diff --git a/scripts/build-voice-pack.sh b/scripts/build-voice-pack.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ae9d736
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/build-voice-pack.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,483 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# build-voice-pack.sh — turn a SOURCE recording plus a CROP OFFSET into a
+# deployable frank-tts voice pack: the reference WAV, the engine's own speaker
+# artifacts made from it, and manifest.json provenance.
+#
+# THE PACK. $PACKS_DIR/<voice>/ carries the three members the pack law in
+# scripts/frank-tts.env names:
+#
+#   reference.wav    the crop: 24 kHz mono PCM (pcm_s16le), 18-25 s of clean
+#                    single-speaker audio. This is what makes a voice NAME real
+#                    (dankclaw/voiceservice/app.py lists and resolves exactly
+#                    this file), so it is written LAST, once everything else in
+#                    the pack has been verified.
+#   reference.spk    the engine's x-vector: enc_dim 2048 f32 = 8,192 B.
+#   reference.rvq    the engine's RVQ code stream: 16 codebooks x 11 bits = 22 B
+#                    per 12.5 Hz frame = 22 * floor(samples / 1920).
+#   manifest.json    provenance: source path and sha256, crop start/end, sample
+#                    rate, duration, the tool + engine commit that made the
+#                    artifacts, and the voice name.
+#
+# Both artifacts come from the pinned engine build's speaker extractor — the
+# `qwen-codec` tool of qwentts.cpp at VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT — run on the pack's
+# own WAV, and the extractor names them by swapping the input's extension, so
+# they land beside reference.wav with nothing to rename. Required, never a
+# replacement for the WAV: a voice another runtime cannot reuse is not saved.
+#
+# THE 10-SECOND GATE — THE REASON THIS SCRIPT EXISTS. Project-wide source-material
+# invariant: the first 10 s of any sample file used to generate voices is
+# forbidden material. An offset that starts inside that region is refused with a
+# nonzero exit BEFORE anything is created — no pack dir, no WAV, no artifact — and
+# the same gate is asserted a second time from the manifest that was just written
+# (plus the recorded sha256 against the source it claims). A pack carrying a
+# forbidden crop therefore cannot survive a build.
+#
+# THE ARTIFACT SIZES ARE CHECKED, NOT ASSUMED. They are a property of the codec
+# config inside the GGUF, so an engine bump that changes enc_dim or the codebook
+# count fails the build instead of shipping a pack the engine will reject at
+# synthesis time. Note the interaction with the WAV window: an 18.0 s crop is a
+# legal reference.wav but only 22 * 225 = 4,950 B of .rvq, under the recorded
+# 5,456 B floor, so the effective crop window is 19.84-25 s. That is a real
+# constraint and the builder says so up front rather than failing after a build;
+# serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Voice Packs.md covers what to do on an engine bump.
+#
+# WHERE IT RUNS: the host that holds the engine build (Dankclaw). The extractor is
+# a CPU ggml binary — no GPU, no container, no fleet endpoint, no network. ffmpeg
+# does the crop; every spawned process runs `nice -n 19` so a pack build never
+# competes with the text endpoints on that box.
+#
+# IT NEVER DELETES. An existing pack is refused unless --force, and --force moves
+# the whole old directory aside into $PACKS_DIR/.AGENTTRASH/<voice>-<UTC>/ rather
+# than overwriting or unlinking a single byte.
+#
+# Usage:
+#   scripts/build-voice-pack.sh [OPTIONS] VOICE PACKS_DIR
+#   scripts/build-voice-pack.sh [OPTIONS] --all PACKS_DIR
+#
+# Options (anything not given comes from scripts/voice-packs.env):
+#   --env FILE      tunables file (default scripts/voice-packs.env)
+#   --source FILE   source recording for this voice
+#   --offset SEC    crop start, in seconds into the source (must be >= 10)
+#   --duration SEC  crop length; reference.wav comes out this long
+#   --sha256 HEX    expected sha256 of the source file
+#   --tool PATH     the pinned speaker extractor (qwen-codec)
+#   --all           build every voice in VOICE_PACKS, skipping none
+#   --dry-run       everything except the extractor: validate, cut the crop,
+#                   probe it, print the plan and the manifest it would write
+#   --force         retire an existing pack to .AGENTTRASH/ and rebuild
+#   -h, --help      this text
+set -euo pipefail
+
+REPO_ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
+ENV_FILE="$REPO_ROOT/scripts/voice-packs.env"
+SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS=10   # the source-material invariant; not a knob
+WORK_DIR=""                   # scratch dir a dry run owns, removed on exit
+
+# Only ever removes the scratch directory this script created for itself; pack
+# bytes on disk are retired to .AGENTTRASH/, never deleted (see --force).
