The Nexus Hive (home lab)
A private smart home built around a local AI, designed and run by Jeremy. Everything that matters happens inside the house: no voice recordings or camera pictures sent off to a big company.
- A local AI assistant. A language model running on a home server, with speech recognition and a voice of its own, in two rooms.
- Home automation. Lights, routines and sensors, controlled by voice and by app, with people always in charge of what the AI is allowed to do.
- Security by design. A segmented home network, a guest network with its own sign-in page, an independent off switch for the AI, a mail scanner, privacy controls, and every change reviewed before it goes live.
- Apps. A tablet station, a phone app, a private family chat, a web browser and this website, all self-hosted or running on privacy-respecting services.
Pick a project above to see its latest updates and what's coming next. The story of how it was built is in the build log.
Work, studies and certifications
A cybersecurity analyst, around the clock. When he isn't responding to malicious activity on the network, Jeremy is pursuing his second college degree.
- Certifications held: CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, ITIL Foundation, ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) and ISC2 SSCP.
- Working on: several more certifications.
Get in touch
Want to talk about the Hive or work together? Email [email protected] with Talk to Creator in the subject line, and Nexus will pass it along.
Nexus Live
The house AI: she talks, runs the lights and routines, looks things up, and keeps the family in touch.
Latest updates October 2026
- She knows who's talking. Nexus now recognizes the family by voice, from a short voice sample each person chose to record. The samples never leave the house.
- The closest speaker answers. With speakers in two rooms, only the one that heard you best replies, so she never answers twice.
- A new home in the kitchen. The second speaker moved to the kitchen, with a small screen showing the time, weather and who's home, and it switches views by voice.
- Johnny 5, the kitchen screen. The time, the weather and how the house is doing at a glance, and, when all is calm, a counter of the days Jeremy and Candice have been together.
- She checks on herself. Every couple of minutes Nexus checks her own health (temperatures, disks, backups, her own services) and raises a flag if something isn't right.
- Meeting mode. One phrase keeps her polite and quiet during a work call.
- Roast mode, with house rules. Nexus can swear at Jeremy (and only Jeremy), using his own list of allowed words. A short list of words is banned for everyone, and a filter in her code removes them from anything she says or writes, just in case.
- The right message to the right person. Each announcement now knows who it's for, so one person's reminders and reports never pop up on someone else's phone. The nightly report also lands on Jeremy's phone.
- Hangman in the family chat. One person picks a secret word, the other guesses, and the word stays on the home server until the game ends.
Coming next
- More rooms. Additional speakers around the house, in time.
Nexus Tab Live
The family tablet is now a dedicated Nexus station: it starts straight into Nexus, stays locked to it, and keeps the system's settings behind the owner's own sign-in.
Latest updates October 2026
- Kiosk mode is live. Rolled out a few days ahead of plan. Nothing else can be opened by accident, and only approved apps run inside it.
- Updates over the air. New versions of the tablet app are delivered from the Hive over Wi-Fi, checked against a built-in signature before they install. No cables, no app store.
- A browser and a search bar. The Nexus Browser is built into the tablet, and a search button finds any part of Nexus, or searches the web.
- A new look. A ghostly fire-red theme with dark-green buttons that glow when pressed.
- Music. Spotify opens right from the toolbar.
- Gothic for Jeremy. Spirit-board cards in stone, violet and silver, and a home screen with no empty gaps. Candice keeps her own look.
- A dark lock screen. Nothing shows until someone taps it, except a serious weather warning.
- The Sanctum. A page just for Jeremy: the Hive's health at a glance, cybersecurity headlines, and his workouts and walks.
- The chat tidies up after you. The private chat closes itself after five minutes untouched.
Coming next
- Even quieter updates. The tablet checking the Hive for new versions on its own, overnight, but only versions Jeremy has already tried and approved. Built and approved; rolling out soon.
- A weight tracker with a trend line, on the Sanctum page.
- The sweep. A quick check for hidden trackers and hidden cameras, for peace of mind at home and away.
Nexus Everywhere Live
Nexus on the family's phones: chat with her, run the lights and music, see the weather and who's home, from anywhere, over a private connection back to the house.
Latest updates October 2026
- Everyone gets their own colors. Each phone now has its own theme, built from Thoth's artwork: fire red and orange for Jeremy, lime green, black and gray for Candice.
