How it works

A home that understands you.

Elysium pairs an AI agent that runs on a hub in your home with the open standards your devices already speak, so you can just say what you want.

You talk, it acts

You make a request in plain language, by voice or chat. Elysium works out what you mean, decides what to do across your home, carries it out and tells you what happened. When it changes a light or the heating, it checks with your home whether the command was carried out before it says it's done, and if a device didn't respond, it tells you. Scenes and timed light sequences aren't checked yet. There is no command syntax to learn.

An agent that reasons

The Butler is an AI agent. It reasons about context (the room, the time, what you asked for) and can chain several steps to get there. That's the difference between “if this, then that” automations and a home that understands the request.

Sovereign by default

Elysium runs on a hub in your home, and out of the box it runs in Sovereign mode: understanding what you say, controlling your devices, remembering your household and signing you in all happen on the hub. Pull the internet cable and the Butler still answers, and the hub's egress self-test confirms that none of its services is talking to the outside world. Want a larger model? Switch to Hybrid. Each resident can then choose a cloud model, and a request that goes to one carries its text and the context the Butler needs; requests spoken to the hub follow the choice of one resident, whoever speaks. The app lists what crosses before you confirm. In Hybrid you can also switch on cloud speech, which transcribes what you say and voices the replies in the cloud; it stays off until you do, and the app lists it too. Video and device control stay on the hub in both modes. Our report Sovereign by Construction sets out what crosses in each mode.

Where it runs

SovereignHybridCloud

How the hub ships. Each part below runs on the hub in your home.

Wake word: On the hub
Speech: On the hub, which transcribes what you say and speaks its replies
Reasoning: An open-weight model on the hub
Memory and identity: On the hub, with sign-in that works offline
Device control: On the hub
Camera: Video stays on the hub. Camera support is in development.

The owner's opt-in, for a larger model. Each resident can then choose a cloud model.

Wake word: On the hub
Speech: Processed on the hub. If the owner turns them on, cloud services receive the audio of requests the hub has recognised, the text of its spoken replies and, for a few seconds after a reply, the text of what it hears.
Reasoning: The model each resident chooses: a cloud model, or the hub's own. Requests spoken to the hub follow the choice of one resident, whoever speaks.
Memory and identity: Stored on the hub, with your local login. The owner can also sign in with a linked cloud account. Memories chosen for a request are sent with it.
Device control: On the hub
Camera: Video stays on the hub. Camera support is in development.

What Hybrid sends to cloud services, and what stays on the hub

The hub's own list, word for word. The dashboard shows it before the owner switches to Hybrid.

Sent to cloud services in Hybrid

With each request

Your message or the transcript of your spoken request, with the recent messages of that conversation
Memories chosen for the request, yours and the household's
The rooms and devices, with each device's current state
House instructions and open goals your household has set
What the Butler's tools send and return, such as device readings, reminders, calendar entries, emails and web pages it reads, and earlier conversations it looks up
Your display name and preferred reply style
The short bio in your profile, if you wrote one
The current time and the home's time zone
Each request spoken to the hub, whoever speaks, with the memories and profile of the resident the hub files it under, when that resident picked a cloud model

In the background

Conversation text, to write each conversation's title and summary
Each reply that changed something in the home, with a record of the Butler's tool calls, to check the reply against what was done
A typed or spoken request whose OpenAI model fails before it starts to answer, because OpenAI is out of quota, refuses the key or cannot be reached, to Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 instead, when the hub also has an Anthropic key

Only if turned on for the hub

The audio of requests spoken to the Butler, when cloud speech recognition is on
The text of each spoken reply, when cloud speech synthesis is on
For a few seconds after a spoken reply, the text of what the hub hears, with your last request and the reply, when cloud follow-up detection is on
Each spoken request and what is sent with it, to a fast cloud model that tries to answer first, when the fast model for spoken requests is on
Each exchange, with your saved memories, to pick out facts worth remembering, when memory extraction uses a cloud model
Memory text and request text, to find memories by meaning, when semantic memory search uses a cloud embedder
The night's device changes, alerts and reminders, to write the morning summary, when any adult in the household turns it on

Stays on the hub, in Sovereign and in Hybrid

The wake-word check, and room audio until the hub recognises a request
Camera video
Device commands, which run on this box
Your local login and password
Everything else in the memory store and message history

Everything listed travels over TLS. How long a provider keeps it is set by that provider's terms.

Hosted by us, for households without a capable hub. The early-access app runs in Cloud.

Wake word: None. The app listens only while you use its microphone button.
Speech: The app shows a microphone button only in some browsers, such as recent versions of Safari. If you use it, your browser turns your speech into text, which can happen on its maker's servers. We receive only the text.
Reasoning: A cloud model: Anthropic's, or OpenAI's if you choose one
Memory and identity: Your Elysium account, with your household's data kept with us in Zürich. Memories chosen for a request are sent with it.
Device control: The hosted app runs no device controller. Only a hub in the home carries out commands.
Camera: Raw video does not leave the home.

The owner can switch back to Sovereign without a password, and it takes effect from the next request. Switching to Hybrid in the dashboard asks the owner for their local password and records when they accepted the Hybrid list. Appliance units ship locked to Sovereign.

Speaks the open standards

Elysium speaks Matter, the open smart-home standard. The hub is a Matter controller with its own Thread network, so devices from many brands can join one home with no vendor hub or app in between. A Matter logo alone doesn't guarantee that a device behaves the same with every controller, so we test devices against our own as we add them.

One home, several surfaces

Talk to The Bar on your wall, chat in the web app on your phone or computer, and glance at The Smart Mirror. Each is a way into the same Butler, with the same memory of your home.

Want the short version, or have a specific question?

See the FAQ or ask the assistant on this site.