# 2026-01-27

## voice messaging setup completed

successfully implemented full voice message support for telegram:

**tts (text-to-speech):**
- qwen3-tts-12hz-1.7b-base model
- voice cloned from nicholai's alan rickman/snape impression
- reference audio: /mnt/work/clawdbot-voice/reference_snape_v2.wav
- running as systemd service on port 8765
- larger 1.7b model chosen over 0.6b for better british accent preservation

**transcription (speech-to-text):**
- using pywhispercpp (whisper.cpp python bindings)
- same setup as hyprwhspr
- model: base.en with 4 threads
- known issue: longer messages get truncated (only first segment captured)

**workflow:**
1. receive voice message → transcribe with whisper
2. respond with text
3. generate voice reply via tts service (port 8765)
4. send voice message back

all documented in VOICE-WORKFLOW.md

**project location:** /mnt/work/clawdbot-voice/

**setup by:** sonnet (with opencode sub-agent assistance)

## tts service idle timeout added

implemented automatic vram management for qwen3-tts service:

**changes:**
- created tts_service_idle.py with idle timeout functionality
- model unloads after 120 seconds of inactivity (frees ~3.5GB VRAM)
- lazy loading: model only loads on first request, not at startup
- background monitor task checks idle status every 10 seconds
- updated systemd service to use new idle-aware version

**configuration:**
- TTS_IDLE_TIMEOUT=120 (configurable via environment variable)
- service still runs continuously, just unloads model when idle
- automatically reloads on next TTS request

**benefit:** nicholai can use comfyui without tts service consuming vram when not actively generating speech