Complete rebuild of voice input on a server-authoritative streaming
architecture, replacing the legacy Web Speech / whole-blob / WASM engines
and the dead voice-agent layer (~4k lines removed).
Speech-to-text (dictation):
- Client streams 16 kHz mono PCM16 chunks over /api/dictation/ws with
seq/ack ordering; buffered audio is retained and replayed on reconnect
- Server transcribes and streams live partial transcripts back;
segments auto-commit every ~15s with silence suppression and adaptive
finalization timeouts
- Local provider (default, zero config): sherpa-onnx models in a forked
worker process — auto-download with progress, staged extraction with
verification, corrupt-model auto-recovery, idle shutdown after 5 min
- Model catalog with settings picker (accuracy/speed ratings, sizes,
download/delete): Parakeet TDT v2 (English) and v3 (25 European
languages, auto-detected), Whisper base and tiny (multilingual, light)
- OpenAI-compatible provider for any Whisper endpoint
- Composer overlay with live transcript, volume meter, timer, and
cancel / insert / insert-and-send actions; failed transcriptions keep
their audio for retry or accepting the partial text as-is
- Configurable keyboard shortcut (default mod+alt+v) toggles dictation;
Enter confirms and Escape cancels while recording
- Overlay is pixel-aligned with the composer (measured footer height,
matching paddings/typography/gaps) — no layout shift when toggling
Text-to-speech:
- Local Kokoro provider (English, 11 voices) synthesized in the same
worker via /api/dictation/tts/speak, managed by the shared model
pipeline; sentence-pipelined playback keeps time-to-first-audio at
~1 sentence regardless of message length, and stop cancels in-flight
synthesis
- Sanitizer keeps inline-code content (strips backticks only), reads
interword slashes aloud, and removes only absolute file paths
Settings:
- Voice page unified: a single read-aloud toggle owns all playback
options (the confusing "Enable Voice Mode" is gone); a new "Enable
voice input" toggle (default on, persisted to settings.json) hides
the composer mic entirely when disabled
Mobile and transport:
- iOS/Android microphone permissions added (dictation was previously
impossible on mobile)
- Fixed Android WebSocket upgrades: the Capacitor WebView origin
(https://localhost) was missing from the packaged-client allowlist,
403-ing every WS connection — root cause of the old mobile SSE lock,
which is now removed for all transports
Security and conventions:
- All HTTP routes sit behind the global /api auth gate; the WS upgrade
explicitly validates the UI session and origin, with oc_url_token
narrowly allowlisted and covered by tests; the dictation socket mints
a fresh URL token before connecting
- Routes register before the generic OpenCode proxy; the client goes
through runtimeFetch/getRuntimeUrlResolver, and runtime switches
reset the dictation socket
- VS Code deliberately reports dictation as unavailable (no server
process in that runtime)
CI: workflow Node bumped 20 -> 22 to match the repo engines and fix
better-sqlite3 installs broken by node-gyp@latest on Node 20.
New dependency: sherpa-onnx-node (prebuilt N-API; macOS/Linux x64+arm64,
Windows x64 — Windows-on-ARM falls back to the OpenAI-compatible provider)
openchamber --port 8080# Custom port
openchamber --lan --port 3000# Listen on LAN (0.0.0.0)
openchamber --ui-password secret # Password-protect UI
openchamber startup enable# Start at login as a native serviceOPENCHAMBER_UI_PASSWORD=secret openchamber startup enable# Save service password env
openchamber startup status # Show startup service status
openchamber startup disable # Remove startup service
openchamber tunnel help# Tunnel lifecycle commands
openchamber tunnel providers # Show provider capabilities
openchamber tunnel profile add --provider cloudflare --mode managed-remote --name prod-main --hostname app.example.com --token <token>
openchamber tunnel start --profile prod-main
openchamber tunnel start --provider cloudflare --mode quick --qr
openchamber tunnel start --provider cloudflare --mode managed-local --config ~/.cloudflared/config.yml
openchamber tunnel status --all # Show tunnel state across instances
openchamber tunnel stop --port 3000# Stop tunnel only (server stays running)
openchamber connect-url --port 3000# Add this server to OpenChamber Desktop
openchamber connect-url --server http://host:3000 --qr
openchamber connect-url --port 3000 --qr
openchamber logs # Follow latest instance logsOPENCODE_PORT=4096OPENCODE_SKIP_START=true openchamber # Connect to external OpenCode serverOPENCODE_HOST=https://myhost:4096 OPENCODE_SKIP_START=true openchamber # Connect via custom host/HTTPS
openchamber stop # Stop server
openchamber update # Update to latest
startup enable snapshots your current environment into the native service so startup behaves like you launched openchamber from the same shell. This preserves provider tokens, PATH, SSH agent settings, and other CLI auth/config env vars. Use --no-env-snapshot if you want a minimal service env.
