In this episode, recorded live at GitHub Universe 2025, Andrea sits down with Frank “Frenck” Nijhof, a GitHub Star and project lead for Home Assistant, one of the most active open source projects on the platform. They unpack how millions of households run privacy-first automations locally (no cloud required), why the Open Home Foundation exists to prevent vendor lock-in and e-waste, and how this famously welcoming community scaled to 21k+ contributors. Frank also shares insights about the development of “Assist,” an open, local-first voice assistant (with optional AI), as well as the new “Home Assist Green” hardware device, plus practical ways non-coders can meaningfully contribute to the project, too.
Links mentioned in the episode:
https://github.com/frenck
https://www.home-assistant.io
https://www.home-assistant.io/green
https://www.home-assistant.io/voice
https://www.home-assistant.io/assist
https://www.esphome.io
https://github.com/home-assistant
https://www.raspberrypi.com
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