Meta open sources code to let you make Muse AI gadgets

The Verge’s Jay Peters reports Meta is open-sourcing code so people can build their own Muse gadgets: load the agent on a color E Ink display for reminders, an HDMI stick for a big screen, or a small touchscreen DIY Charm. Meta’s pitch: program an off-the-shelf ESP32 or Raspberry Pi with its SDKs, then wire Muse to displays, buttons, sensors, and actuators — “Proceed at your own risk.”

Separately, Meta is giving away a Muse Home Link gadget for community-built skills like turning on lights, controlling a TV, or sending a document to a printer. Nat Friedman of Meta Superintelligence Labs said the company manufactured 5,000 units; a waitlist is open ahead of shipping sometime this month.

We’re glad when labs put agent hardware in makers’ hands instead of only shipping sealed jewelry. Open SDKs on ESP32 and Pi are how useful ambient AI gets tested in the wild — reminders on E Ink, a kitchen display, a sensor that actually does something.

The same move also expands Muse’s blast radius from phone and Mac into physical rooms. Home Link plus community skills for lights and printers is the smart-home pattern with an LLM in the middle. “Proceed at your own risk” is honest; it’s also Meta declining to be the safety case for every garage build that can actuate something.

Five thousand Home Link units is a limited drop, not mass retail — but it’s enough to seed a skills ecosystem and a support headache. I’m watching whether the open gadget path gets the same confirmation and audit-log discipline Meta advertises for software Muse — especially purchases, messages, and anything that moves a motor or unlocks a door. Charm-class hardware without Charm-class permission UX is how cute agents become house hazards.

Useful local gadgets are a real product category. The question for us is whether open-sourcing the client is Meta’s transparency play or a way to grow Muse’s surface area while the permission fights on Mac are still unresolved. Makers should build. Meta should ship defaults that assume the workbench is connected to a real home.

Muse launched as a viral consumer agent; Charm is Meta’s own wearable/hardware thread. Home Link is a limited giveaway (5,000), not general retail availability yet.