+cleanup_work_dir() {
+    if [ -n "$WORK_DIR" ]; then
+        rm -rf -- "$WORK_DIR"
+    fi
+}
+trap cleanup_work_dir EXIT
+
+die() {
+    printf 'ERROR: %s\n' "$*" >&2
+    exit 1
+}
+
+usage() {
+    sed -n '2,/^set -euo/p' "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" | sed '$d' | sed 's/^# \{0,1\}//'
+}
+
+# fcmp A OP B — float comparison (awk); OP is one of < <= > >= == and A/B are
+# already validated as plain decimals, so nothing user-shaped reaches awk as
+# program text.
+fcmp() {
+    awk -v a="$1" -v b="$3" "BEGIN { exit !(a $2 b) }"
+}
+
+# floorn X — greatest integer <= X, printed. Only ever called on positives.
+floorn() {
+    awk -v x="$1" 'BEGIN { printf "%d\n", int(x) }'
+}
+
+is_seconds() {
+    [[ "$1" =~ ^[0-9]+([.][0-9]+)?$ ]]
+}
+
+is_hex64() {
+    [[ "$1" =~ ^[0-9a-f]{64}$ ]]
+}
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------- arguments --
+VOICE=""
+PACKS_DIR=""
+ARG_SOURCE=""
+ARG_OFFSET=""
+ARG_DURATION=""
+ARG_SHA=""
+ARG_TOOL=""
+DRY_RUN=0
+FORCE=0
+BUILD_ALL=0
+
+while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
+    case "$1" in
+        --env)      ENV_FILE="${2:?--env needs a path}"; shift 2 ;;
+        --source)   ARG_SOURCE="${2:?--source needs a file}"; shift 2 ;;
+        --offset)   ARG_OFFSET="${2:?--offset needs seconds}"; shift 2 ;;
+        --duration) ARG_DURATION="${2:?--duration needs seconds}"; shift 2 ;;
+        --sha256)   ARG_SHA="${2:?--sha256 needs a hex digest}"; shift 2 ;;
+        --tool)     ARG_TOOL="${2:?--tool needs a path}"; shift 2 ;;
+        --dry-run)  DRY_RUN=1; shift ;;
+        --force)    FORCE=1; shift ;;
+        --all)      BUILD_ALL=1; shift ;;
+        -h|--help)  usage; exit 0 ;;
+        --*)        die "unknown option: $1 (see --help)" ;;
+        *)
+            if [ -z "$VOICE" ]; then
+                VOICE="$1"
+            elif [ -z "$PACKS_DIR" ]; then
+                PACKS_DIR="$1"
+            else
+                die "unexpected argument: $1"
+            fi
+            shift
+            ;;
+    esac
+done
+
+[ -f "$ENV_FILE" ] || die "tunables file not found: $ENV_FILE"
+for tool in ffmpeg ffprobe jq sha256sum; do
+    command -v "$tool" >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "$tool is required and not on PATH"
+done
+
+# shellcheck disable=SC1090
+source "$ENV_FILE"
+
+# Tunables the env file owes us. Defaults are the engine facts read out of the
+# pinned tree; an env file that omits one still builds against the truth.
