| # Context glossary |
|
|
| Canonical terms for this space. A glossary, not a spec — it defines what words mean, |
| not how anything is built. Keep design/implementation detail in `DESIGN.md` and the |
| code. |
|
|
| ## Speech-to-speech demo |
| The product: a voice conversation you have with a model by tapping the orb and |
| talking. "The demo" and "the space" refer to this same thing. It runs on Hugging |
| Face's open `speech-to-speech` backend. |
|
|
| ## The pipeline |
| The ordered path a turn travels, from your voice to the orb's reply. Order is |
| meaningful — each stage consumes the previous one's output: |
|
|
| `you speak → VAD → STT → VLM → TTS → orb replies` |
|
|
| - **VAD** — voice activity detection. Decides *when* you are speaking, so the system |
| knows a turn has started and ended. Model: silero-vad. |
| - **STT** — speech to text. Transcribes your speech into words. Model: |
| nvidia/parakeet-tdt-1.1b. |
| - **VLM** — the vision-language model that composes the reply. Served via Cerebras. |
| Model: google/gemma-4-31B-it. |
| - **TTS** — text to speech. Speaks the reply back in the chosen voice. Model: |
| Qwen/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-1.7B-CustomVoice. |
|
|
| ## Builder |
| A Hugging Face user credited with making the space, shown by HF username. Current |
| builders: tfrere, A-Mahla and andito. Distinct from the *models'* authors (nvidia, google, |
| Qwen, snakers4), who are credited per pipeline stage. |
|
|
| ## Powered by |
| The infrastructure running the pipeline, named in the about panel: Hugging Face |
| Inference Endpoints (hosting) and Cerebras (LLM inference). Distinct from "built by" |
| (the people) and from the model authors (who trained each model). |
|
|
| ## Tool |
| A function the model can call mid-conversation to do something the pipeline |
| can't do on its own (look something up, look through the camera). Tools are |
| declared to the backend in the session config; the model decides when to call |
| one. Distinct from the *pipeline stages* (VAD/STT/VLM/TTS), which always run. |
|
|
| ## Tool executor |
| The client-side component that runs a tool when the model calls it and returns |
| the result to the backend, so the model can speak the answer. It is the missing |
| half of the round-trip: the backend already emits the call, the executor runs it |
| and replies. Distinct from the *tool* itself (the thing being run). |
|
|
| ## Web search tool |
| A tool that looks something up on the web for the model. The model calls it with |
| a query; the tool executor forwards the query to the search proxy and returns the |
| results as the tool result. Activates only when a search key is available. |
|
|
| ## Camera snapshot tool |
| A tool that lets the model look through the user's webcam. While enabled, a live |
| self-view is shown in the page (bottom-left); when the model calls the tool, the |
| executor captures a frame and sends it to the model as an image so the VLM can |
| see it. Distinct from the *preview* (what the user sees) and the *snapshot* (the |
| single frame sent to the model). |
|
|
| ## Search proxy |
| The same-origin server route (`/search`) that holds the search key and calls the |
| external search provider on the client's behalf, so the key never reaches the |
| browser. Lives in the same container as the page. Distinct from the *s2s backend* |
| (the separate load-balanced speech-to-speech service). |
|
|
| ## Tools panel |
| The dialog opened from the "Tools" button in the top-right, holding one switch per |
| tool (and the web-search key status). Turning a switch on/off declares or removes |
| that tool on the live session. Distinct from *Settings* (connection, voice, |
| instructions) and the *About panel* (project info). |
|
|
| ## Identity block |
| The top-left corner of the topbar (replacing the old wordmark): the demo name, a |
| one-line blurb, and the "powered by" / "built by" credits, shown directly rather |
| than hidden behind a click. |
|
|
| ## About panel |
| The popup opened from the (i) icon to the right of the identity block. Holds the |
| general introduction to the speech-to-speech project (with a repo link) and the |
| pipeline. Identity itself now lives in the corner, not here. |
|
|
| ## Queue |
| The line of users waiting for a free conversation slot when every compute is |
| busy. You join the queue instead of being turned away; you leave it by reaching |
| the front or by giving up. Distinct from a *session* (an actual live |
| conversation) — being in the queue is not yet talking, and time spent waiting |
| never counts against your usage limit. |
|
|
| ## Ticket |
| Your held place in the queue. Created when you join, it is what the demo checks |
| to tell you your position and to notice if you have left. A ticket is not a |
| session: it only promises a spot in line, not a compute. |
|
|
| ## Position |
| How many people are ahead of you in the queue, shown while you wait ("You're #3 |
| in line"). It only ever counts down. Distinct from an *estimated wait* — the |
| demo shows position, never a time, because wait time is unpredictable. |
|
|
| ## Claim |
| The moment you reach the front and a free slot becomes yours — the queue hands |
| off to a real session and the conversation begins. This is also the point where |
| your usage limit first starts to matter (never while waiting). |
|
|
| ## At capacity |
| The state where the queue itself is full, so new users can't even join the line |
| and are asked to try again shortly. Distinct from simply *busy* (all computes |
| taken but the queue still has room to wait in). |
|
|
