# I built a local AI deck music assistant on a Mac mini > Source: > Published: 2026-06-24 13:31:10+00:00 I wanted one-tap deck music from my phone, watch, or laptop — powered by a local LLM on a Mac mini. So I built **Robot**, a home-lab music assistant that combines **Open WebUI + Ollama + Flask + AppleScript + Airfoil + Chrome + Apple Shortcuts**. Now I can say or tap **“Play Deck Music”** and Robot: - Connects my **Backyard** speakers in Airfoil - Opens my **Deck Music** YouTube playlist in Chrome - Clicks YouTube’s **Play all** button via injected JavaScript - Starts music outside - Lets me pause, skip, or shut everything off from my phone, watch, or Open WebUI Robot currently supports: **Play Deck Music****Play/Pause Music****Next Track****Turn on Backyard speakers****Turn on Backyard + Living Room speakers****Turn off Backyard****Turn off all speakers****List Airfoil speakers** The fun part is that there are **multiple ways to control the same system**: **Open WebUI chat**(`"Play deck music"` )**Apple Shortcuts** on iPhone / Apple Watch**Raycast** shortcut to open Robot from Mac- direct HTTP calls to Flask for testing/debugging At a high level, the system looks like this: ``` Apple Shortcut / Open WebUI / Raycast ↓ Flask API ↓ shell scripts + AppleScript ↓ Airfoil + Chrome + YouTube ↓ Backyard / Living Room / Deck speakers ``` **Open WebUI** runs on the Mac mini and exposes tool calls like`play_deck_music()` - those tool calls hit a **Flask API** running on port`5055` - Flask routes trigger **shell scripts** - shell scripts use **AppleScript** to control**Airfoil** and**Google Chrome** - Chrome opens a YouTube playlist and executes JavaScript to click **Play all** - Airfoil handles routing the audio to the correct speakers The current backyard setup includes: **Mac mini (“Robot”)**— local AI + automation brain** Klipsch outdoor speakers**mounted under the eaves** Airfoil**for audio routing** Google Chrome**as the playback source** Deck box**housing parts of the outdoor audio setup** Apple Shortcuts**on iPhone / Apple Watch for quick controls Inside the deck box I’ve got a collection of audio gear, cabling, power, and ventilation. It’s not a polished product build — it’s a home-lab / backyard system that became genuinely useful. One design choice I like is that Robot does **not** try to become a DJ. I still curate the playlist myself from my phone. Robot’s job is the activity layer: - route the right speakers - open the right playlist - start playback - pause / skip / shut it all down That keeps the system simple and makes it feel more reliable. Examples of commands I can give Robot: `"Play deck music"` `"Pause the music"` `"Skip this song"` `"Turn on the backyard and living room"` `"Turn everything off"` I currently have shortcuts like: - 🎵 **Play Deck Music** - ⏯ **Play/Pause Music** - ⏭ **Next Track** - 🔇 **All Off** - 🤖 **Robot**(opens Open WebUI) I also have a Raycast command that opens Robot instantly from my Mac. One subtle but important lesson was **where Flask is listening**. Originally I had Flask running like this: ``` app.run(host="127.0.0.1", port=5055) ``` That worked from the Mac mini itself and from Open WebUI running in Docker, but **did not work from iPhone Safari / Apple Shortcuts**. Changing to: ``` app.run(host="0.0.0.0", port=5055) ``` allowed devices on my LAN to reach the API at: ``` http://192.168.x.x:5055 ``` That was the key to getting Apple Shortcuts working. Depending on where the request originates: - **Robot itself**`http://127.0.0.1:5055` - **Open WebUI container**`http://host.docker.internal:5055` - **iPhone / Apple Shortcuts / other LAN devices**`http://192.168.x.x:5055` That ended up being one of the most useful “glue code” lessons in the project. Some actions — especially **Play Deck Music** — are slow by nature: - turn on Airfoil speakers - open Chrome - load the playlist - click **Play all** - wait for music to start For Apple Shortcuts, it’s better if those endpoints return immediately and let the work continue in the background. In practice, that means using `subprocess.Popen()` for long-running routes rather than blocking on `subprocess.run()` . For example, the `play_pause` route looks like this: ``` python @app.route("/music/play_pause", methods=["POST"]) def play_pause(): subprocess.Popen( [SCRIPTS["play_pause_music"]], stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL ) return jsonify({ "action": "play_pause_music", "status": "started" }) ``` Plenty. - This is very much a **Mac mini + scripts + AppleScript + local AI** project, not a polished product - YouTube automation is inherently a little brittle - local models sometimes need a nudge to use the tool instead of talking about the tool - the deck box contains a bunch of real-world compromise and “figure it out as you go” engineering But that’s also why I like it. It’s not pretending to be a smart home platform — it’s a useful, very personal home-lab system. A few ideas I want to explore next: - volume up / volume down - better “what’s currently playing?” support - more robust multi-zone presets - tighter Apple Watch controls - physical buttons outside - better prompting / tool descriptions so the local model chooses the right tool more reliably Because I wanted a computer in my house that does something actually useful. Not “summarize the internet.” Not “answer generic questions.” Just: turn on the deck music and make the backyard feel alive And now it does. Example layout: ``` robot-actions/ ├── airfoil/ │ ├── backyard-chrome-on.sh │ ├── backyard-living-room-on.sh │ ├── backyard-off.sh │ ├── all-off.sh │ ├── play-deck-music.sh │ ├── play-pause-music.sh │ └── next-track.sh ├── server/ │ └── airfoil_server.py └── README-assets/ ├── deck-wide.jpg └── deck-box-inside.jpg ``` If you want to build something similar, I’d recommend: - keep your playlist URL in an environment variable or config file - separate **fast controls**(Shortcuts) from** flexible controls**(chat) - make the AI control **activities**, not everything - expect a bit of glue work between networking, browser automation, and audio routing If you’re a home-lab person, that’s half the fun anyway.