Rudder speaks and fills the box sentence by sentence; Robot voice in a Settings menu, male by default

- Engine: start the speech server with --asr.endpointing.enable=true. End-of-sentence detection is OFF in
  NeMo-Speech.cpp by default, and session.update's endpointing_ms only sets the pause length, so every
  recording came back as ONE final when Stop was pressed (measured: a minute of speech → one 437-character
  final; the robot voice then spoke a minute late). Now each sentence is final ~1 s after it ends: in a
  Firefox run the robot spoke the first sentence 13 s before Stop.
- Settings menu in the full layout too (⚙, closed by default, works at phone width): Language, Microphone
  and Robot voice live in it; Record and the level meter stay visible.
- Robot voice: exactly ten presets, five male then five female, chosen by measured pitch (men ~92–108 Hz,
  women ~206–237 Hz); Male voice 1 is the default. The browser's own voices appear only as a fallback when
  the offline voices are missing, at most ten. A blocked or failed playback is shown instead of silence.

backend/rudder-engine/main.go

@@ -224,7 +224,12 @@ func (e *engine) startNemo() {
 	// program or web page that finds its port.
 	cmd := exec.Command(e.cfg.NemoBin, "serve",
 		"--host", "127.0.0.1", "--port", e.cfg.NemoPort,
-		"--asr-model", e.cfg.Model, "--device", "cpu", "--no-ui", "--api-key", e.nemoKey)
+		"--asr-model", e.cfg.Model, "--device", "cpu", "--no-ui",
+		// End-of-sentence detection is OFF in the server by default (asr.endpointing.enable: false), and
+		// session.update's endpointing_ms only sets the pause length. Off, every recording came back as ONE
+		// final when Stop was pressed (measured 2026-09-28: a minute of speech → one 437-character final), so
+		// nothing reached the box or the robot voice sentence by sentence.
+		"--asr.endpointing.enable=true", "--api-key", e.nemoKey)
 	cmd.SysProcAttr = childAttr() // dies with us
 	out, _ := cmd.StdoutPipe()
 	cmd.Stderr = cmd.Stdout

plugin-designs/rudder-voice/rudder-voice.vue

@@ -88,8 +88,22 @@ const robotOn = ref(saved.robotOn === true)
 const robotVoice = ref(typeof saved.robotVoice === 'string' ? saved.robotVoice : '')
 const robotOptions = ref([])   // [{ value, label }]
 const robotError = ref('')
-// A handful of LibriTTS-R speakers as distinct presets — 904 is too many to list.
-const PIPER_SPEAKERS = [0, 12, 40, 118, 262, 500]
+// A handful of LibriTTS-R speakers as presets — 904 is too many to list, and the voice file does not say
+// which are men. MEASURED 2026-09-28: the same sentence synthesised for 61 speakers, median pitch per
+// speaker (men ~85–150 Hz, women ~170–260 Hz); the default was speaker 0, a woman; a man was asked for.
+// Exactly five of each, no more ("5 male, 5 female, don't overdo it"); the first is the default.
+const PIPER_SPEAKERS = [
+  { n: 90, label: 'Male voice 1' },    // 92 Hz
+  { n: 435, label: 'Male voice 2' },   // 96 Hz
+  { n: 870, label: 'Male voice 3' },   // 97 Hz
+  { n: 735, label: 'Male voice 4' },   // 99 Hz
+  { n: 375, label: 'Male voice 5' },   // 108 Hz
+  { n: 525, label: 'Female voice 1' }, // 206 Hz
+  { n: 450, label: 'Female voice 2' }, // 208 Hz
+  { n: 15, label: 'Female voice 3' },  // 216 Hz
+  { n: 285, label: 'Female voice 4' }, // 223 Hz
+  { n: 315, label: 'Female voice 5' }, // 237 Hz
+]
 
