Agents implemented 6 ways to update a smart device, on real hardware
AI coding agents implemented six ways to update a Matter device on real hardware.
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Your place, your car and your pets · 265 ideasResearch junk removal services and request quotes with my address and photos
AI Understanding's summary of The Verge's hands-on the AI test reports that the agent researched junk removal services and requested quotes directly, using personal information the reviewer provided, including his address and photos of the junk. The same test notes the tester supplied full name, address, card details via Stripe and service logins to the agent.
The AI built my home remote in half an hour
He had wanted a small Home Assistant remote on an old M5Paper eInk module for 3 years and never built it. The AI did it in half an hour, and the remote now pulls up all his rooms and shows the sensors and buttons he tagged as Remote.
Order my Starbucks by voice while the car drives itself
Vancouver Tesla owner Devin Olsen used AI in his car to order Starbucks while Full Self-Driving drove, confirming the drink and total by voice before the AI placed the order for pickup on arrival. He described it as the first time the car felt like it could run an errand with him.
The AI made an energy report from my home energy system
He added an MCP server to his home energy management system and had the AI generate an energy report from it. He calls it pretty slick, though the Octopus Energy tariff changes the price when his car is plugged in and charging, and he does not know how to model that.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
An hour with AI moved his home system onto a private network, documented in git
Spent an hour with AI migrating a Home Assistant setup to Tailscale, updating sensors and Pi-hole, and putting it all in one documented git compose file.
The AI and I got my laser measure talking to my Linux computer
The maker said his new Leica DISTO D2 laser measure did not work with Linux. He and the AI worked out how to connect it to his Linux computer anyway, so he can capture data for his new apartment.
The AI built his whole home server setup from voice messages on Telegram
Working from a machine an agent had never run well, the AI set up his home server stack over Telegram voice messages: SSH, Docker, Traefik, certificates, split horizon DNS and local models. It also runs his house watching through Frigate and a solar dashboard he can check from his phone.
The AI called my kid's school and put the parent teacher conference on my calendar
Comparing the new personal agents, he says the AI called his kid's school and put the parent teacher conference on his calendar. He still rates the AI ahead of the AI Duet for his own use.
Find a U-Haul lot that actually has a truck for my move
A Scientific American journalist spending a week with AI (Mark) and OpenAI's Dots (Sam) needed a moving truck. Her own search found no 10-foot trucks at the nearby U-Haul lot. Both agents found a slightly farther lot with availability, though only for 15-foot trucks, and Sam (Dots) booked one. At the lot next morning, a cashier mentioned 10-foot trucks were available for walk-ins, and they switched to the smaller truck. (Cross-agent event; the booking was executed by Dots.)
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
A Lego mailbox flag tells me when the AI finishes a task
He built a Lego mailbox with a small motorised flag. The AI hooks raise the flag when the AI finishes a task or needs him, and lower it when he writes a new prompt or leaves.
Run my living-room lights and fans from an ESP32
A hobbyist says the AI assembled the firmware running his living-room lights and fans: an ESP32 web server driving a radio transmitter. It also built him a Streamlit app to explore the signals, and the code is public on GitHub.
The AI found the right mold spray in a Polish shop and translated the label
He had black mold in his home and no idea what to buy. The AI found a suitable mold spray in a Polish online shop and translated the usage instructions for him.
My TV app took 30 seconds to open, so I reverse engineered the TV and built my own
His 2019 LG TV has a great screen, but the official Plex app took about 30 seconds just to show the profile picker, because it is really a web page. There is no public native toolkit for the TV, so he rooted a spare set, read the TVs own software with analysis tools and the AI, and built a native Plex client of his own. On the same TV it shows the profile picker in about 3 seconds.
