Crash-log stack trace (tui_gateway_crash.log) from the user's session
pinned the regression: SIGPIPE arrived while main thread was blocked on
for-raw-in-sys.stdin — i.e., a background thread (debug print to stderr,
most likely from HERMES_VOICE_DEBUG=1) wrote to a pipe whose buffer the
TUI hadn't drained yet, and SIG_DFL promptly killed the process.
Two fixes that together restore CLI parity:
- entry.py: SIGPIPE → SIG_IGN instead of the _log_signal handler that
then exited. With SIG_IGN, Python raises BrokenPipeError on the
offending write, which write_json already handles with a clean exit
via _log_exit. SIGTERM / SIGHUP still route through _log_signal so
real termination signals remain diagnosable.
- hermes_cli/voice.py:_debug: wrap the stderr print in a BrokenPipeError
/ OSError try/except. This runs from daemon threads (silence callback,
TTS playback, beep), so a broken stderr must not escape and ride up
into the main event loop.
Verified by spawning the gateway subprocess locally:
voice.toggle status → 200 OK, process stays alive, clean exit on
stdin close logs "reason=stdin EOF" instead of a silent reap.
TTS feedback loop (hermes_cli/voice.py)
The VAD loop kept the microphone live while speak_text played the
agent's reply over the speakers, so the reply itself was picked up,
transcribed, and submitted — the agent then replied to its own echo
("Ha, looks like we're in a loop").
Ported cli.py:_voice_tts_done synchronisation:
- _tts_playing: threading.Event (initially set = "not playing").
- speak_text cancels the active recorder before opening the speakers,
clears _tts_playing, and on exit waits 300 ms before re-starting the
recorder — long enough for the OS audio device to settle so afplay
and sounddevice don't race for it.
- _continuous_on_silence now waits on _tts_playing (up to 60 s) before
re-arming the mic with another 300 ms gap, mirroring
cli.py:10619-10621. If the user flips voice off during the wait the
loop exits cleanly instead of fighting for the device.
Without both halves the loop races: if the silence callback fires
before TTS starts it re-arms immediately; if TTS is already playing
the pause-and-resume path catches it.
Red REC badge (ui-tui appChrome + useMainApp)
Classic CLI (cli.py:_get_voice_status_fragments) renders "● REC" in
red and "◉ STT" in amber. TUI was showing a dim "REC" with no dot,
making it hard to spot at a glance. voiceLabel now emits the same
glyphs and appChrome colours them via t.color.error / t.color.warn,
falling back to dim for the idle label.
Three issues surfaced during end-to-end testing of the CLI-parity voice
loop and are fixed together because they all blocked "speak → agent
responds → TTS reads it back" from working at all:
1. Wrong result key (hermes_cli/voice.py)
transcribe_recording() returns {"success": bool, "transcript": str},
matching cli.py:_voice_stop_and_transcribe. The wrapper was reading
result.get("text"), which is None, so every successful Groq / local
STT response was thrown away and the 3-strikes halt fired after
three silent-looking cycles. Fixed by reading "transcript" and also
honouring "success" like the CLI does. Updated the loop simulation
tests to return the correct shape.
2. TTS speak-back was missing (tui_gateway/server.py + hermes_cli/voice.py)
The TUI had a voice.toggle "tts" subcommand but nothing downstream
actually read the flag — agent replies never spoke. Mirrored
cli.py:8747-8754's dispatch: on message.complete with status ==
"complete", if _voice_tts_enabled() is true, spawn a daemon thread
running speak_text(response). Rewrote speak_text as a full port of
cli.py:_voice_speak_response — same markdown-strip regex pipeline
(code blocks, links, bold/italic, inline code, headers, list bullets,
horizontal rules, excessive newlines), same 4000-char cap, same
explicit mp3 output path, same MP3-over-OGG playback choice (afplay
misbehaves on OGG), same cleanup of both extensions. Keeps TUI TTS
audible output byte-for-byte identical to the classic CLI.
3. Auto-submit swallowed on non-empty composer (createGatewayEventHandler.ts)
The voice.transcript handler branched on prev input via a setInput
updater and fired submitRef.current inside the updater when prev was
empty. React strict mode double-invokes state updaters, which would
queue the submit twice; and when the composer had any content the
transcript was merely appended — the agent never saw it. CLI
_pending_input.put(transcript) unconditionally feeds the transcript
as the next turn, so match that: always clear the composer and
setTimeout(() => submitRef.current(text), 0) outside any updater.
