This is just crazy. Why I didn’t do this earlier, I have no idea..
Some background: I’m using the future proof homes satellite1 as my voice assistant. Since they are way behind on the Xmos firmware on their own hardware I’m using the Tater integration and firmware which uses all four microphones in the satellite one for vastly improved Wakewood, recognition and directional voice activation. I’m also using the standard Word Hey Tater. I’ve tried using the word Alexa, but that didn’t work so well. Hey tater works great. And I love the short, persistent fart notification when the word answers it always illicits a laugh from everyone in the room. But you really have to deliberately say the word the word T A T E R clearly.
here are my Cursor AI prompts that got me there:
Open a persistent log in a Terminal window that we can both watch to Diagnose problems with Tater understanding the intent of what I want, and especially the failures. I’m not sure which logs there should be, but when I then come back and state that there is a problem you’ll be able to see it in the log.
The first few items on my Alexa shopping list are get paper Sales, flair, Modelo, beer, sourdough bread, avocado, avocados. Why was this not listed in the response that Tater gave me to list the first few items on my shopping list?
How do we set up this process of monitoring what I say interpreting the response that is either positive or can’t be processed and then you fixing the response automatically. I’d like the response from you to be “I couldn’t understand the question fixing the response and re-trying”. Is this an MCP server that needs to be set up?
You’re describing a closed loop: monitor → judge → fix → retry → tell you what happened. You already have half of it; the other half is an orchestrator that reacts to failures.
What you have today (Layer 1–2)
| Layer | Status | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor |  Running |
tater-voice-watch.py (launchd) writes HEARD/SAID/ACTIONS |
| Judge |  Partial |
Each turn gets VERDICT + NEEDS_FIX in the log and ~/ha-patches/logs/tater-voice-analysis.jsonl |
Example failure (your shopping list case):
{“heard”: “What’s on my shopping list? The first few items.”, “said”: null, “needs_fix”: true, “verdict”: “UNCERTAIN”}
Gap: Nothing watches needs_fix: true and acts on it. I only fix things when you ask or switch to Agent mode.
What you want (full loop)
You speak → Tater responds
↓
Watcher scores turn (OK / FAILED / NEEDS_FIX)
↓
Orchestrator sees NEEDS_FIX
↓
Diagnose (wrong phrase? missing automation? AnyList down?)
↓
Patch HA (automation trigger, defer play, etc.)
↓
Retry via API (“what’s on my shopping list the first few items”)
↓
Tell you: “Couldn’t understand — added trigger phrase — retrying — OK now”
Do you need an MCP server?
No — not strictly. MCP is one way to give Cursor structured tools; it’s not the only way.
| Approach | Best for | MCP? |
|---|---|---|
| A. Local Python orchestrator | Always-on fix/retry on your Mac | No |
| B. Cursor Automation | Periodic “check jsonl, fix failures” in Cursor | Optional (HA MCP helps) |
| C. Custom MCP + Cursor Agent | “Agent with tools: get_turns, patch_automation, retry” | Yes |
D. /loop in Cursor chat |
Dev/testing, not production 24/7 | No |
Practical recommendation: A + B
tater-voice-fix-loop.py(new) — watchestater-voice-analysis.jsonl, applies known fixes, retries, logs + optional HA notify- Cursor Automation (optional) — for failures the script can’t handle, open an agent with context from the failed turn
MCP is worth adding later if you want the agent to call HA directly (patch_automation, conversation.process, anylist.get_items) instead of hard-coded Python.
What the orchestrator should do (concrete)
1. Watch for new lines in jsonl where needs_fix: true
2. Classify failure (rules first, LLM only for unknowns):
| Pattern | Fix |
|---|---|
| Shopping/list + no AUTO | Add conversation trigger phrase to 1754612400004 |
unable to / cannot / not aware of any device in SAID |
Local automation didn’t match → add trigger or fix Hybrid routing |
| Action requested, no SERVICE/AUTO | Missing or competing automation |
anylist / list read failed |
Restart add-on, reload entry |
| Shop Alexa cut off | Defer play_media, fix Kitchen automation branch |
3. Apply fix — PATCH HA automation API + conversation.reload (same as we did manually)
4. Retry — POST /api/conversation/process with same heard text + Tater device_id
5. Re-score retry — OK → FIXED; still bad → NEEDS_MANUAL + notify you
6. User message — append to watch log and/or HA notify:
COULDN’T UNDERSTAND: “What’s on my shopping list? The first few items.”
FIX: Added phrase to Voice: AnyList read items
RETRY: OK — listed first 10 items
Improving the judge (important)
Your jsonl still has false OK when SAID was wrong, e.g.:
“Sorry, I am not aware of any device called on my shopping list…”
The watcher should treat that as FAILED (refusal / misroute), not OK. Extend REFUSAL_RE in the watcher to include phrases like not aware of any device, couldn't understand.
Without that, an auto-fix loop may never trigger on those turns.
Architecture diagram
Tater / HAtater-voice-watch.pywatch.loganalysis.jsonltater-voice-fix-loop.pyHA API patch + retrylog / iPhone notifyCursor Automation optionalCursor Agent hard cases
Always on (launchd): watcher + fix-loop
On failure only: Cursor Automation or you in Agent mode
MCP — when it helps
A small Home Assistant MCP could expose:
get_voice_turns(since, needs_fix_only)get_automation(id)update_automation(id, config)test_conversation(text, device_id)anylist_get_items(list)
Then a Cursor Automation prompt like: “Read failed turns from MCP, fix automation, retry, report” — no custom Python for HA calls.
