Google is letting tinkerers and enthusiasts use AI agents to access and control smart homes.

This month, the tech giant opened early access to Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Google Home, enabling AI agents to interact safely with Google Home.

With Google Home MCP, any agent that supports calling MCP tools, such as Google Antigravity, Claude, Hermes and OpenClaw, can now interact with all of the devices and event history in the Google Home ecosystem, from Google Nest doorbell and thermostat to Works with Google Home or Matter light bulbs.

This gives the AI agent real-world physical context, allowing it to analyse and answer questions about home activity, summarise camera footage across rooms, manage devices on the user’s behalf, or even let users create their own smart home dashboards using everyday language.

Here are some ways early testers used Google Home MCP:

• Cross-camera analysis: Ask the agent what the kids did when they got home from school, and it will provide a summary across all the cameras of what they did and show the clips
• Analyse home history: The agent can use the device state history to track how many loads of laundry were done in a week, or how long the lights were left on.
• Interact via voice: If the agent is completing an asynchronous or proactive task, it can send an audio message over the Google Home speaker when it’s finished.
• Build a dashboard: The agent can build a custom dashboard that provides a view of a smart home tailored to the user.

Early access is rolling out in English to Google Home Premium Advanced users in the USA. To set up Home MCP, create a Google Cloud project and configure it to use Home MCP. Then provide the MCP configuration details to the agent and ask it to set it up. The agent will ask the user to sign in and grant permissions. After that, they are ready to go. For complete setup guides, visit developers.home.google.com/mcp/home.

Connecting a real-life home to an AI agent allows that agent to control devices on the user’s behalf. Home MCP enforces rate limits and safety protections, such as prohibiting sensitive actions such as unlocking doors.

However, Google warns, depending on the agent, connecting it to Home MCP can result in unexpected or even undesired behaviour. It advises users to review carefully developer policies and terms of service.

“If you choose to connect a Google Home used by other household members with Home MCP, you should inform them that your agent can control devices and access home data,” it warns.