 async function loadRobotVoices() {
   const opts = []
@@ -98,14 +112,16 @@ async function loadRobotVoices() {
     const r = await (await fetch(apiBase.value + '/tts/voices')).json()
     if (r.available) {
       for (const v of r.voices) {
-        const speakers = v.speakers > 1 ? PIPER_SPEAKERS.filter((n) => n < v.speakers) : [0]
-        speakers.forEach((n, i) => opts.push({ value: `piper:${v.id}:${n}`, label: `Offline voice ${String.fromCharCode(65 + i)} · ${v.label}` }))
+        const speakers = v.speakers > 1 ? PIPER_SPEAKERS.filter((x) => x.n < v.speakers) : [{ n: 0, label: 'Voice' }]
+        for (const x of speakers) opts.push({ value: `piper:${v.id}:${x.n}`, label: `${x.label} · offline` })
       }
     } else if (r.error) robotError.value = r.error
   } catch { /* engine offline: system voices may still work */ }
+  // System voices are a FALLBACK only (the offline voices not installed), at most ten: Firefox on Linux alone
+  // lists dozens of on-device eSpeak voices, which would bury the ten real choices.
   const synth = typeof window !== 'undefined' && window.speechSynthesis
-  if (synth) {
-    for (const v of synth.getVoices().filter((x) => x.localService)) opts.push({ value: 'system:' + v.voiceURI, label: 'System voice · ' + v.name })
+  if (synth && !opts.length) {
+    for (const v of synth.getVoices().filter((x) => x.localService).slice(0, 10)) opts.push({ value: 'system:' + v.voiceURI, label: 'System voice · ' + v.name })
   }
   robotOptions.value = opts
   if (!opts.some((o) => o.value === robotVoice.value)) robotVoice.value = opts[0] ? opts[0].value : ''
@@ -125,7 +141,7 @@ async function drainSpeech() {
   saying = true
   post('/duck', { on: true }).catch(() => {})
   while (sayQueue.length) {
-    try { await speakOne(sayQueue.shift()) } catch (err) { robotError.value = String(err.message || err) }
+    try { await speakOne(sayQueue.shift()); robotError.value = '' } catch (err) { robotError.value = String(err.message || err) }
   }
   await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 250))   // let the room's echo die down
   post('/duck', { on: false }).catch(() => {})
@@ -142,7 +158,15 @@ async function speakOne(text) {
     if (!r.ok) throw new Error((await r.json().catch(() => ({}))).error || 'The robot voice failed')
     const url = URL.createObjectURL(await r.blob())
     try {
-      await new Promise((done) => { const a = new Audio(url); a.onended = a.onerror = () => done(); a.play().catch(() => done()) })
+      await new Promise((done, fail) => {
+        const a = new Audio(url)
+        a.onended = () => done()
+        a.onerror = () => fail(new Error('The robot voice could not be played'))
+        // A browser can refuse to play sound until you have clicked in the page; say so instead of staying silent.
+        a.play().catch((err) => fail(new Error(err && err.name === 'NotAllowedError'
+          ? 'The browser blocked the robot voice — click anywhere in Rudder once, then it can speak'
+          : 'The robot voice could not be played: ' + ((err && err.message) || err))))
+      })
     } finally { URL.revokeObjectURL(url) }
   } else if (v.startsWith('system:') && window.speechSynthesis) {
     const voice = window.speechSynthesis.getVoices().find((x) => x.voiceURI === v.slice(7) && x.localService)
@@ -718,7 +742,8 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
           <p class="sub">Voice-to-text for vibe coders · private · runs on this computer · no internet</p>
         </div>
       </div>
-      <button class="info-btn" :aria-expanded="showInfo" title="What is Rudder?" aria-label="What is Rudder?" @click="showInfo = !showInfo">ⓘ</button>
+      <button class="info-btn" :aria-expanded="showSettings" title="Settings" aria-label="Settings" @click="showSettings = !showSettings">⚙</button>
+      <button class="info-btn gap0" :aria-expanded="showInfo" title="What is Rudder?" aria-label="What is Rudder?" @click="showInfo = !showInfo">ⓘ</button>
       <div class="status" :data-state="engine" role="status">
         <span class="dot" aria-hidden="true"></span>{{ statusText }}
       </div>
@@ -758,7 +783,7 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
         {{ recording ? 'Stop' : 'Record' }}
       </button>
       <div class="meter" aria-hidden="true"><div class="fill" :style="{ width: (level * 100).toFixed(0) + '%' }"></div></div>
-      <label class="lang">
+      <label v-if="showSettings" class="lang">
         <span>Language</span>
         <select v-model="language" :disabled="recording" @change="save">
           <option v-for="[code, name] in LANGUAGES" :key="code" :value="code">{{ name }}</option>
@@ -766,7 +791,7 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
       </label>
     </section>
 
-    <section v-if="(!compact || showSettings) && audioMode !== 'browser'" class="mics">
+    <section v-if="showSettings && audioMode !== 'browser'" class="mics">
       <label class="mic-pick">
         <span>Microphone</span>
         <select v-model="device" :disabled="recording || testing" @change="save(); testResult = null">
@@ -779,7 +804,7 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
       </button>
       <button class="small ghost" title="Look for microphones again" aria-label="Look for microphones again" :disabled="recording" @click="refreshDevices">↻</button>
     </section>
-    <section v-if="!compact || showSettings" class="robot">
+    <section v-if="showSettings" class="robot">
       <label class="robot-on">
         <input v-model="robotOn" type="checkbox" @change="toggleRobot" />
         <span><b>Robot voice</b> — speaks what you say in a synthetic voice, so you can record a video without your real voice</span>
@@ -863,6 +888,7 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
 
 <style>
 .robot { display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 6px; }
+.info-btn.gap0 { margin-left: 0; }
 .robot-on { display: flex; align-items: flex-start; gap: 8px; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 1.4; cursor: pointer; }
 .robot-on input { margin-top: 3px; accent-color: var(--accent); }
 .robot select { align-self: flex-start; max-width: 100%; }