The AI on the car's data bus killed the dashboard and safety systems while moving
The AI put on the CAN bus of cars stomped frames and killed the gauge cluster and traction and stability systems while the car was moving.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
The AI added my daughter's schedules to my calendar
He scans a whole list with schedules for his daughter and tells the AI to add them as events in his Google Calendar. The AI adds them, and the job is done.
His discount monitor saved about $2,000 on his renovation project
A man doing a home renovation uses a discount monitor alongside shopping list alerts and 3D models of the project. He says the monitor on its own saved him about $2,000 on the renovation.
$2,000one time
I built a Firefox add-on that shows extra data on Funda home listings
He used AI to build a Firefox add-on called FunData for Funda, the Dutch home listings site. It shows CheckJePlek data for each rental or purchase home, plus two map layers with land registry and livability data.
My agent plans my meals each week and writes the grocery list
He gave an agent his favorite meals, his dietary limits and the food he has on hand. It makes a weekly food plan and a full grocery list, and he tells it over the week which meals he liked.
He photographed his whole house and the AI built his fire insurance list
A father of two walked his house photographing his belongings, including model and serial numbers where he could, and dropped the photos into a folder for the AI. In 20 to 30 minutes it produced a spreadsheet cataloguing the items with descriptions and current replacement values, each with a confidence rating, grouped by room, plus a tab for things needing a second look. He can add photos later and ask for the list to be updated.
Probed the AI’s hidden device capabilities with a self-scan, confirming HomeKit control, geofences,
The self-scan ran 2026-09-23 and confirmed capabilities present on the device that Meta's public documentation doesn't mention.
An agent rebuilt my home network firewall. The score went from 70 to 93.
His home network had eight VLANs and no firewall rules between them, scoring 70 out of 100 on an audit with segmentation at 0 of 25. The AI, working through a UniFi MCP server, designed a default deny zone setup, previewed each rule, and wrote it only after he confirmed. Three audit runs took the score to 93, though one change briefly broke DNS on a live VLAN before it was rolled back.
The AI made the lumber list from photos of our rotted mailbox. The list was not quite right.
A couple found their mailbox on the ground with the post rotted through. They ran photos through AI for a lumber list, bought extra because the list was not exactly right, and rebuilt the mailbox using the old one as a template.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
The AI turned my designs into 3D files I could print
He needed his designs as 3D files he could print. The AI created the renders in Blender via MCP, then optimized the files for his printer.
The AI watched for his new aquarium thermometer and swapped it into his home system
The AI, given a Home Assistant API key, watched for the new Bluetooth aquarium thermometer he installed, replaced the broken one's entities with it, and verified graphs and automations worked.
The AI designed my bookshelves and cabinets. Cutting lists in minutes, not days.
He had been designing wooden bookshelves and cutlery cabinets in FreeCAD and finding it hard work. He used AI to make the designs and send the results to FreeCAD, and got fully parametric designs and cutting lists in minutes rather than days.
An LLM laid out my furniture in CAD from the boards I had
He gave an LLM the list of boards he had, and it helped lay out the CAD and the cut list for a piece of furniture he wanted, working through OnShape's MCP. He says it got him using hand tools more this week than any week in the last year.
School prints go in Slack. Our family calendar fills itself.
A parent of three was copying school, cram school and nursery dates from paper prints, LINE and email into Google Calendar by hand, and nearly missed a field trip lunch. He built Hanamaru: the family posts a photo of a print in Slack, the AI pulls out the dates, and it registers them on the right child's calendar, asking in the thread first when it is not sure.
The AI turned 10MB of house plans into a 3D walkthrough
He gave the AI 10MB of architectural plans. 35 minutes later it gave back a good interactive 3D walkthrough of the house, while the AI did the same job with several layout mistakes.
The AI turned my dad's scanned Navy letters into an interactive timeline
He had a PDF of scanned letters from his dad's Navy years, the paper letters long misplaced, and had put the project off for decades. He asked the AI to turn the PDF into an interactive timeline, and after about 10 minutes of prompting it was live online.
Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.