+VOICE_PACKS="${VOICE_PACKS:-}"
+SAMPLE_RATE="${VOICE_PACK_SAMPLE_RATE:-24000}"
+MIN_SECONDS="${VOICE_PACK_MIN_SECONDS:-18}"
+MAX_SECONDS="${VOICE_PACK_MAX_SECONDS:-25}"
+FRAME_RATE="${VOICE_PACK_FRAME_RATE:-12.5}"
+RVQ_BYTES_PER_FRAME="${VOICE_PACK_RVQ_BYTES_PER_FRAME:-22}"
+SPK_BYTES="${VOICE_PACK_SPK_BYTES:-8192}"
+RVQ_MIN_BYTES="${VOICE_PACK_RVQ_MIN_BYTES:-5456}"
+RVQ_MAX_BYTES="${VOICE_PACK_RVQ_MAX_BYTES:-6864}"
+TOOL="${ARG_TOOL:-${VOICE_PACK_TOOL:-}}"
+CODEC_MODEL="${VOICE_PACK_CODEC_MODEL:-}"
+TALKER_MODEL="${VOICE_PACK_TALKER_MODEL:-}"
+ENGINE_REPO="${VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_REPO:-https://github.com/ServeurpersoCom/qwentts.cpp}"
+ENGINE_COMMIT="${VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT:-5916bf7c79dbb4e66fc059cdc507a79a23a28bb4}"
+DEVICE="${VOICE_PACK_DEVICE:-CPU}"
+THREADS="${VOICE_PACK_THREADS:-8}"
+NICE_LEVEL="${VOICE_PACK_NICE:-19}"
+TRASH_DIRNAME="${VOICE_PACK_TRASH_DIRNAME:-.AGENTTRASH}"
+DEFAULT_PACKS_DIR="${VOICE_PACK_DIR:-/home/dank/voices}"
+
+[ -n "$PACKS_DIR" ] || PACKS_DIR="$DEFAULT_PACKS_DIR"
+[ -n "$PACKS_DIR" ] || die "no packs directory (pass it as an argument)"
+is_seconds "$SAMPLE_RATE" || die "VOICE_PACK_SAMPLE_RATE is not a number: $SAMPLE_RATE"
+is_seconds "$MIN_SECONDS" || die "VOICE_PACK_MIN_SECONDS is not a number: $MIN_SECONDS"
+is_seconds "$MAX_SECONDS" || die "VOICE_PACK_MAX_SECONDS is not a number: $MAX_SECONDS"
+
+# hop / frame arithmetic, derived once: the codec runs at FRAME_RATE Hz over
+# SAMPLE_RATE audio, so one frame is HOP_SAMPLES samples and one second is
+# FRAME_RATE frames.
+HOP_SAMPLES="$(floorn "$(awk -v r="$SAMPLE_RATE" -v f="$FRAME_RATE" 'BEGIN { print r / f }')")"
+[ "$HOP_SAMPLES" -gt 0 ] || die "VOICE_PACK_FRAME_RATE ($FRAME_RATE) exceeds the sample rate"
+BYTES_PER_SECOND="$(awk -v b="$RVQ_BYTES_PER_FRAME" -v f="$FRAME_RATE" 'BEGIN { print b * f }')"
+
+# rvq_bytes_for DURATION — packed size the extractor will emit for a crop this
+# long: whole frames only, because it truncates to the hop boundary.
+rvq_bytes_for() {
+    local samples frames
+    samples="$(awk -v d="$1" -v r="$SAMPLE_RATE" 'BEGIN { printf "%d\n", int(d * r + 0.5) }')"
+    frames=$((samples / HOP_SAMPLES))
+    printf '%d\n' "$((frames * RVQ_BYTES_PER_FRAME))"
+}
+
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------- build --
+build_voice() {
+    local voice="$1"
+    # The pack dir name is the voice name on the wire: app.py's VOICE_NAME_RE
+    # matches it exactly while the engine lowercases names internally, so an
+    # uppercase or punctuated name would be reported one way by the façade and
+    # another by the engine. Lowercase only, and nothing that could escape
+    # $PACKS_DIR.
+    [[ "$voice" =~ ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9._-]{0,63}$ ]] ||
+        die "voice name '$voice' is not a lowercase [a-z0-9._-] name starting with alphanumerics (app.py resolves it verbatim; the engine lowercases it)"
+
+    local prefix
+    prefix="VOICE_PACK_$(printf '%s' "$voice" | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]' | tr -c '[:alnum:]' '_')"
+    local source_var="${prefix}_SOURCE" offset_var="${prefix}_OFFSET"
+    local duration_var="${prefix}_DURATION" sha_var="${prefix}_SHA256"
+    local source="${ARG_SOURCE:-${!source_var:-}}"
+    local offset="${ARG_OFFSET:-${!offset_var:-}}"
+    local duration="${ARG_DURATION:-${!duration_var:-}}"
+    local want_sha="${ARG_SHA:-${!sha_var:-}}"
+
+    if [ -z "$voice" ] || [ -z "$source" ]; then
+        die "no source for '$voice': pass --source or set ${source_var} in $ENV_FILE"
+    fi
+    [ -n "$offset" ] || die "no crop offset for '$voice': pass --offset or set ${offset_var}"
+    [ -n "$duration" ] || die "no crop duration for '$voice': pass --duration or set ${duration_var}"
+    is_seconds "$offset" || die "crop offset '$offset' is not a number of seconds"
+    is_seconds "$duration" || die "crop duration '$duration' is not a number of seconds"
+    [ -f "$source" ] && [ -r "$source" ] || die "source not readable: $source"
+
+    # === THE GATE. Source seconds 0..10 are forbidden voice material, full stop.
