Xiaomi open-sources HachimoDock, a 150-yuan AI desk companion that drives agents

A small screen, three buttons and a joystick, with a West Highland terrier on screen that looks busy, worried or pleased depending on what is happening. That is HachimoDock, an open-source AI hardware project incubated inside Xiaomi. According to QbitAI, the DIY bill of materials comes to roughly 150 yuan, the software source is public on GitHub, and the hardware BOM, structural models and assembly tutorial are hosted on the JLC platform.

It reads like a mini game console with a virtual pet, but the intended role is a desk companion. A user states a request out loud, an agent running on the PC picks up the work, and the dog changes expression, motion and voice to report progress. The team frames the shift as turning the user from a dictation device into a requester.

Input is deliberately redundant: buttons, joystick, voice and touchscreen coexist, so the device keeps the low friction of push-to-talk while supporting hands-free conversation. The screen mirrors thinking, executing and awaiting-confirmation states, effectively giving a background agent a visible dashboard.

Compatibility is the other half of its appeal. Reports say it works with agent tools such as Codex and WorkBuddy, and through xiaomi Miloco, another Xiaomi open-source project, it doubles as a home controller for connected devices. Work and home, normally separate settings, end up sharing one small box on the desk.

Customization is what carried it beyond the maker crowd. Beyond the built-in dog, users can turn pet photos, couple photos or cartoon characters into the on-screen persona, draw from tens of thousands of community-made characters, and print their own keycaps and shells so the body matches the character.

The more interesting feature is minute-scale component authoring. Users describe an idea in natural language and get a component that runs on the device: stock tickers, to-do lists, PC status and token-usage dashboards, almanacs, pomodoro timers, weather and hydration reminders, or small games such as Snake. The team wants it to be the first AI hardware people use to try hardware vibe coding.

Popularity has spilled into the supply chain. QbitAI reports that the dev boards and displays used in the build are still facing price increases and shortages as replicas pile up, an unusual side effect for a device nobody is mass-producing.

For Xiaomi, the point is not unit sales. A 150-yuan bill of materials, open schematics and a community of creators make this a low-cost experiment in hardware innovation, and the team says HachimoDock is only the beginning of its exploration of novel AI hardware.