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Mark Parker edited this page Jun 13, 2026 · 5 revisions

With version 0.12.0, a long requested capability has been added to allow a simple method to be able to add your own wake word, wake sound and alarm sounds. Prior to v0.12.0, this was a complicated process involving ADB use and only supported OpenWakeWord ONNX files.

Adding Custom Files

In your Home Assistant config directory (once you have updated to v0.12.0 or higher and rebooted), you will see a vaca directory and within that a custom directory with sub dirs for the custom files supported.

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In order to use a custom file, you just need to drop it into the correct directory and each of your VACA devices will load all custom files on start. You can also use the Quick Actions setting option to access the Custom Files manager and sync at any time.

Once files have been downloaded to your device, you should be able to select them in the relevant selector in Home Assistant.

Important

You must store the correct files in the correct directory. MicroWakeWord you must store the tflite and json files. OpenWakeWord will accept an onnx file or a OWW tflite file (do not try to use MicroWakeWord tflite files with OpenWakeWord as they will not work and you must have the correct engine for the OpenWakeWord file type selected for it to show in the available wake words). Alarm and wake sounds must be wav or mp3 files.

Managing Custom Files

There is a screen on the VACA device to be able to see and manage the local custom files. If you are on the Waiting connection screen, select the cog button, from the webview screen use the QuickAction menu and select settings. Select Manage Custom Files option.

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From here you can delete individual files, hold to select multiple files for deletion or click the sync button in the top right corner to redownload all available files.

Notes about custom files

  • Being able to use your own wake words is one of the benfits over the likes of Alexa or Google Home. However, custom wake words provided on the various community sites or created by yourself can vary in quality a lot and can be trained with particular accents and therefore work well for some but not others. If you are having issues, ensure that you test with one of the built in ones to ensure it is not your selected wake word model tha is a fault.
  • Wake word sound files should be short. While this sound is playing (to improve command detection by STT engines) the app is not listening. If you have long files or files with amounts of silence at the end, you may get frustrated at the pause needed before you can issue a command.

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