Artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face has launched a dedicated app marketplace for its Reachy Mini desktop robot, opening robotics development to a much wider audience beyond engineers and programmers.
The new Reachy Mini App Store arrives less than a year after the company introduced the low-cost robot in July 2025 following its acquisition of robotics startup Pollen Robotics. Unlike traditional robotics systems that often require technical expertise and expensive hardware, Reachy Mini was designed as a small desktop robot that ordinary users can experiment with at home or in workplaces.
The store already contains more than 200 applications created by community members. Owners of the robot can install these apps without paying additional fees. At present, developers cannot monetize their creations, although Hugging Face says the system may support paid apps later because the platform is built on its existing “Spaces” infrastructure for hosting AI applications.
According to Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue, the company’s main objective is to remove the technical barrier that has historically made robotics inaccessible to most people. He explained that users without coding or engineering experience are now building working robot applications in less than an hour using AI-powered tools.
A major obstacle in robotics has long been the shortage of large public datasets. While large language models improved rapidly using enormous collections of publicly available software code from platforms such as [GitHub], robotics-specific programming data remains far more limited. This has traditionally made it difficult for AI systems to understand how physical machines operate or interact with hardware components.
To address this problem, Hugging Face developed a system that allows users to describe robot behaviors in normal language instead of writing complex code manually. For example, a user can simply instruct the robot to wave when greeted. An AI agent then generates the necessary code, checks whether it works within the robot’s hardware limitations, and prepares the application automatically.
The company says the platform supports multiple AI models rather than relying on a single provider. Developers can use Hugging Face’s own “ML Intern” tool or connect external models including GPT-5.5, Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini Live, Mini Max GM5, Kimmy 2.6, and Deep Sig V4 Pro. Official conversation-based apps currently use OpenAI Realtime and Gemini Live for real-time interaction.
Hugging Face argues that these higher-level software abstractions substantially reduce the amount of time needed to build robotics applications. Tasks that previously required weeks of integration work can now reportedly be completed within minutes.
The Reachy Mini itself is positioned as an affordable alternative to commercial robotics platforms. The company noted that robots from firms such as Boston Dynamics can cost tens of thousands of dollars, while some competing Chinese systems begin at more than $1,900.
Reachy Mini is available in two versions. The Reachy Mini Lite costs $299 plus shipping and connects to an external computer through USB for processing. The wireless edition costs $449 plus shipping and includes built-in computing hardware using a Raspberry Pi CM4 alongside Wi-Fi support.
Delangue said approximately 10,000 units have already been sold, including 3,000 purchases within the past two weeks alone. Hugging Face expects another 1,000 robots to ship within the next month.
People who do not own the robot can still experiment with the platform through a browser-based simulator that recreates the robot in a virtual 3D environment. Users can also duplicate existing apps through a feature known as “forking” and then modify them using AI instructions, such as changing a robot’s responses into another language.
The App Store forms part of Hugging Face’s broader “Le Robot” initiative launched in 2024 to publish open-source robotics code, tutorials, and hardware resources online. Unlike developer-focused repositories, the Reachy Mini App Store was designed specifically for non-technical users and hobbyists.
More than 150 creators have already contributed applications to the store, many without previous robotics experience. One example highlighted by the company involved 78-year-old retired marketing executive Joel Cohen, who has no technical training and is colorblind. Despite taking two weeks to assemble his Reachy Mini Lite, a process that normally requires only a few hours, Cohen used AI tools to create a robot assistant for CEO discussion groups held over Zoom. The system greets participants by name, verifies claims during discussions, summarizes conversations, and challenges shallow responses in real time.
Other applications developed by the community include a chess-playing robot that jokes about user mistakes, a productivity assistant that detects phone usage, a language-learning companion that corrects pronunciation, and a Formula 1 race commentator that narrates races live.
Delangue also described creating his own office receptionist application in under two hours. The system uses facial recognition to identify visitors, greet them, ask whom they are meeting, and automatically send notifications to employees.
According to Delangue, developing robotics software previously required deep specialization and months of work for people outside the robotics industry. Hugging Face believes combining low-cost hardware with AI agents capable of generating code could reshape how ordinary users interact with robots.
The company says its longer-term goal is to make robotics resemble the personal computer and smartphone markets, where hardware becomes widely available and software creation is no longer restricted to technical specialists.