- Easier to read. Buttons and alerts were checked for contrast so they stay clear in sunlight.
Coming next
- More shortcuts. Quick buttons for favourite apps and routines.
The Nexus Browser Live
Our own web browser, with Nexus built right in. It has tabs, bookmarks, and ad and tracker blocking, plus a start page where Nexus says hello, shows the weather and reads out the day's horoscopes. Open any page and you can ask Nexus to summarize it, explain it in plain words, pull out the key points, or answer a question about it. The page goes to Nexus at home only when you ask, and she can only read and answer, never act on what a website says.
Latest updates October 2026
- Now on the tablet. A full-screen version is built into Nexus Tab, with each person's browsing kept separate.
- More careful with facts. When Nexus explains a page, she sticks to the numbers that are actually on it.
- Nexus in Chrome, too. A private Chrome extension puts Nexus in a side panel: chat with her, ask about the page you're on, or send a link to Candice in the family chat. It reads a page only when you click, and a hostile page can't make Nexus do anything. It's reviewed like everything else, and tested against pages that try.
Coming next
- iPhone and Mac versions.
Nexus Care Live
Why it exists. Phones are full of traps: ads that say "your phone is slow, install this", fake virus warnings, scam calls and texts, and one-tap buttons that quietly add junk apps. For someone who finds phones confusing and says "yes" to every pop-up, that means a phone that keeps filling up with things they never meant to install, and a steady stream of scammers ringing through. Nexus Care is our answer: it turns an ordinary Android phone into a calm, simple, protected one, without taking away anything the person actually uses.
What it does
- A simple, friendly home screen. Big buttons for the people and things that matter: call family, messages, Facebook, a safe internet, the camera and photos, and favourite games. A welcome from Nexus every time the phone starts.
- Nothing installs without family approval. App installs are blocked before they happen, so tapping an ad does nothing. When something new is wanted, Nexus says "I've let the family know", and a family member approves it.
- Only known callers ring. Calls from people in the contacts list ring as normal; strangers and hidden numbers are silenced and go to voicemail. If the same number calls again within a few minutes, it rings, so a doctor or pharmacy can still get through. The family gets one summary text each evening.
- No more accidental silence. If Do Not Disturb gets switched on by mistake, the phone switches it back off so family calls always get through.
- A safer internet. Scam, malware and adult sites are filtered for the whole phone, on Wi-Fi and mobile data, and the built-in browser has larger text, safe search, no downloads and no links that jump to app stores.
- Simple settings when they're needed. A big "My settings" button for Wi-Fi, volume, Bluetooth, brightness and text size. The risky settings stay locked.
- Family looks after it from a distance. Updates happen quietly overnight, the important settings sit behind a family PIN, and the family gets a text if anything needs attention, like a low battery.
Coming next: version 1.4
- Approvals from a phone. A family member can ask for a new app and get a yes from Jeremy's phone.
- A gentler Nexus by voice for reminders and everyday questions.
- Scam-text warnings and ad blocking, on a phone that stays locked down and safe.
The Hive Live
The home server Nexus lives on, and the machines around it.
Latest updates October 2026
- The Ultra Hive. Nexus moved into a more powerful computer, swapping roles with Black Betty in a single afternoon (with one stubborn little switch along the way). She now thinks about three times faster and runs a brain nearly twice the size. The whole story is in the build log.
- A screen for the Hive. NEXUS // CORE: the Nexus emblem, her live readout and a view of the house network on the Hive's own monitor. It goes dark at bedtime.
- Backups with a backup. A second drive copies every nightly backup, and a monthly test proves a backup really restores.
- Internet speed on the screen. A couple of short tests a day, shown in the screen's top bar.
- Up with the alarm. The Hive's screen now wakes at 4:30 in the morning with Jeremy, while Nexus keeps her voice down until the rest of the house is up.
- An offline copy of what matters. Family photos, the project record and the code are copied to a locked drive that stays unplugged, refreshed every month. Nexus sends the reminder.
- Keeping its own house tidy. Old chats are cleared on schedule, and the clean-up now checks its own access every night, so a quiet failure can't hide.
Coming next
- Battery backup so a power blip doesn't take Nexus down.