That’s optional polish; the fix-loop script + improved NEEDS_FIX rules gets you most of the way without MCP.
Suggested rollout
- Tighten judge — catch “not aware of any device”, “couldn’t understand” as FAILED
- Add
tater-voice-fix-loop.py— jsonl tail + 3–4 known fix recipes + retry + status lines - launchd for fix-loop (like the watcher)
- HA notify — push “fixing / retry / fixed” to your iPhone
- Optional: HA MCP + Cursor Automation for unknown failures
I’m in Ask mode and can’t build this now. Switch to Agent mode and say something like:
“Build tater-voice-fix-loop: watch analysis jsonl, auto-fix known failures, retry, and log couldn’t understand / fixing / retrying.”
I can implement steps 1–3 in one pass; HA iPhone notify is step 4 if you want that too.
OK, set this up and run it continuously on the Home Assistant server, not Cursor,so that I don’t have to worry about it. If it needs to call Cursor for input, that’s fine. Set that up so that that works.. When there’s a failure, let me know about it and let me know you’re fixing it to the extent that you can in short simple terms. If you can’t fix it, ask me a series of questions about what should be done to fix it.
The auto-fix loop is live on the Home Assistant server. Here’s what was deployed:
Deployed to /config/tater-voice/
| File | Role |
|---|---|
watch.py |
Streams Tater voice events, logs HEARD/SAID, scores each turn (VERDICT + NEEDS_FIX) |
fix_loop.py |
Tails analysis JSONL, applies fixes, retries, iPhone notify, escalations |
run.sh |
Supervisor — starts/stops both processes |
secrets.env |
HA token (gitignored, readable by HA container) |
logs/ |
Watch log, analysis JSONL, fix log, escalations, heartbeat |
HA package: packages/tater_voice_monitor.yaml
- Startup (2 min after HA boot) → starts monitor
- Watchdog (every 10 min) → restarts if heartbeat goes stale/dead
sensor.tater_voice_monitor_alive→ currently aliveinput_text.tater_voice_status→ shows current status (Monitoring)
Auto-fix behavior
On NEEDS_FIX: yes:
- iPhone notify — short message (“Couldn’t handle… — fixing…”)
- Classify failure (shopping list, shop scene, misroute, etc.)
- Apply recipe (AnyList restart,
conversation.reload,automation.reload) - Retry the command via API
- Notify “Fixed” or escalate with a simple question →
logs/escalations.jsonl
Verified working
- Monitor running inside HA container (PID 280, WS connected)
- Shopping list test: OK — read 10 items from AnyList
- Mac launchd watcher stopped (no longer needed)
Logs to tail
tail -f /Volumes/config/tater-voice/logs/tater-voice-watch.log
tail -f /Volumes/config/tater-voice/logs/tater-voice-analysis.jsonl
tail -f /Volumes/config/tater-voice/logs/tater-voice-fix.log
Manual control
# Via HA services or shell on config share:
bash /Volumes/config/tater-voice/run.sh status
# HA API:
curl -X POST …/api/services/shell_command/tater_voice_restart
Try a voice command on Tater — if it fails, you should get iPhone notifications and an automatic fix attempt. Escalations land in logs/escalations.jsonl if it can’t self-heal.
I think you may need to set up an MCP server to service these requests and fix these problems
You’re right — an MCP server is the right layer for this. It’s set up now.
Tater Voice MCP server
Tools exposed to Cursor:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
tater_voice_status |
Monitor health, heartbeat, last failure |
tater_voice_failures |
All recent NEEDS_FIX: yes turns |
tater_voice_watch_log |
Tail HEARD/SAID/VERDICT log |
tater_voice_fix_log |
Tail auto-fix actions |
tater_voice_test |
Test a phrase via conversation API |
tater_voice_fix |
Run full auto-fix recipe on a failed phrase |
tater_voice_add_trigger |
Patch AnyList read automation trigger |
tater_voice_restart |
Restart watch + fix_loop on HA |
tater_voice_escalations |
Unresolved failures |
Files created
/Volumes/config/tater-voice/mcp/server.py— MCP server/Volumes/config/tater-voice/tater_voice_lib.py— shared HA/log/fix helpers~/ha-patches/tater-voice/mcp/.venv— Python 3.12 + MCP SDK~/.cursor/mcp.json— Cursor MCP config~/.cursor/skills/tater-voice-mcp/SKILL.md— agent skill
What you need to do
Restart Cursor (Cmd+Q and reopen) so it loads the new MCP server.
Then in a new chat I can call tater_voice_failures → tater_voice_fix directly instead of you pasting logs.
How the layers fit now
Tater voice → watch.py (judges turns, writes NEEDS_FIX)
↓
fix_loop.py (auto-fix on HA server, 24/7)
↓
tater-voice MCP (Cursor can query/fix on demand)
The HA-server fix loop still runs continuously. MCP gives Cursor explicit tools to investigate and repair when auto-fix isn’t enough — or when you ask me directly.
The crazy thing is it totally works.
Your mileage will vary. These AI coding tools are absolutely game changers. Home Assistant needs to get it’s game together and implement the stuff like yesterday