diff --git a/plugin-designs/rudder-voice/rudder-voice.vue b/plugin-designs/rudder-voice/rudder-voice.vue
index 540d1e0dc..7f2bfb7b3 100644
--- a/plugin-designs/rudder-voice/rudder-voice.vue
+++ b/plugin-designs/rudder-voice/rudder-voice.vue
@@ -28,6 +28,16 @@ const cfg = computed(() => {
   try { return props.profileConfig ? JSON.parse(props.profileConfig) : {} } catch { return {} }
 })
 const apiBase = computed(() => (cfg.value.apiBase || '/api/rudder').replace(/\/$/, ''))
+// The engine records THIS computer's microphone, so it can only ever run beside the reader: on a laptop's
+// dev server, or as the desktop app's sidecar. Served from anywhere else (a cloud dev server), an absent
+// engine is the expected state, not a failure, and the notice says where Rudder does work.
+const LOOPBACK = /^(localhost|127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|\[?::1\]?|tauri\.localhost)$/
+const onOwnComputer = computed(() => {
+  try {
+    if (/^https?:\/\//.test(apiBase.value)) return LOOPBACK.test(new URL(apiBase.value).hostname)
+    return typeof location === 'undefined' || location.protocol === 'tauri:' || LOOPBACK.test(location.hostname)
+  } catch { return true }
+})
 
 const LANGUAGES = [
   ['en-US', 'English (US)'], ['en-GB', 'English (UK)'], ['es-US', 'Spanish (US)'], ['es-ES', 'Spanish (Spain)'],
@@ -463,7 +473,7 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
   starting: 'Loading speech model… (about 20 s the first time)',
   ready: recording.value ? 'Listening' : 'Ready',
   error: 'Engine error',
-  offline: 'Engine offline',
+  offline: onOwnComputer.value ? 'Engine offline' : 'Runs on your computer',
 }[engine.value] || engine.value))
 
 </script>
@@ -561,6 +571,10 @@ const statusText = computed(() => ({
     <p v-if="offCards.length" class="hint">Also available but switched off in Sound settings: {{ offCards.join(', ') }}. Turn it on there to use it here.</p>
 
     <p v-if="notice" class="notice" :data-kind="noticeKind">{{ notice }}</p>
+    <p v-else-if="engine === 'offline' && !onOwnComputer" class="notice" data-kind="warn">
+      Voice to text runs on your own computer, not on this server: it listens to the microphone of the machine
+      the engine runs on. Open the Plugin Studio on your computer (<code>bun run dev</code>) or use the Rudder desktop app.
+    </p>
     <p v-else-if="engine === 'offline'" class="notice" data-kind="warn">
       The local speech engine isn't reachable at <code>{{ apiBase }}</code>. In the Plugin Studio it starts with
       <code>bun run dev</code> once built: <code>cd backend/rudder-engine &amp;&amp; go build -o ../bin/rudder-engine .</code>