Side effect can't run twice this way, and a half-typed draft on the
rare occasion is a fair trade vs. silently dropping the turn.
Also added peak_rms to the rec.stop debug line so "recording too quiet"
is diagnosable at a glance when HERMES_VOICE_DEBUG=1.
The TUI had drifted from the CLI's voice model in two ways:
- /voice on was lighting up the microphone immediately and Ctrl+B was
interpreted as a mode toggle. The CLI separates the two: /voice on
just flips the umbrella bit, recording only starts once the user
presses Ctrl+B, which also sets _voice_continuous so the VAD loop
auto-restarts until the user presses Ctrl+B again or three silent
cycles pass.
- /voice tts was missing entirely, so users couldn't turn agent reply
speech on/off from inside the TUI.
This commit brings the TUI to parity.
Python
- hermes_cli/voice.py: continuous-mode API (start_continuous,
stop_continuous, is_continuous_active) layered on the existing PTT
wrappers. The silence callback transcribes, fires on_transcript,
tracks consecutive no-speech cycles, and auto-restarts — mirroring
cli.py:_voice_stop_and_transcribe + _restart_recording.
- tui_gateway/server.py:
- voice.toggle now supports on / off / tts / status. The umbrella
bit lives in HERMES_VOICE + display.voice_enabled; tts lives in
HERMES_VOICE_TTS + display.voice_tts. /voice off also tears down
any active continuous loop so a toggle-off really releases the
microphone.
- voice.record start/stop now drives start_continuous/stop_continuous.
start is refused with a clear error when the mode is off, matching
cli.py:handle_voice_record's early return on `not _voice_mode`.
- New voice.transcript / voice.status events emit through
_voice_emit (remembers the sid that last enabled the mode so
events land in the right session).
TypeScript
- gatewayTypes.ts: voice.status + voice.transcript event
discriminants; VoiceToggleResponse gains tts; VoiceRecordResponse
gains status for the new "started/stopped" responses.
- interfaces.ts: GatewayEventHandlerContext gains composer.setInput +
submission.submitRef + voice.{setRecording, setProcessing,
setVoiceEnabled}; InputHandlerContext.voice gains enabled +
setVoiceEnabled for the mode-aware Ctrl+B handler.
- createGatewayEventHandler.ts: voice.status drives REC/STT badges;
voice.transcript auto-submits when the composer is empty (CLI
_pending_input.put parity) and appends when a draft is in flight.
no_speech_limit flips voice off + sys line.
- useInputHandlers.ts: Ctrl+B now calls voice.record (start/stop),
not voice.toggle, and nudges the user with a sys line when the
mode is off instead of silently flipping it on.
- useMainApp.ts: wires the new event-handler context fields.
- slash/commands/session.ts: /voice handles on / off / tts / status
with CLI-matching output ("voice: mode on · tts off").
Backward compat preserved for voice.record (was always PTT shape;
gateway still honours start/stop with mode-gating added).
tui_gateway/server.py:3486/3491/3509 imports start_recording,
stop_and_transcribe, and speak_text from hermes_cli.voice, but the
module never existed (not in git history — never shipped, never
deleted). Every voice.record / voice.tts RPC call hit the ImportError
branch and the TUI surfaced it as "voice module not available — install
audio dependencies" even on boxes with sounddevice / faster-whisper /
numpy installed.
Adds a thin wrapper on top of tools.voice_mode (recording +
transcription) and tools.tts_tool (text-to-speech):
- start_recording() — idempotent; stores the active AudioRecorder in a
module-global guarded by a Lock so repeat Ctrl+B presses don't fight
over the mic.
- stop_and_transcribe() — returns None for no-op / no-speech /
Whisper-hallucination cases so the TUI's existing "no speech detected"
path keeps working unchanged.
- speak_text(text) — lazily imports tts_tool (optional provider SDKs
stay unloaded until the first /voice tts call), parses the tool's
JSON result, and plays the audio via play_audio_file.
Paired with the Ctrl+B keybinding fix in the prior commit, the TUI
voice pipeline now works end-to-end for the first time.