+    if ! fcmp "$offset" '>=' "$SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS"; then
+        die "source-material invariant violated: the crop must start past the first ${SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS} s of the source file, and '$voice' asks for ${offset} s into $source. Pick an offset at or past ${SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS} s — nothing was written."
+    fi
+
+    local pack_dir="$PACKS_DIR/$voice"
+    if [ "$DRY_RUN" -ne 1 ] && [ -e "$pack_dir" ] && [ "$FORCE" -ne 1 ]; then
+        die "$pack_dir already exists; nothing was touched. Re-run with --force to retire it to $PACKS_DIR/$TRASH_DIRNAME/ and rebuild."
+    fi
+
+    local source_duration source_bytes source_sha
+    source_duration="$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$source")"
+    is_seconds "$source_duration" || die "ffprobe reports no numeric duration for $source: '$source_duration'"
+    source_bytes="$(stat -c%s "$source")"
+    if ! fcmp "$(awk -v a="$offset" -v d="$duration" 'BEGIN { print a + d }')" '<=' "$source_duration"; then
+        die "crop ends at $(awk -v a="$offset" -v d="$duration" 'BEGIN { print a + d }') s but $source is only $source_duration s; the crop would come out short"
+    fi
+    if ! fcmp "$duration" '>=' "$MIN_SECONDS" || ! fcmp "$duration" '<=' "$MAX_SECONDS"; then
+        die "crop duration $duration s is outside the ${MIN_SECONDS}-${MAX_SECONDS} s reference window"
+    fi
+    local crop_end planned_rvq
+    crop_end="$(awk -v a="$offset" -v d="$duration" 'BEGIN { print a + d }')"
+    planned_rvq="$(rvq_bytes_for "$duration")"
+    if ! fcmp "$planned_rvq" '>=' "$RVQ_MIN_BYTES" || ! fcmp "$planned_rvq" '<=' "$RVQ_MAX_BYTES"; then
+        die "a $duration s crop packs to ${planned_rvq} B of .rvq, outside the recorded engine window ${RVQ_MIN_BYTES}-${RVQ_MAX_BYTES} B; lengthen the crop (that window starts at $(awk -v m="$RVQ_MIN_BYTES" -v b="$BYTES_PER_SECOND" 'BEGIN { print m / b }') s) — the source, not the codec, sets this floor"
+    fi
+
+    echo "VOICE      $voice"
+    echo "SOURCE     $source ($source_bytes bytes, ${source_duration} s)"
+    echo "CROP       ${offset} s .. ${crop_end} s (${duration} s) — past the ${SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS} s forbidden region"
+
+    source_sha="$(sha256sum "$source" | awk '{ print $1 }')"
+    if [ -n "$want_sha" ]; then
+        is_hex64 "$want_sha" || die "expected sha256 '$want_sha' is not 64 hex digits"
+        [ "$source_sha" = "$want_sha" ] ||
+            die "source sha256 is $source_sha, expected $want_sha: $source is not the file these offsets were cut from"
+    fi
+    echo "SHA256     $source_sha"
+
+    # Where the crop is cut. A dry run keeps its work in a scratch dir it owns;
+    # a real build stages INSIDE the pack dir so the final rename is on one
+    # filesystem and the pack becomes visible only when it is whole.
