---
layout: page
title: "Snips.ai"
description: "Enhance your Hass.io installation with a local voice assistant."
date: 2018-05-02 13:28
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
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---

[Snips.ai](https://snips.ai/) is an AI-powered voice assistant that runs on the Raspberry Pi 3 and x86 platforms. It runs on-device and is Private by Design.

The Snips add-on depends on the Mosquitto add on to bridge to Home Assistant, so make sure that is installed.

HomeAssistant comes with certain Intents builtin to handle common tasks. A complete list of Intents can be found in this wiki [Hass Snips Bundle](https://github.com/tschmidty69/hass-snips-bundle-intents/wiki).

The Snips addon by default comes with an assistant that allows you to turn on lights or switches, open covers, or add and list items to a shopping list if that component is enabled.

If using a USB microphone and speakers plugged into the Raspberry Pi output, Snips will work without any change to the configuration. Trying saying things like:

```
Turn on kitchen light
Open garage door
What is on my shopping list
```

To get started creating your own configuration, follow [their tutorial](https://snips.gitbook.io/documentation/console) to create an assistant and download the training data. You can also add the HomeAssistant Skill to your assistant to enable the built-in intents, and add or create your own intents to do more complex tasks.

Now install and activate the [Samba](/addons/samba/) add-on so you can upload your training data. Connect to the "share" Samba share and copy your assistant over. Name the file `assistant.zip` or whatever you have configured in the configuration options.

Now it's time to start Snips for the first time. You can configure the microphone and sound card using the Add-on interface. Now start the add-on.

### {% linkable_title Add-On configuration %}

```json
{
  "mqtt_bridge": {
    "active": true,
    "host": "172.17.0.1",
    "port": 1883,
    "user": "",
    "password": ""
  },
  "assistant": "assistant.zip",
  "language": "en",
  "custom_tts": false,
  "tts_platform": "amazon_polly"
}
```

Configuration variables:

- **mqtt_bridge**: Snips uses MQTT to communicate and defaults to their own broker. Use this config option to bridge their broker to your the Mosquitto add-on.
- **assistant**: The name of your custom assistant in `/share`. If no assistant is found then a default assistant will be used.
- **language**: Language. This is used to select the default custom assistant, Currently `en`, `de` and `fr` are supported.
- **custom_tts**: Whether to use a TTS provider from Home Assistant for a variety of voices.
- **tts_platform**: Which TTS platform to use.

### {% linkable_title Home Assistant configuration %}

A simple configuration just requires this. Consult [Snips.ai component](/components/snips/) for more options.

```yaml
snips:
```

### {% linkable_title Home Assistant configuration %}

There is an active [discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/3939Kqx) channel for further support.

### {% linkable_title Examples %}

So now you can turn lights on and off, let's check the weather. Log on to the [console](https://console.snips.ai/). If this is your first time, create a new assistant and add the Home Assistant skill, along with the Weather skill by snips. Download your assistant manually and copy it to the `/share` folder on your HassIO installation using the Samba addon.

Next create a weather sensor, e.g., one for (Dark Sky)[/components/sensor.darksky/] and put the `api_key` in your `secrets.yaml` file.

```yaml
- platform: darksky
  name: "Dark Sky Weather"
  api_key: !secret dark_sky_key
  update_interval:
    minutes: 10
  monitored_conditions:
    - summary
    - hourly_summary
    - temperature
    - temperature_max
    - temperature_min
```
Next add this to your `configuration.yaml` file to reference a new `intent_script` component. This is a good practice to [split your configuration files](/docs/configuration/splitting_configuration/) up.

```yaml
intent_script: !include intent_script.yaml
```

Finally, create this `intent_script.yaml` file in your configuration directory.

{% raw %}
```yaml
searchWeatherForecast:
  speech:
    type: plain
    text: >
      The weather is currently
      {{ states('sensor.dark_sky_weather_temperature') | round(0) }}
      degrees outside and {{ states('sensor.dark_sky_weather_summary') }}.
      The high today will be
      {{ states('sensor.dark_sky_weather_daily_high_temperature') | round(0)}}
      and {{ states('sensor.dark_sky_weather_hourly_summary') }}
```
{% endraw %}

Now just restart HassIO and ask it what the weather is like.

[their tutorial]: https://github.com/snipsco/snips-platform-documentation/wiki/2.-Create-an-assistant-using-an-existing-bundle