Second, deeper pass over tools/gateway/hermes_cli plus first pass over
the trees wave 1 missed (acp, acp_adapter, skills, computer_use, docker,
dashboard, conformance, monitoring, secret_sources, hermes_state,
providers). Same rubric as wave 1 (AGENTS.md test policy); security,
alternation/caching invariants, issue-number regressions, and E2E kept.
Real test-quality fixes found and rooted out along the way:
- tests/tools/test_command_guards.py made real auxiliary-LLM HTTPS calls
(DEFAULT_CONFIG smart-approval leaked in) — pinned approval
mode=manual via autouse fixture: 17.4s → 0.4s.
- test_model_switch_custom_providers.py / test_user_providers_model_switch.py
silently probed live provider catalogs (~2s/test) — stubbed
cached_provider_model_ids/provider_model_ids/fetch_api_models.
- test_telegram_noise_filter.py: 15-platform copy-paste matrix over
shared gateway.run logic → 3 representative platforms (55s → 3.9s).
- test_gateway_shutdown.py: stop()'s 5s interrupt-deadline loop spun on
MagicMock agents — interrupt.side_effect now clears _running_agents
(22s → 1.0s).
- test_gateway_inactivity_timeout.py poll-harness timings shrunk 3-5x
(24s → 1.1s); test_mcp_stability.py backoff/SIGTERM-grace sleeps
patched (15.4s → 2.5s); test_async_delegation.py negative-drain wait
5s → 0.5s.
- test_telegram_init_deadline.py: loop-block margin restored to 1.0s
with rationale comment — the watchdog-dump assertion needs the loop
blocked well past deadline+grace under parallel load (flaked once in
the 40-worker verification run at a 0.2s margin).
Verification: full hermetic suite via scripts/run_tests.sh —
2,438 files, 21,718 tests passed, 0 failed, 293.9s wall.
Suite totals vs original baseline: 46,820 → 19,757 test functions
(−57.8%), wall 583.5s → 293.9s (−50%), subprocess CPU 13,564s → 11,623s.
Follow-ups for the salvaged wave: the auto-detect legacy-error test now
stubs the split validators, the unknown-command-provider test expects
the new provider_not_registered error, and _transcribe_local tolerates
a null stt.local config section again.
Add an opt-in Python plugin surface for speech-to-text backends,
mirroring the TTS hook pattern. New backends (OpenRouter, SenseAudio,
Gemini-STT, custom proprietary engines) can be implemented as plugins
without modifying tools/transcription_tools.py.
Built-ins always win
--------------------
The 6 built-in STT providers (local/faster-whisper, local_command,
groq, openai, mistral, xai) keep their native handlers. Plugins
attempting to register under a built-in name are rejected at
registration time with a warning and re-checked defensively at
dispatch.
Resolution order
----------------
1. stt.provider matches a built-in → built-in dispatch (unchanged)
2. stt.provider matches a registered plugin →
a. if plugin.is_available() returns False → unavailability envelope
identifying the plugin (not the generic "No STT provider"
message — the user explicitly opted into this plugin)
b. otherwise plugin.transcribe() with model + language forwarded
from stt.<provider>.{model,language} config
3. No match → legacy "No STT provider available" error (unchanged)
Per-provider config namespace
-----------------------------
Plugins read their config from stt.<provider> in config.yaml, mirroring
how built-ins read stt.openai.model / stt.mistral.model. The dispatcher
forwards `model` and `language` from this section. Caller's explicit
`model=` argument overrides the config-set model.
Files
-----
- agent/transcription_provider.py: TranscriptionProvider ABC
- agent/transcription_registry.py: register/get/list providers,
built-in shadow guard, _reset_for_tests
- hermes_cli/plugins.py: register_transcription_provider() on
PluginContext
- tools/transcription_tools.py: BUILTIN_STT_PROVIDERS frozenset,
_dispatch_to_plugin_provider() with availability gate, wire-in
after xai branch and before "No STT provider" error
- tests/agent/test_transcription_registry.py: 27 tests
- tests/hermes_cli/test_plugins_transcription_registration.py: 3 tests
- tests/tools/test_transcription_plugin_dispatch.py: 28 tests
(covering built-in short-circuit, plugin dispatch, exception
envelope, non-dict guard, availability gate, language forwarding)
- tests/plugins/transcription/check_parity_vs_main.py: 10-scenario
subprocess-pinned parity harness vs origin/main
- website/docs/user-guide/features/{tts,plugins}.md: docs
Behavior parity
---------------
10 scenarios, 8 OK + 2 expected DIFFs:
no_provider_error → plugin (plugin-installed scenario)
no_provider_error → plugin_unavailable (plugin-installed-unavailable
scenario; PR returns cleaner envelope)
Zero behavior change for users not opting into a plugin.
Issue follow-up to #30398.