+    local stage_dir
+    if [ "$DRY_RUN" -eq 1 ]; then
+        WORK_DIR="$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/voice-pack-$voice.XXXXXX")"
+        stage_dir="$WORK_DIR"
+    else
+        mkdir -p "$PACKS_DIR"
+        if [ -e "$pack_dir" ]; then
+            local trash
+            trash="$PACKS_DIR/$TRASH_DIRNAME/$voice-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)"
+            mkdir -p "$(dirname "$trash")"
+            mv "$pack_dir" "$trash"
+            echo "RETIRED    $pack_dir -> $trash (nothing deleted)"
+        fi
+        mkdir "$pack_dir" || die "cannot create $pack_dir (it may exist now); nothing was overwritten"
+        stage_dir="$pack_dir"
+    fi
+    local stage_wav="$stage_dir/staging-reference.wav"
+
+    nice -n "$NICE_LEVEL" env OMP_NUM_THREADS="$THREADS" \
+        ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel error -y \
+        -ss "$offset" -t "$duration" -i "$source" \
+        -map 0:a:0 -vn -ac 1 -ar "$SAMPLE_RATE" -c:a pcm_s16le "$stage_wav"
+
+    local wav_rate wav_channels wav_codec wav_duration
+    wav_rate="$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=sample_rate -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$stage_wav")"
+    wav_channels="$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=channels -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$stage_wav")"
+    wav_codec="$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$stage_wav")"
+    wav_duration="$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=duration -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$stage_wav")"
+    is_seconds "$wav_rate" || die "ffprobe reports no numeric sample rate for the crop: '$wav_rate'"
+    is_seconds "$wav_duration" || die "ffprobe reports no numeric duration for the crop: '$wav_duration'"
+    [ "$wav_rate" = "$SAMPLE_RATE" ] || die "reference.wav came out at ${wav_rate} Hz, not ${SAMPLE_RATE}"
+    [ "$wav_channels" = "1" ] || die "reference.wav came out with $wav_channels channels, not mono"
+    [ "$wav_codec" = "pcm_s16le" ] || die "reference.wav came out as $wav_codec, not the pcm_s16le the law names"
+    if ! fcmp "$wav_duration" '>=' "$MIN_SECONDS" || ! fcmp "$wav_duration" '<=' "$MAX_SECONDS"; then
+        die "reference.wav is ${wav_duration} s, outside the ${MIN_SECONDS}-${MAX_SECONDS} s window"
+    fi
+    echo "REFERENCE  ${wav_rate} Hz ${wav_codec} mono, ${wav_duration} s, $(stat -c%s "$stage_wav") bytes"
+
+    local spk_file="$stage_dir/staging-reference.spk" rvq_file="$stage_dir/staging-reference.rvq"
+    local stage_log="$stage_dir/staging-qwen-codec.log"
+    local spk_bytes=0 rvq_bytes=0 produced=false
+    if [ "$DRY_RUN" -eq 1 ]; then
+        if [ -n "$TOOL" ] && [ -x "$TOOL" ]; then
+            echo "EXTRACTOR  $TOOL (present; --dry-run will not run it)"
+        else
+            echo "EXTRACTOR  not present (${TOOL:-unset}) — --dry-run does not need it"
+        fi
+        echo "PLANNED    reference.spk ${SPK_BYTES} B, reference.rvq $(rvq_bytes_for "$wav_duration") B"
+    else
+        [ -n "$TOOL" ] && [ -x "$TOOL" ] ||
+            die "speaker extractor missing or not executable: ${TOOL:-VOICE_PACK_TOOL unset} (use --dry-run to build everything up to this point)"
+        [ -f "$CODEC_MODEL" ] || die "codec model missing: $CODEC_MODEL"
+        [ -f "$TALKER_MODEL" ] || die "talker model missing: $TALKER_MODEL"
+        # The extractor takes the WAV and writes its outputs next to it with the
+        # extension swapped — there is no -o, so the staged name decides where
+        # the artifacts land.
