What happens when you try to build a fully functional voice AI agent in a single evening? You get 4 hours of debugging, 7 failed calls, 3 root causes, and one very satisfying “it works” moment at 1 AM. Total API cost: $0.03.

The goal: call a phone number, have an AI agent answer, listen to you, understand you, and respond in natural language — in Slovak and English. The stack: Twilio for telephony, OpenAI for text-to-speech and speech-to-text, and OpenClaw as the AI agent platform.

In my previous post, I shared how to install Home Assistant OS (HAOS) inside a KVM on a Raspberry Pi 5. While having a powerful local server is great, it brings up a major question: How do you access it securely from the outside?

For this setup, I wanted to achieve two specific goals:

1. Enable a free and secure VPN for my mobile device (so I can surf safely on public Wi-Fi).
2. Gain seamless remote access to Home Assistant without exposing any ports to the internet.

The answer to both is Tailscale.

After getting my hands on a Raspberry Pi 5, I wanted to move beyond a simple local server. My goal was to host a multi-service web station (a Go/SQLite analytics app and various static projects) while keeping my main blog on GitLab Pages.

Here is how I navigated the world of reverse proxies, containerization, and the dreaded “Protocol Errors.”

Project Overview

I created a fully-playable PACMAN game for Windows 11, built with Go + Wails and a vanilla JavaScript frontend, using AI assistance throughout the process.

After successfully setting up a Home Assistant OS (HAOS) VM on my Raspberry Pi 5 (KVM/libvirt approach), I wanted to test a minimal Debian 12 ARM64 VM for InfluxDB and Grafana.

My Setup So Far

• Host: Raspberry Pi 5, 16GB RAM
• Hypervisor: KVM / QEMU / libvirt
• Guest: HAOS running smoothly
• Management: Cockpit & virt-manager

Proper naming conventions in Home Assistant transform a chaotic smart home into an organized, maintainable system. Without consistent naming, you’ll struggle to find devices, create automations, and troubleshoot issues as your setup grows. Good naming conventions make your smart home scalable and intuitive for everyone in your household.

This guide provides a structured approach to naming that grows with your system, inspired by the Home Assistant Naming Convention repository maintained by the community.

Since I use Raspberry Pi 5 as a virtual machine (VM) host for Home Assistant OS (HAOS) in KVM, I want a system that is simple, stable, and reliable.
After repeated microSD drawbacks, I selected the Samsung 870 EVO SSD 500GB via USB3 over my previous Raspberry Pi 128GB microSD U2 for system storage.

This guide shows how to pass through the SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus to a Home Assistant OS (HAOS) virtual machine running on Raspberry Pi 5 using KVM/libvirt. This allows you to use Zigbee devices directly within your virtualized Home Assistant setup.

Running Home Assistant directly on a Raspberry Pi is the default, but what if you want KVM virtualization on the same Pi 5? Virtualizing HAOS gives you snapshots, easy backup, and the ability to run other services alongside it. This guide walks through the full setup — from installing libvirt and KVM on a Pi 5 to getting Home Assistant accessible on your LAN.

Enhancing your smart home with dynamic lighting has never been easier, thanks to the seamless integration of LED strips powered by WLED and Home Assistant.

WLED is an open-source firmware that transforms affordable microcontrollers into feature-rich LED controllers, perfect for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. By using LED strips with WLED, you gain precise control over your lighting, enabling stunning effects, animations, and automations tailored to your lifestyle.

Home Assistant is a popular home automation platform that effortlessly integrates with WLED, allowing you to manage your LED strips alongside other smart devices from a single interface. This powerful combination elevates your space’s ambiance and enhances smart home functionality. Whether you’re a DIY enthusiast or new to IoT, integrating LED strips with WLED and Home Assistant is an accessible way to bring your lighting ideas to life.