Voice Overlay Lifecycle (macOS)
Audience: macOS app contributors. Goal: keep the voice overlay predictable when wake-word and push-to-talk overlap.Current intent
- If the overlay is already visible from wake-word and the user presses the hotkey, the hotkey session adopts the existing text instead of resetting it. The overlay stays up while the hotkey is held. When the user releases: send if there is trimmed text, otherwise dismiss.
- Wake-word alone still auto-sends on silence; push-to-talk sends immediately on release.
Implemented (Dec 9, 2025)
- Overlay sessions now carry a token per capture (wake-word or push-to-talk). Partial/final/send/dismiss/level updates are dropped when the token doesn’t match, avoiding stale callbacks.
- Push-to-talk adopts any visible overlay text as a prefix (so pressing the hotkey while the wake overlay is up keeps the text and appends new speech). It waits up to 1.5s for a final transcript before falling back to the current text.
- Chime/overlay logging is emitted at
infoin categoriesvoicewake.overlay,voicewake.ptt, andvoicewake.chime(session start, partial, final, send, dismiss, chime reason).
Next steps
- VoiceSessionCoordinator (actor)
- Owns exactly one
VoiceSessionat a time. - API (token-based):
beginWakeCapture,beginPushToTalk,updatePartial,endCapture,cancel,applyCooldown. - Drops callbacks that carry stale tokens (prevents old recognizers from reopening the overlay).
- Owns exactly one
- VoiceSession (model)
- Fields:
token,source(wakeWord|pushToTalk), committed/volatile text, chime flags, timers (auto-send, idle),overlayMode(display|editing|sending), cooldown deadline.
- Fields:
- Overlay binding
VoiceSessionPublisher(ObservableObject) mirrors the active session into SwiftUI.VoiceWakeOverlayViewrenders only via the publisher; it never mutates global singletons directly.- Overlay user actions (
sendNow,dismiss,edit) call back into the coordinator with the session token.
- Unified send path
- On
endCapture: if trimmed text is empty → dismiss; elseperformSend(session:)(plays send chime once, forwards, dismisses). - Push-to-talk: no delay; wake-word: optional delay for auto-send.
- Apply a short cooldown to the wake runtime after push-to-talk finishes so wake-word doesn’t immediately retrigger.
- On
- Logging
- Coordinator emits
.infologs in subsystemcom.clawdbot, categoriesvoicewake.overlayandvoicewake.chime. - Key events:
session_started,adopted_by_push_to_talk,partial,finalized,send,dismiss,cancel,cooldown.
- Coordinator emits
Debugging checklist
-
Stream logs while reproducing a sticky overlay:
- Verify only one active session token; stale callbacks should be dropped by the coordinator.
-
Ensure push-to-talk release always calls
endCapturewith the active token; if text is empty, expectdismisswithout chime or send.
Migration steps (suggested)
- Add
VoiceSessionCoordinator,VoiceSession, andVoiceSessionPublisher. - Refactor
VoiceWakeRuntimeto create/update/end sessions instead of touchingVoiceWakeOverlayControllerdirectly. - Refactor
VoicePushToTalkto adopt existing sessions and callendCaptureon release; apply runtime cooldown. - Wire
VoiceWakeOverlayControllerto the publisher; remove direct calls from runtime/PTT. - Add integration tests for session adoption, cooldown, and empty-text dismissal.