+        local extractor=("$TOOL" --model "$CODEC_MODEL" --talker "$TALKER_MODEL" -i "$stage_wav")
+        if [ -n "$DEVICE" ]; then
+            extractor+=(--device "$DEVICE")
+        fi
+        echo "EXTRACT    $(basename "$TOOL") at $ENGINE_COMMIT (device ${DEVICE:-auto}, $THREADS threads)"
+        if ! nice -n "$NICE_LEVEL" env OMP_NUM_THREADS="$THREADS" \
+            "${extractor[@]}" 2>&1 | tee "$stage_log" >&2; then
+            die "$TOOL failed on $stage_wav (its output is in $stage_log); the pack was not published"
+        fi
+        [ -f "$spk_file" ] || die "$TOOL wrote no $spk_file (see $stage_log)"
+        [ -f "$rvq_file" ] || die "$TOOL wrote no $rvq_file (see $stage_log)"
+        spk_bytes="$(stat -c%s "$spk_file")"
+        rvq_bytes="$(stat -c%s "$rvq_file")"
+        local expect_rvq
+        expect_rvq="$(rvq_bytes_for "$wav_duration")"
+        [ "$spk_bytes" = "$SPK_BYTES" ] ||
+            die "reference.spk is $spk_bytes B, expected ${SPK_BYTES} B (enc_dim x f32). The engine changed its speaker encoder — see [[Voice Packs]] before shipping this pack"
+        [ "$rvq_bytes" = "$expect_rvq" ] ||
+            die "reference.rvq is $rvq_bytes B, expected ${expect_rvq} B for a ${wav_duration} s crop (22 B per 12.5 Hz frame)"
+        if ! fcmp "$rvq_bytes" '>=' "$RVQ_MIN_BYTES" || ! fcmp "$rvq_bytes" '<=' "$RVQ_MAX_BYTES"; then
+            die "reference.rvq is $rvq_bytes B, outside the recorded engine window ${RVQ_MIN_BYTES}-${RVQ_MAX_BYTES} B — an engine bump? see [[Voice Packs]]"
+        fi
+        produced=true
+        echo "ARTIFACTS  reference.spk ${spk_bytes} B, reference.rvq ${rvq_bytes} B"
+    fi
+
+    local built stage_manifest
+    built="$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
+    stage_manifest="$stage_dir/staging-manifest.json"
+    jq -n \
+        --arg voice "$voice" \
+        --arg built "$built" \
+        --arg builder "scripts/build-voice-pack.sh" \
+        --arg env_file "$ENV_FILE" \
+        --arg src "$source" \
+        --arg src_sha "$source_sha" \
+        --argjson src_bytes "$source_bytes" \
+        --argjson src_duration "$source_duration" \
+        --argjson offset "$offset" \
+        --argjson end "$crop_end" \
+        --argjson duration "$duration" \
+        --argjson forbidden "$SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS" \
+        --argjson rate "$SAMPLE_RATE" \
+        --argjson wav_duration "$wav_duration" \
+        --arg wav_codec "$wav_codec" \
+        --argjson wav_channels "$wav_channels" \
+        --argjson wav_bytes "$(stat -c%s "$stage_wav")" \
+        --arg tool "${TOOL:-unset}" \
+        --arg repo "$ENGINE_REPO" \
+        --arg commit "$ENGINE_COMMIT" \
+        --arg codec "$CODEC_MODEL" \
+        --arg talker "$TALKER_MODEL" \
+        --arg device "$DEVICE" \
+        --argjson produced "$produced" \
+        --argjson spk_bytes "$spk_bytes" \
+        --argjson rvq_bytes "$rvq_bytes" \
+        --argjson planned_rvq "$(rvq_bytes_for "$wav_duration")" \
+        --argjson dry_run "$DRY_RUN" \
+        '{
+            voice: $voice,
+            kind: "voice-pack",
+            built_utc: $built,
+            builder: $builder,
+            tunables: $env_file,
+            dry_run: ($dry_run == 1),
+            source: {
+                path: $src,
+                sha256: $src_sha,
+                bytes: $src_bytes,
+                duration_seconds: $src_duration
+            },
+            crop: {
+                offset_seconds: $offset,
+                end_seconds: $end,
+                duration_seconds: $duration
+            },
+            reference: {
+                file: "reference.wav",
+                codec: $wav_codec,
+                sample_rate: $rate,
+                channels: $wav_channels,
+                duration_seconds: $wav_duration,
+                bytes: $wav_bytes
+            },
+            artifacts: {
+                produced: $produced,
+                tool: $tool,
+                engine_repo: $repo,
+                engine_commit: $commit,
+                device: $device,
+                codec_model: $codec,
+                talker_model: $talker,
+                spk: {file: "reference.spk", bytes: $spk_bytes},
+                rvq: {file: "reference.rvq", bytes: $rvq_bytes, planned_bytes: $planned_rvq}
+            },
+            invariant: {
+                name: "source-material invariant",
+                rule: "a voice crop MUST start past the first 10 seconds of the source file",
+                forbidden_source_seconds: $forbidden,
+                crop_offset_seconds: $offset
+            }
+        }' >"$stage_manifest"
+
+    # Assert the gate a second time, FROM the manifest, next to the bytes it
+    # describes. Anything short of a pass leaves the staged pack unpublished.
