What is HiveMind?
HiveMind is an open-source protocol and platform that connects lightweight satellite devices to a central AI hub over the network — including hardware that cannot run a full AI system on its own.
The core idea
HiveMind separates AI workload from edge devices. Satellites (microphones, voice devices, browsers, chat clients) delegate processing to a hub, which handles reasoning, skills, and audio processing. The hub can serve many satellites simultaneously with independent sessions and permissions for each.
[Mic Satellite] ──┐
[Voice Relay] ───┤──→ [HiveMind Hub] ──→ skills / LLM / intents
[Voice Satellite]──┤ │
[CLI Client] ───┘ └──→ responses back to each satellite
Hub types
| Hub | Package | Agent backend |
|---|---|---|
| OVOS skills server | hivemind-core |
OpenVoiceOS (full skill ecosystem) |
| Audio hub | hivemind-core + hivemind-audio-binary-protocol |
OVOS + server-side STT/TTS/wakeword |
| Persona server | hivemind-persona |
LLMs and chatbots via ovos-persona |
Satellite types
Satellites form a spectrum based on where audio processing happens. At one end the satellite does nothing but pass text; at the other it handles the complete voice stack locally.
| Satellite | Local processing | Hub requirements |
|---|---|---|
| HiveMind-cli | Text I/O only | Any hub |
| hivemind-mic-satellite | Mic + VAD | Audio binary protocol for STT/TTS/wakeword |
| HiveMind-voice-relay | Mic + VAD + Wakeword | Audio binary protocol for STT/TTS |
| HiveMind-voice-sat | Mic + VAD + Wakeword + STT + TTS | Any hub (sends text utterances) |
| hivemind-webspeech | Browser mic + VAD | Any hub |
See Choosing a Satellite for a detailed comparison.
Mesh topology
HiveMind hubs can connect to other hubs, forming a hierarchy. A sub-hub acts as a client to its parent while being a server to its own satellites. ESCALATE messages travel up the chain; BROADCAST messages travel down. This enables multi-room or multi-household topologies where each hub controls its local devices but can route requests upward.
[Master Hub]
├──→ [Sub-hub A] ──→ satellites
└──→ [Sub-hub B] ──→ satellites
See Nested Hives for details.
Security model
Every client authenticates with an access key and a password. After authentication the session is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The key is never transmitted; both sides derive it independently via PBKDF2 from the shared password and exchanged nonces.
Permissions are configured per client. The default policy admits only a basic set of message types; you expand or restrict per-client using the hivemind-core CLI. Skills and intents can be blacklisted individually.
See Security for the full model.
What HiveMind is not
- It is not a replacement for OVOS when running as a skills server. OVOS remains the AI back-end; HiveMind is the external-facing gateway.
- It is not a cloud service. Everything runs on your own hardware.
- It does not replace the OVOS messagebus for local communication. The messagebus remains internal.