Rudder is built for a thin client: by default the whole budget goes to speech-to-text and nothing of the
robot voice runs or even loads.
- Settings → Robot voice is marked "experimental". Ticking it first shows a warning (in the page, not a
browser dialog the desktop webview may block): it runs an extra voice engine, uses more CPU and ~150 MB
while it speaks, and can slow voice-to-text on a smaller laptop or shared dev server. "Turn on anyway"
switches to High performance mode; the settings show the current mode.
- Engine: POST /api/rudder/mode {robot} switches thin-client ↔ high performance, and refuses the robot when
the machine has under ~500 MB available (/proc/meminfo) — a voice tool must never crash someone's laptop.
/api/rudder/tts refuses in thin-client mode, so an old saved setting can't start the robot either. In
thin-client mode Piper would yield the CPU; in high performance mode it runs at normal priority.
- The voice list loads only when the robot voice is turned on; a robot voice left on re-enters high
performance mode on the next visit (the engine re-checks memory).
- Verified on the engine: starts thin-client; speaking refused (409); on → high-performance; speaks; off →
thin-client; speaking refused again.
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