Devices are connected · the home is not yet understood
At 7:00 a.m., a child says, “Turn on the lamp by the bed—but not too bright.” The system may send a successful command and still not know which physical lamp the child means, whether today’s routine applies, or whether the room actually became comfortable.
Devices are connected. The household is still not truly understood.
This is an early public discussion, not a finished standard or product.
Context is not permission. A command is not a verified result.
The problem begins in an ordinary morning
Today’s systems can report states and execute commands. They rarely know what those states mean inside a particular home.
The system may know that several lights are online. It may know their device names, current states, and which API can switch them.
But the child did not ask for an API call. The child meant a particular lamp, a gentle physical effect, and a result appropriate for this morning—not every morning in the abstract.
The devices have been connected. The household has not yet been understood.“light.bedroom_02” identifies a record in a system. It does not explain that this is the lamp a child calls “the one by my pillow,” what it illuminates, or when it is safe to use.
Motion, sound, or a camera frame is an observation. It does not by itself identify who is there, what they intend, or whether the family wants the system to respond.
A weekday schedule may be useful evidence. It cannot know on its own that today is a holiday, someone is ill, or the family has changed its plan.
A device may acknowledge “on” while the lamp is unplugged, blocked, or too dim. What matters is the physical effect, observed after the command.
Names, room assignments, routines, and corrections are often trapped in one app or Agent. Replace it, and the household’s accumulated understanding disappears with it.
A system may know who is home, where a camera points, or when a child sleeps. That context must not silently become permission to observe, infer, or act.
Furniture moves, switches are rewired, devices are replaced, and family routines evolve. A useful home model must keep evidence, uncertainty, and corrections alive over time.
Change the AI. The home should not have to start over.
Matter, Home Assistant, KNX, sensors, cameras, and vision models can already connect devices and report what they observe. Large language models can explain, plan, and converse.
The missing bridge is a household-controlled way to turn those signals into bounded, correctable understanding that can survive a change of device, platform, or Agent.
How can an Agent keep learning one particular home—without treating guesses as facts, context as permission, or command success as a real-world result?See the proposed bridge
The whole system in four moves
The Harness compiles the smallest context for the task. HWM keeps the evidence and household rules. The Agent explains, plans, and proposes. Reality gets the last word.
HWM is an open proposal for a household-controlled, portable, reconstructable history of claims, evidence, and authority.
Vision, sensors, Matter, and Home Assistant report observations and device state.
Existing device pathsHWM keeps attributable claims, evidence, bindings, corrections, and household Authority.
Household-controlled historyThe Harness starts with a purpose-bound current view—often NGSI-LD—and adds bounded HWM history only when needed.
Task-to-context compilerThe Agent explains or proposes. The family authorizes an exact action, and fresh observation verifies the physical effect.
Governed action loopA World View can help an Agent reason. Only household Authority can approve the exact action.
A device can report success while the room stays dark. New evidence must verify the intended effect.
A discussion framework, not a frozen architecture
The proposal starts with six connected ways of knowing. Each can remain incomplete, uncertain, and open to correction.
Rooms, openings, furniture, functional zones, distance, direction, and obstruction.
Where a device is installed and how light, heat, air, sound, energy, or signal moves.
Family members, pets, visitors, roles, states, preferences, and action boundaries.
Moments, life stages, habits, exceptions, and events that may be about to happen.
Observation, identification, fact, inference, and prediction kept visibly distinct.
Design intent, construction reality, commissioning, operation, change, and repair.
A responsible Agent knows what it does not know
Illustrative sequence · every layer remains open to correction
A hallway sensor reports movement.
The source might be a family member, visitor, or pet.
Someone may be passing through rather than staying.
Low, non-glare light may be useful next.
Is proactive lighting allowed here, now, and for this person?
Act at low cost, verify the effect, explain it, and allow correction.
Open by ownership, not only by source code
The proposal should map to and collaborate with Matter, KNX, Home Assistant, BIM, Brick, W3C WoT, and other existing work—not replace it.
One home, one continuous record
A home begins forming before anyone moves in. Design assumptions, site changes, measurements, and later corrections should contribute to the same household-owned understanding.
You do not need to write code
Contribute a household story, professional constraint, mapping to existing standards, or a reason this proposal is wrong. Disagreement is useful evidence.
Read the complete narrative