What to expect in early access

Charyl is pre-launch, in invited early access. That’s not a marketing pose — it means specific things about how you reach her today, what might still change, and what we’re honest about not having built yet. This guide is the plain version of all of it.

How you join

There’s no checkout, and no account you can just create. The path in is a request: fill in the form at Request Early Access — your name, an email, and a note about what you’re hoping to set up — and it goes into a queue we review by hand. We don’t promise a timeline, and, deliberately, the confirmation you see looks the same whether your request is brand new, already pending, or something we’ve already looked at. That’s so the confirmation itself never reveals anything about anyone else’s request.

If your request is approved, you’ll get an email with a setup link — declined requests don’t get an automatic reply. From there, setup itself is the same wizard described in The first-run wizard, step by step, whichever of the paths below you’re on.

Three ways to get her, today

The appliance

A small box, pre-imaged, meant to be the path most homes take. It’s in early access — we haven’t published a model name or a price. early access
Self-hosting

Free, and real today, on a Linux server you already keep on. See Self-host Charyl on your own Linux server. shipped
Through a builder

A pilot program — we’re opening it to a small number of builders rather than launching broadly. Charyl comes preloaded in the home at closing. See How the builder program works. early access

A Windows installer that needs no Docker at all is designed but not built yet — see Is there a Windows installer?

The mobile app, today

iOS is live on TestFlight for our invited testers. Android is installed directly by our team for the small number of people testing it. Neither app has a public store listing yet, so if you’re not part of that early cohort, it isn’t something you can go download today. early access

What’s already solid

Early access doesn’t mean unfinished everywhere. Talking with Charyl about your home, tracking warranties and maintenance, controlling lights and switches with a confirmation tap, the floor-plan editor, Home Assistant integration — all of that is shipped, not a preview. Where something is genuinely newer or less proven, this site says so with an early access label rather than presenting everything with the same confidence.

If you’re a builder

The same framing applies to the builder program: we’re opening it to a small number of builders rather than launching broadly. If you’re exploring bringing Charyl into homes you build, How the builder program works is the honest, current picture, including what’s still a hands-on process rather than software.

No surprises, by design

Every FAQ and guide on this site carries a status label and the date it was last checked — shipped, early access, planned, or deferred. If something changes, the label changes with it, rather than the copy quietly drifting out of date. That’s as true of this page as any other.

What “may evolve” actually covers

Every page on this site carries the same footer line: an early-access product, features may evolve. In practice, that covers a few concrete things worth knowing going in:

Pricing hasn’t been announced. Nothing is charged today.
The exact appliance hardware isn’t finalized yet.
Some things marked early access are built and merged, but haven’t yet been proven on real hardware end to end — we label those clearly rather than presenting them as fully proven.
A handful of things you might expect are genuinely not built yet — a Windows installer, owning more than one home under one account, a couple of others. We say so plainly wherever they come up, rather than staying quiet about the gap.

What’s next

If you’re technical and already have a Linux machine, the fastest way to actually use Charyl today is to self-host her. Otherwise, request early access and we’ll be in touch as the appliance and Charyl Cloud paths open to more homes.