scenario is "family." In this direction, another Xiaomi open-source project, xiaomi Miloco, provides strong support for Hachimodock.

Through xiaomi Miloco, HachimoDock can transform into a personalized smart home butler, linking and controlling smart devices in the home.

At the same desk, whether assigning the computer to handle work or letting home devices respond to needs, you can speak to this little dog.

Looking back, the popularity of HachimoDock is due not only to its good looks and low cost, but also to the team's deep insight into various scenarios, which played a key role. Its several capabilities correspond to different usage scenarios:

If you want to improve work efficiency, you can use it to assign tasks and check Agent progress; if you like desktop decoration and character companionship, you can change the desktop pet and match shells and keycaps; if you are interested in hardware and programming, you can start by making components and gradually try deeper modifications.

Having it is equivalent to having infinite possibilities:

At present, HachimoDock has publicly released its software source code on GitHub, and provides a hardware bill of materials, structural component models, and assembly tutorials on the JLC platform. Interested users can refer to the materials to complete a replica and then continue modifying it according to their own ideas.

The little dog on the screen is the starting point of the story. What it will grow into and what new skills it will learn are left for everyone willing to get hands-on to continue writing.

The Xiaomi Technology Committee Innovative Products Team stated:

"We hope to leave the space for defining HachimoDock to every user, so that more people can participate in the joy of AI hardware creation at a lower cost.

At the same time, HachimoDock is only the beginning of Xiaomi and the team's exploration of novel and cool AI hardware, and more imaginative new products will be launched soon.

Let passion circulate and creativity continue—this is the most moving value of open source."

English text is being prepared.