Where Should Your AI Agent Live? Desk, Pocket, Wall, Hidden

Where should your AI agent live? Put its body where you will actually use it: on your desk if you want to read replies and talk to it, in your pocket if you want a voice remote, on a wall or fridge if the household needs to glance at it, and out of sight if it does background work. Each spot changes which board fits, how you power it and how much the Wi-Fi signal matters.

Where should your AI agent live? The four spots compared

Spot	Good for	Boards that fit	Power	Network notes
Desk	Reading replies, an avatar, quick voice notes	Waveshare S3 1.75C, SenseCAP Watcher, AIPI Lite, Waveshare C6 1.8, ideaspark 1.9", Voice PE, SenseCAP Indicator, reTerminal	USB from a charger; some boards have batteries	Usually close to the router
Pocket	Voice notes away from your desk	M5Stack StickS3, AIPI Lite, M5Stack StickC Plus2	Small built-in battery	Needs a Wi-Fi network it already knows
Wall or fridge	Glanceable info for everyone at home	reTerminal E1001 and E1002, SenseCAP Indicator	Battery on the reTerminals; USB for the Indicator	Test the signal at the exact spot
Hidden	Background jobs and reaching your home network	Raspberry Pi 5, 4 or Zero 2 W, ESP32-C5 DevKitC-1, Voice PE, used thin clients	Wall power	Ethernet on a Pi 5; Linux pairing needs Bluetooth LE

These fits come from hackshop's board data, and a few boards fit two spots.

Desk: see it and talk to it

A desk is the easiest first home. Power is close, the router is usually in range, and you can read what your agent says. Pick a board with a screen and push-to-talk.

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C: a round 1.75" 466×466 AMOLED touch screen with an animated avatar. hackshop rates it the best desk object. It lists at $39.99 to $41.99, and the higher price appears to be the version with a battery.
Seeed SenseCAP Watcher: a 1.45" round touch screen, a wheel you press to talk, and a camera Muse can use once you enable it in the build. It costs $60.99.
AIPI Lite: a palm-size voice buddy at $35.99 with a 128×128 screen and a snap-on battery.
Budget picks: the Waveshare ESP32-C6-Touch-AMOLED-1.8 does push-to-talk with text replies, and the ideaspark 1.9" board is a small status screen that can show pictures.

Angle the screen toward where you sit. Replies arrive as text captions, and a small screen is easier to read up close.

Pocket: a push-to-talk remote

A pocket body turns your agent into a walkie-talkie. You press a button, say what you need, and read the reply when it arrives.

M5Stack StickS3: $21.50, 48×24×15 mm and 20 g, with a speaker, a mic, a 1.14" screen and a 250 mAh battery. hackshop calls it the best push-to-talk remote. M5Stack recommends keeping the speaker below 75% volume on battery to avoid reboots.
AIPI Lite: comes with a 450 mAh battery module but no USB-C cable or power adapter, so have a cable ready.
M5Stack StickC Plus2: still supported by the SDK, but listed as end of life, and it has a buzzer instead of a speaker.

The catch is Wi-Fi. A pocket board still needs a network it knows, and ESP32-S3 boards use 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only. The documented way to move a board to a new network is to reset setup, which unpairs it and forgets its Wi-Fi, and then pair it again in the Muse app. In practice, it is an around-the-house device.

Wall or fridge: glanceable and quiet

A wall or fridge body is for things the whole household reads in passing. Meta's gadget page suggests a morning briefing, reminders or a shopping list on the color e-paper reTerminal. These boards show status and images but have no microphone in the Muse build, so you talk to your agent from your phone and the display shows the result.

Seeed reTerminal E1002: 7.3" six-color e-paper, $99 on sale (regular $109). Each refresh takes about 30 seconds and flashes, so it suits content that changes a few times a day.
Seeed reTerminal E1001: 7.5" black-and-white e-paper, $69 on sale (regular $79). A refresh takes a second or two.
Seeed SenseCAP Indicator: a 3.95" touch screen that fits a desk or a wall. The D1S and D1Pro models add air sensors. It has no battery, so it needs an outlet nearby.

E-paper keeps its picture without power, and Seeed advertises a "3-month battery life" for both reTerminals. Treat that as the maker's figure and watch how your own build behaves. If you plan to put one on a fridge, test the Wi-Fi there first, since a fridge door is a big sheet of metal. For a full wall build, see the guide to a family calendar on e-paper.

Hidden: background work and home-network reach

Some agent bodies don't need a face. A hidden gadget sits in a closet or behind the TV and gives Muse a way to work on a computer or reach devices on your home network.

Raspberry Pi 5 with the Linux Device SDK: Muse can run shell commands, read and write files and check the machine's health. List prices are $110 for 4GB and $175 for 8GB. It has Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE for pairing, and it needs a 5 V, 5 A USB-C power supply.
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: $15, with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only. It is slow, but enough for shell and file commands.
ESP32-C5 DevKitC-1: the SDK's suggested quickest start, with a status light, a button and the home-network tunnel, which lets Muse reach devices you own that have a local HTTP API. Its chip supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6.
Used thin clients such as the Dell Wyse 5070: not on Meta's list, but they meet the stated requirements on Debian or Ubuntu once they have Bluetooth LE, which usually means a USB adapter.

Hidden does not mean forgotten. Put the board where you can still see its status light now and then: green means connected, blinking yellow means reconnecting and blinking red means an error. Also remember that a Linux gadget gives Muse the same access as the account you install it for. If that account can use sudo, so can Muse.

Power and Wi-Fi checklist before you pick a spot

An outlet in reach. Desk and hidden boards run from USB power. The Voice PE takes 5 V at 2 A over USB-C, and a Pi 5 needs a 5 V, 5 A USB-C supply.
A data cable for setup. You flash ESP32 boards over USB, and the cable must carry data, not just power.
2.4 GHz coverage. ESP32-S3 boards use 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and AIPI says the AIPI Lite needs it. The ESP32-C5 and the Pi 5 can also use 5 GHz.
Signal at the exact spot. Check it with your phone where the gadget will actually sit.
A trusted network for pairing. The SDK warns that pairing can't prevent an active man-in-the-middle attack, so pair at home.

Not sure which spot fits your routine? The Muse board picker suggests a board from a few questions, and the Muse board guide compares every supported board side by side.

Questions people ask

Can one gadget cover more than one spot?

Yes. In hackshop's board data, the AIPI Lite fits a desk or a pocket, the reTerminal e-paper displays and the SenseCAP Indicator fit a desk or a wall, and the Home Assistant Voice PE fits a desk or a hidden shelf.

Will a pocket gadget work away from home?

Only where it has Wi-Fi it knows. ESP32 boards join the network you set up in the Muse app, and the documented way to change networks is to reset setup and pair again. Treat a pocket gadget as an around-the-house device.

What is the best spot for a first build?

A desk. Power and Wi-Fi are close, you can see the status and read replies, and it is easy to plug the board back into your computer when you want to flash it again.

Does a wall e-paper display need to stay plugged in?

No. The reTerminal E1001 and E1002 have batteries, and e-paper keeps its picture without power. Seeed advertises a 3-month battery life, so treat that as the maker's figure and check how your own build does.

Sources

Prices and details checked October 5, 2026.