Pre-release

This release is a pre-release and may not be stable for production use.

Unit Tests

OVOS-core

OpenVoiceOS is an open-source platform for smart speakers and other voice-centric devices. ovos-core (this repo) is the central component.

Installing OVOS

If you have an existing system, use the ovos-installer to install OVOS and its dependencies in one step.

For Raspberry Pi users, the RaspOVOS image runs in headless mode (no GUI) and targets Raspberry Pi 3B or higher.

For embedded systems, ovos-buildroot builds a custom Linux distribution for minimal setups.

More detailed documentation is available in the ovos-technical-manual and in docs/. See docs/prerelease-quirks.md for what changed since the last stable release.

Developers can install ovos-core standalone:

pip install ovos-core

This includes the core components, for custom assistant development.

Skills

OVOS is powered by skills. Some skills come pre-installed; most need to be installed explicitly.

Browse OVOS-compatible skills on PyPI or in the OVOS GitHub organization.

Most classic Mycroft skills also work on OVOS.

When an install or uninstall requested over the bus fails, the .failed reply carries the installer's own output in detail, so a remote caller can see why without reading the service log. See docs/skill-installer.md.

A completed runtime install through the bus (ovos.skills.install) triggers a discovery pass, so an eligible skill loads on that report rather than waiting for the periodic scan; the pass keeps the readiness and connectivity gating the scan applies. skillmanager.rescan asks the skill manager for that pass on demand and replies with what it loaded. See docs/skill-manager.md.

A skill uninstalled at runtime through the bus (ovos.skills.uninstall) is unloaded as soon as the installer reports completion, so it stops answering without a restart. See docs/skill-manager.md.

Persona Support

ovos-persona generates responses when skills fail to handle user input. With Persona you can connect an LLM to ovos-core.

List Personas

"What personas are available?"
"Can you list the personas?"
"What personas can I use?"

Activate a Persona

"Connect me to {persona}"
"Enable {persona}"
"Start a conversation with {persona}"
"Let me chat with {persona}"

Stop Conversation

"Stop the interaction"
"Terminate persona"
"Deactivate Large Language Model"

Creating a Persona: Click to expand

Persona Files

Personas are configured using JSON files. These can be:

Provided by plugins (for example, the OpenAI plugin).
Created as user-defined JSON files in ~/.config/ovos_persona.

Personas rely on solver plugins, which try to answer queries in sequence until a response is found.

Example: using a local OpenAI-compatible server.

Save this in ~/.config/ovos_persona/salamandra.json:

{
  "name": "Salamandra",
  "solvers": [
    "ovos-solver-openai-persona-plugin"
  ],
  "ovos-solver-openai-persona-plugin": {
    "api_url": "https://ollama.uoi.io/v1",
    "model": "hdnh2006/salamandra-7b-instruct",
    "key": "sk-xxxx",
    "persona": "helpful, creative, clever, and very friendly."
  }
}

The "Salamandra" persona is now available. The example above uses a demo server; no uptime is guaranteed.

More details on how to create your personas are in the OVOS-persona README.

Pipeline Configuration: Click to expand

Persona Pipeline

Add the persona pipeline to your mycroft.conf after the _high pipeline matchers.

{
  "intents": {
      "persona": {"handle_fallback":  true},
      "pipeline": [
          "stop_high",
          "converse",
          "ocp_high",
          "padatious_high",
          "adapt_high",
          "ovos-persona-pipeline-plugin-high",
          "ocp_medium",
          "fallback_high",
          "stop_medium",
          "adapt_medium",
          "padatious_medium",
          "adapt_low",
          "common_qa",
          "fallback_medium",
          "ovos-persona-pipeline-plugin-low",
          "fallback_low"
    ]
  }
}

Getting Involved

OVOS is open source and depends on community contributions. There is a way to contribute as a coder, designer, or translator.

Help translate OVOS into your language through our Translation Portal.

Have questions or need guidance? Say hi in the OpenVoiceOS Chat, and a team member will help.

Join our Discussions to ask questions and share ideas.

Credits

The OpenVoiceOS team thanks the following organizations for their support in our early days:

Mycroft was a hackable, open-source voice assistant by the now-defunct MycroftAI. OpenVoiceOS continues that work.
NeonGecko
KDE / Blue Systems

Release files for ovos-core 3.5.5a1

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for ovos-core 3.5.5a1
File	Size	Uploaded
ovos_core-3.5.5a1.tar.gz	93.3 kB	Sep 13, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for ovos-core 3.5.5a1
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
ovos_core-3.5.5a1-py3-none-any.whl 103.2 kB Sep 13, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 196.5 kB

Release files / ovos_core-3.5.5a1.tar.gz

Download URL	ovos_core-3.5.5a1.tar.gz
Size	93.3 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`d1ccf1b38721fc2c76c7f651d94be20059e87b0e2476725372a6163f581a293a`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`3451a6f42dbf9d7094868a8d00a42124ac7849f3a6eb02424161a122c2d83139`
Upload date	Sep 13, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Release files / ovos_core-3.5.5a1-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	ovos_core-3.5.5a1-py3-none-any.whl
Size	103.2 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`e427b58621b9cb6f2e7a78526198d4d49accd8fa2fcac8c6ffe815de1f7f2536`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`6225143a58c609483ec4514e2ea747cc15f39e14f42d8bb371c17a0486b0cbde`
Upload date	Sep 13, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`