No more complicated setup. A mini PC for two thousand combines Home Assistant with an AI agent

The Home Assistant platform can do almost anything in a smart home — if you dedicate enough time to it. This is precisely what deters many people who don’t want to spend evenings tweaking configuration files. LinknLink is now offering a solution: the HomeClaw Max mini PC, where artificial intelligence is intended to take over the setup.

You describe what you want, and the agent handles the rest

The idea is simple. Instead of writing code, you simply tell the agent what you want to achieve, and it handles it itself. There are two options to choose from — the company’s Hermes Agent, or OpenClaw.

The second name deserves an explanation. OpenClaw is an open agent that made waves among developers last year and is one of the fastest-growing projects in GitHub’s history. Unlike regular chatbots, it doesn’t run in the cloud, but directly on your hardware and can truly act — execute commands, work with files, or control other services. For a smart home, where executing commands is key, this makes sense.

Equipment that won’t impress anyone

From a hardware perspective, it’s a rather ordinary mini PC. Inside, you’ll find 4 GB of memory and a quad-core processor clocked at 1.8 GHz; storage can be chosen as either 64 GB or 256 GB. Pay attention to one crucial detail — the cheaper variant has an Ethernet port limited to 100 Mb/s; gigabit connectivity is only available with the more expensive one. That’s quite an unpleasant limitation in 2026.

On the other hand, its power consumption deserves praise. Three to five watts is a very decent value for a device meant to run continuously — over a year, it will practically not show up on your electricity bill.

The manufacturer itself admits the catch

The unexpected honesty is noteworthy. LinknLink itself points out that more technically proficient users can buy an ordinary, cheaper mini PC and set everything up themselves. The added value of HomeClaw Max therefore lies not in the hardware, but in the pre-configured software.

The basic version will cost approximately 2,100 Czech crowns, the one with larger storage about 3,600 Czech crowns, plus shipping of around 360 Czech crowns. It is expected to ship by the end of October.

And now for the most important part: this is a crowdfunding campaign, which means you bear part of the risk. No one guarantees that the device will actually arrive, or that it will meet the promised specifications. Those who want to avoid the risk should look for ready-made solutions like Homey Pro — they are more powerful, but significantly more expensive.

Would you entrust your smart home setup to artificial intelligence, or would you rather fine-tune it yourself?

Source: Notebookcheck, Kickstarter