This runs OpenChamber as an API-only server without the desktop app or browser UI assets on that machine, then creates a link for Desktop to import. --lan makes the server reachable from other machines. --server is the address Desktop should use.
When OpenChamber was started with --lan or --host 0.0.0.0, connect-url automatically uses a detected LAN IP instead of 127.0.0.1. Use --server http://host:3000 to override the advertised address, and include --lan when connect-url needs to start the server for LAN access.
Paste the printed openchamber://connect?... link in Desktop under Settings -> Remote Instances -> Direct Instances -> Import Link. The link contains the server URL and a client token. It does not enable browser UI password protection; use --ui-password when exposing a server beyond localhost.
systemd service (VPN / LAN access)
Run OpenChamber and OpenCode as separate persistent services — useful when you want to access your
dev machine over a VPN (e.g. Tailscale) or LAN without a Cloudflare tunnel.
How it works:
OpenCode runs as its own service, binding only to localhost.
OpenChamber connects to it via OPENCODE_HOST and --lan makes it reachable on your VPN IP.
--foreground keeps the CLI process alive so systemd can track and restart it.
Why set PATH and SSH_AUTH_SOCK?
systemd user services start with a minimal environment — no shell profile is sourced.
Without an explicit PATH, OpenCode won't find tools installed via Homebrew, npm, or ~/.local/bin.
Without SSH_AUTH_SOCK, git operations over SSH (push, pull, clone) will fail because the agent socket isn't inherited.
Adjust the PATH to match your own tool installation paths.
%t expands to $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (e.g. /run/user/1000), where most SSH agents write their socket.
OpenChamber will be reachable at http://<your-vpn-hostname>:3000 from any device on your VPN.
Note:--host 0.0.0.0 is required to listen on all interfaces. The default
bind address is 127.0.0.1 (localhost only). Use --host <ip> or
OPENCHAMBER_HOST=<ip> to bind to a specific interface instead.
Managed-local path note: OPENCHAMBER_TUNNEL_CONFIG must point to a path inside the container user home (/home/openchamber/...). If your Cloudflare config references a credentials JSON file, that file path must also be accessible inside the container (mount with volumes).
Website docs source lives at packages/docs/content/docs/reverse-proxy.mdx.
Tunnel behavior notes
OpenChamber supports one active tunnel per running instance (port).
Starting a tunnel with a different mode/provider on the same instance replaces the current tunnel.
Replacing or stopping a tunnel revokes existing connect links and invalidates remote tunnel sessions for that instance.
Connect links are one-time tokens; generating a new link revokes the previous unused link.
Data Directory Permission Note: The data/ directory is mounted into the container for persistent storage (config, sessions, SSH keys, workspaces). Before running, ensure the directory exists and has proper permissions:
My wife, who - with zero AI background - sat down with the app for the first time and built the firework celebration that plays on every successful push.
Every contributor who shaped this project with their PRs, ideas, and attention to detail.
Bohdan Triapitsyn
de1b85ac56
