Two-band architecture from docs/research/stt.md: renderer captures mic
audio in an AudioWorklet (linear16 16kHz mono, ~128ms frames, per-quantum
RMS for the meter) and streams it directly to Deepgram over WebSocket —
audio never loops through our server. The real key stays server-side;
/api/stt/token mints a short-lived grant token (TTL 300s) per run.
Patterns ported from the owner's pi dictate extension (tuned in real
use): generation counter guarding every async handler, the
latest-RMS-never-resets meter (-50..-10dB window, 60ms tick), mic-first
stop + CloseStream + 3s safety net, endpointing=300 with the
utterance_end_ms=1000 backstop.
UI (owner placement): mic button in the stats bar's middle slot on all
three surfaces (home graph-view, chat, draft); while recording the meter
unfurls to fill the row's free width with the interim ghost at its
flank. Esc ends dictation from the composer. Token mint comes before
getUserMedia so a keyless app fails fast without a TCC prompt; one
automatic reconnect on abnormal socket close, errors surface inline.
Live-smoked the full error path in the dev shell (bar renders on all
three pages, 403 grant failure shows inline, mic untouched). The full
audio path needs a Deepgram key with Member permission to mint tokens.
The original vision, restored (owner, 2026-09-15): pre-chat the session-
data side of the under-composer stats bar is free real estate ("—" only),
so the budget slider mounts exactly where session data will sit once a
session exists — via a new StatsBar leftSlot — vertically centered with
the model + thinking pills by the row's own geometry. Short 96px slider
instead of a full-width one; readout abbreviates "1k tok" so >1k budgets
stay on one line ("4.1k tokens" wrapped). Home and /chat/new both.
The rhythm agreed with the owner: the stats/controls row hugs the
composer (8px — reads as the card's metadata, one object), and the
whole cluster floats with deliberate air above the screen bottom
(20px). The 8px straight-edge gap optically matches the 6px pill-to-
pill gap: two rounded pills' corridor reads wider than geometric, so
rounded-rounded gaps run ~2px tighter than straight-edge gaps.
- stats-bar.tsx: pt-4 -> pt-2 (8px under the composer) — shared by
chat and home automatically
- chat.tsx dock block + home.tsx composer wrapper: pb-4 -> pb-5
The dock's reserve auto-measures the block, so the spacer/fold
machinery adapts on its own.
The asymmetry: the stats bar's outside-close ref wrapped the WHOLE
bar, which CONTAINS the model control — so clicking model/thinking
while stats was open counted as 'inside' and nothing closed, while
the reverse direction (model's ref wraps only its own buttons) closed
fine. The ref now anchors to the summary wrapper (button + popover),
matching the model picker's pattern. Both directions close now.
Also centers the stats row vertically in the dock: pt-1.5 -> pt-4,
equal to the block's pb-4 — the row sits midway between the
composer's bottom and the page bottom. (Font size already matched:
both sides compute to 11px JetBrains Mono; the owner chose to keep
the color difference — muted stats vs bright labels.)
Verified live: model->stats, stats->model, stats->thinking all close
the open dropdown and open the new one; row has 16px above (visible
text) and 16px below.
Round 1 centered the popover over the whole bar ROW — the owner meant
the stats bar's own bottom-left content (the context · cost summary
button). The popover now anchors to a relative wrapper around the
button and centers over IT (left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2 of the wrapper),
so it hangs balanced over the trigger, not offset toward the composer
row's center. Outside-click + Esc closing unchanged from round 1.
Same treatment the model/thinking controls got (df4433f): the
per-turn stats popover now closes on any pointerdown outside the
bar and on Escape. Also centered over the stats bar
(left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2) instead of left-aligning with the quiz
box, which looked odd.
Verified live: popover centered over the bar (centers within 2px);
Escape closes; click outside closes; click inside stays open.
--text-xxs (10px) joins the ladder; every component-level text-[9|10|11px]
literal in owned components now pulls from the ladder (graph-view.tsx and
home.tsx untouched — graph stream). Cosmetic pins updated where touched.
Live-driving the real browser caught it (the user's report: "they don't
work as buttons"): the stats row sits OUTSIDE the composer shell's
pointer-events-auto div, inside the sticky scroll wrapper's
pointer-events-none — every control on the row was unclickable, including
the pre-existing stats-detail popover button. The row now re-enables
pointer-events itself.
Also, per the user's sizing note: bar text 10px → 11px with a touch more
breathing room, and the model + thinking controls gain quiet pill
affordance (rounded-full border, card bg, ▾ chevron) — still muted by
design, but visibly buttons.
