HachimoDock is a low-cost, customizable DIY desktop AI companion incubated by Xiaomi’s Technology Committee innovation-product team, combining an expressive virtual pet with a voice interface to PC agents, smart-home controls and user-created software components.912 A date correction: October 26 was the reporting date; the stronger event-specific report places the 2026 Guancha Conference in Hangzhou on October 24–25.10

• Affordable entry point: Its reported hardware self-build cost is approximately 150 yuan—not an announced retail price—and the team positions it as a beginner’s first “vibe-coding” device, using natural-language instructions to create new functionality with AI.9

• A useful pet, not just an animation: Voice requests are delegated to computer-side agents such as Codex and WorkBuddy for information searches, file organization and coding; the screen shows thinking, execution and waiting-for-confirmation states, while expressions, movements, brief prompts and sounds communicate progress.12 Important operations requiring authorization remain subject to confirmation in the corresponding desktop client, rather than being automatically approved by the pet.12

• One interface for the home as well as the PC: Integration with Xiaomi Miloco enables spoken home-control requests and a small-screen dashboard showing device status, lighting controls and camera feeds.16

• User-defined functions: Natural-language collaboration with AI can generate and run components that turn the device into a voice-input microphone, small game console, FM radio, computer-status second screen or smart-home control interface.11 Users can also customize the pet with their own photos or characters, names, personalities and voices.10

• Replicable hardware: Reports say the project publicly provides GitHub software code, a hardware bill of materials, structural-part models and assembly tutorials, giving users practical materials for building and modifying the device rather than merely viewing a demonstration.14

• Licensing needs verification: Insufficient evidence to independently confirm the precise non-commercial licensing terms in your question. If those are the applicable terms, they encourage personal replication, modification and component creation while reserving commercial use, integration and separate product development for written permission; third-party licenses would still govern their respective components. That should be described as source-available with commercial restrictions, rather than unrestricted open source.

Together, the low build cost, AI-assisted component creation and published construction materials support the team’s stated goal: letting users decide what their AI hardware becomes, instead of limiting it to a fixed set of manufacturer-defined functions.91114

HachimoDock is a low-cost, customizable DIY desktop AI companion incubated by Xiaomi’s Technology Committee innovation-product team, combining an expressive virtual pet with a voice interface to PC agents, smart-home controls and user-created software components.912 A date correction: October 26 was the reporting date; the stronger event-specific report places the 2026 Guancha Conference in Hangzhou on October 24–25.10

• Affordable entry point: Its reported hardware self-build cost is approximately 150 yuan—not an announced retail price—and the team positions it as a beginner’s first “vibe-coding” device, using natural-language instructions to create new functionality with AI.9

• A useful pet, not just an animation: Voice requests are delegated to computer-side agents such as Codex and WorkBuddy for information searches, file organization and coding; the screen shows thinking, execution and waiting-for-confirmation states, while expressions, movements, brief prompts and sounds communicate progress.12 Important operations requiring authorization remain subject to confirmation in the corresponding desktop client, rather than being automatically approved by the pet.12

• One interface for the home as well as the PC: Integration with Xiaomi Miloco enables spoken home-control requests and a small-screen dashboard showing device status, lighting controls and camera feeds.16

• User-defined functions: Natural-language collaboration with AI can generate and run components that turn the device into a voice-input microphone, small game console, FM radio, computer-status second screen or smart-home control interface.11 Users can also customize the pet with their own photos or characters, names, personalities and voices.10

• Replicable hardware: Reports say the project publicly provides GitHub software code, a hardware bill of materials, structural-part models and assembly tutorials, giving users practical materials for building and modifying the device rather than merely viewing a demonstration.14

• Licensing needs verification: Insufficient evidence to independently confirm the precise non-commercial licensing terms in your question. If those are the applicable terms, they encourage personal replication, modification and component creation while reserving commercial use, integration and separate product development for written permission; third-party licenses would still govern their respective components. That should be described as source-available with commercial restrictions, rather than unrestricted open source.

Together, the low build cost, AI-assisted component creation and published construction materials support the team’s stated goal: letting users decide what their AI hardware becomes, instead of limiting it to a fixed set of manufacturer-defined functions.91114