docs(frank-tts): retire the 5.5 s cold-voice claim everywhere it still lived

PR #15 corrected the engine's page, the research brief's law bullet and the
warmer's header, but the retired ladder had six more homes: both quadlet files
("6.2-8.0 s… 0.5 ms", "~6-8 s each", "paying the 5.5 s cold decode"),
`scripts/frank-tts-engine.env` (the whole law paragraph and the WARM_TEXT note),
`scripts/frank-tts.env`, the [[Frank TTS]] troubleshooting row that told an
operator to expect ~5.5 s, the research brief's consequences paragraph, and one
test comment.

All re-keyed to what was measured on the deployed container 2026-10-18: the
first synthesis of a freshly registered voice costs 1,883 ms against 1,226-1,283
ms afterwards, so the warm pass buys about 0.6 s — and the reason it exists at
all, which the pages never led with, is that the registry is memory-only: without
the hook every voice name is a 400 until somebody synthesizes. The trial's dated
worklog entry stays as written; the correction points at it.

No behavior change: comments, unit lore and docs only, so no cfhash move and no
image rebuild.
This commit is contained in:
Frank
2026-10-18 18:52:50 -07:00
parent 0315a62d84
commit 2dc31ff09c
8 changed files with 44 additions and 30 deletions
@@ -56,11 +56,14 @@
# the registration body. The façade mounts the same host directory read-only for
# its own name list, so one directory stays the single source of a voice name.
#
# COLD-VOICE LAW, THE REASON EXECSTARTPOST EXISTS. The FIRST speech request for
# a registered voice decodes the whole reference clip to snapshot codec state:
# 6.2-8.0 s, first audio byte at 5,530 ms. Every later request restores the
# snapshot in 0.5 ms. So the unit warms every voice at boot, serially (~6-8 s
# each), and `TimeoutStartSec=900` is what keeps a growing voice library from
# REGISTRY LAW, THE REASON EXECSTARTPOST EXISTS. The voice registry is memory
# only: a restart forgets every voice, and re-registering does not warm one —
# only synthesizing does — so a boot without this hook leaves the façade
# answering 400 for every name. The per-voice cold penalty is real but small, and
# not the trial's 6.2-8.0 s: measured on the built container 2026-10-18 against an
# empty registry, the first synthesis of a freshly registered voice cost 1,883 ms
# against 1,226-1,283 ms for the requests after it. The warm pass runs serially
# (two short syntheses per voice, ~5 s each) and `TimeoutStartSec=900` keeps a growing library from
# tripping systemd's default 90 s start deadline. The leading `-` on
# ExecStartPost is load-bearing: with `Restart=always`, a warmer that exits
# non-zero (a pack missing its reference.wav, the engine still loading past the
@@ -104,7 +107,7 @@ HealthStartPeriod=120s
[Service]
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
# Model load (tens of seconds) plus one cold decode per registered voice.
# Model load (tens of seconds) plus two short syntheses per registered voice.
TimeoutStartSec=900
ExecStartPost=-/usr/bin/podman exec frank-tts-engine /app/warm-voices.sh
@@ -37,8 +37,9 @@
# has a second backend (`TTS_BACKEND=llama-tts-cli`) that needs no upstream, and
# an engine that will not start must not take this endpoint's unit down with it.
# When both boot, this comes up after the engine, whose ExecStartPost warm pass
# is part of its start — so the first request of the day meets a warm voice
# registry instead of paying the 5.5 s cold decode.
# is part of its start — so the first request of the day meets a REGISTERED voice
# (the registry is memory-only) rather than a 400, and skips the ~0.6 s penalty
# the first synthesis of an unwarmed voice costs.
#
# VOICES. /home/dank/voices is host state, never repo state, and is mounted
# READ-ONLY: this endpoint has no business writing voice packs. Because the