Verified live end-to-end in the browser: click opens the model menu ABOVE
(366 rows, search autofocused), "qwen flash" narrows to 5, picking
qwen3.8-flash persists + flips the label, the thinking menu shows exactly
that model's supported levels (Off/Minimal/Low/Medium/High), Medium
persists on the record via PUT, labels update. Test session settings
restored after the drive. Gates 350/350.
The model-control wave (user-decided design, 2026-09-12): ONE controller
for the conversation agents (prober/teacher are functionally one agent);
background sub-agents stay config-pinned. pi-ai owns the registry — the
shipped 366-model OpenRouter catalog (cost, context, modality,
thinkingLevelMap), getSupportedThinkingLevels/clampThinkingLevel for the
per-model thinking truth, and streamSimple's automatic clamp. No second
registry to drift out of sync.
Seams:
- config.ts: ReasoningEffort retired for pi's ThinkingLevel
(off|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|max). GLM roles go honest at "low" —
pi's catalog says GLM-5.3-flash accepts exactly low|high|max, and the old
"minimal" was silently clamped to low by streamSimple since the swap;
nothing changes behaviorally. visualMaker → qwen/qwen3.8-flash (fixes
the dead qwen/qwen3.8-max slug — the catalog only ships -0902; also the
user's cost pick, 0.15/0.47 per-1M).
- src/agent/models.ts: piEngineFor(role, settings?) — provider+id resolved
from the catalog, thinking level from settings ?? config, CLAMPED to the
model's supported list (a settings change between models can never send
an invalid level). PiEngine gains `level` (observability/tests).
- ChatRecord.settings {model?: {provider, id}, thinkingLevel?} — written
by PUT /api/chats/[id]/settings (replace-whole, no updatedAt churn),
read by chat-handler at turn composition: agents are stateless per turn,
so the change is next-turn-effective by construction. The turns log
still records the ACTUAL billed model (the honest witness).
- GET /api/models: the configured-provider catalog as client-safe DTOs
(core/contracts/models.ts) + config defaults; a second provider joins
the picker by registering it in piModels() — nothing else changes.
- PUT settings validation gate (src/server/model-catalog.ts): unknown
provider/model or unsupported level → 400 carrying the supported list,
never a silent clamp.
- scripts/sync-pricing.ts: regenerated PRICES/CONTEXT_LIMITS from pi-ai's
shipped openrouter.json (offline; same source as the engine + picker).
All 366 models priced; glm's stale 0.15/0.5 → pi's 0.075/0.25, limit
1310720 → 1048576 — cost is inferred at read time, so history re-prices.
- UI (components/model-picker.tsx): stats-bar right side becomes model +
thinking buttons; menus open ABOVE; fuzzy search over "provider id
name" (core/fuzzy.ts — pi's /model pattern); model rows show name/id/
price/context; the thinking menu lists exactly the chosen model's
supported levels (GLM: low|high|max — no dead options, no "off").
Model switch drops an incompatible pinned level (falls back to config,
which clamps honestly) rather than carrying a 400.
Tests (350/350, +15): catalog projection + defaults, the settings gate,
pi thinking truth pinned against upgrades (glm low|high|max; minimal→low;
off→low — GLM cannot disable thinking), the engine factory's
override/fallback/clamp/throw matrix, fuzzy ranking, store round-trip,
and the re-priced folds (usage, stats bar, activity dock).
Live smoke (disposable driver, deleted): catalog route 366 + defaults;
glm+minimal → 400 + supported; turn 1 billed qwen/qwen3.8-flash under
the override; mid-session switch flipped turn 2 to glm; clear-overrides
restored the config pin. ALL CHECKS PASS on real OpenRouter.
One quiet row beneath the composer/question shell (not flush to the
screen bottom; static height, outside the morphing shell):
- LEFT: context window + session cost, clickable → per-turn detail
popover (context, total, unpriced count, one row per turn with
model/steps/cost). All folds from core/prices.ts — sessionCost,
contextWindow, turnCost — no cost math in components.
- RIGHT: model + "Thinking —" — a placeholder slot for the coming
model/thinking-level CONTROL (later work with its contract changes);
display-only today, model read from the last turn's usage,
pretty-printed (Glm 5.3 Flash).
- Data: the record's turns log, seeded on mount, refreshed when the
local stream settles, kept fresh by the existing record re-syncs.
No turns yet → "—" everywhere; unpriceable turns never fold into a
fake $0 (the doctrine).
- formatUsd/formatTokens moved to components/usage-format.ts (shared
with the activity dock); prettyModel joins them, pure + tested.
amosblomqvist