+    local recorded_offset recorded_sha
+    recorded_offset="$(jq -r '.crop.offset_seconds' "$stage_manifest")"
+    recorded_sha="$(jq -r '.source.sha256' "$stage_manifest")"
+    jq -e --argjson min "$SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS" \
+        '(.crop.offset_seconds | type == "number") and .invariant.forbidden_source_seconds == $min and (.crop.offset_seconds >= $min) and (.invariant.name == "source-material invariant")' \
+        "$stage_manifest" >/dev/null ||
+        die "manifest assertion failed: .crop.offset_seconds ($recorded_offset) does not clear the ${SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS} s source-material invariant"
+    [ "$recorded_sha" = "$source_sha" ] ||
+        die "manifest assertion failed: .source.sha256 ($recorded_sha) is not the hash of $source ($source_sha)"
+    jq -e '(.voice | type == "string") and (.reference.sample_rate | type == "number") and (.reference.duration_seconds | type == "number") and (.artifacts.engine_commit | length == 40)' \
+        "$stage_manifest" >/dev/null ||
+        die "manifest assertion failed: voice / reference / engine provenance fields are not all present"
+    echo "MANIFEST   crop offset $recorded_offset s clears the ${SOURCE_FORBIDDEN_SECONDS} s invariant"
+
+    if [ "$DRY_RUN" -eq 1 ]; then
+        echo "MANIFEST_BEGIN"
+        cat "$stage_manifest"
+        echo "MANIFEST_END"
+        echo "PLAN       would write $pack_dir/{reference.wav,reference.spk,reference.rvq,manifest.json}"
+        echo "DRYRUN     $voice: inputs valid, crop cut and probed, extractor not run"
+    else
+        # reference.wav is the gate the shim reads, so it lands last: the voice
+        # name never exists on disk in a state the artifacts are not behind it.
+        mv "$stage_log" "$pack_dir/qwen-codec.log"
+        mv "$spk_file" "$pack_dir/reference.spk"
+        mv "$rvq_file" "$pack_dir/reference.rvq"
+        mv "$stage_manifest" "$pack_dir/manifest.json"
+        mv "$stage_wav" "$pack_dir/reference.wav"
+        echo "BUILT      $pack_dir (voice '$voice': ${wav_duration} s, spk ${spk_bytes} B, rvq ${rvq_bytes} B)"
+        echo "VOICE_PACK_BUILT $voice $pack_dir"
+    fi
+
+}
+
+if [ "$BUILD_ALL" -eq 1 ]; then
+    [ -z "$VOICE" ] || die "--all takes no voice name (got '$VOICE'); the list comes from VOICE_PACKS"
+    for flag in "$ARG_SOURCE" "$ARG_OFFSET" "$ARG_DURATION" "$ARG_SHA"; do
+        [ -z "$flag" ] || die "--all reads every crop from $ENV_FILE; --source/--offset/--duration/--sha256 would apply one value to all of them"
+    done
+    read -r -a voices <<<"$VOICE_PACKS"
+    [ "${#voices[@]}" -gt 0 ] || die "VOICE_PACKS is empty in $ENV_FILE"
+    for voice in "${voices[@]}"; do
+        build_voice "$voice"
+    done
+else
+    [ -n "$VOICE" ] || { usage >&2; die "no voice name given"; }
+    build_voice "$VOICE"
+fi
diff --git a/scripts/test-changed.sh b/scripts/test-changed.sh
index be9af68..549e8ef 100755
--- a/scripts/test-changed.sh
+++ b/scripts/test-changed.sh
@@ -229,6 +229,14 @@ for path in "${CHANGED[@]}"; do
             add_test tests/scripts_syntax.bats
             add_test tests/deployment_scoping.bats
             ;;
+        # The voice-pack builder is the only thing that enforces the 10-second
+        # source-material invariant and the artifact sizes the packs are pinned
+        # to, so it selects its own seam rather than landing on the generic
+        # scripts/* syntax fallback. This case has to precede that fallback.
+        scripts/build-voice-pack.sh|scripts/voice-packs.env)
+            add_test tests/voice_pack_unit.bats
+            add_test tests/scripts_syntax.bats
+            ;;
         scripts/*)
             add_test tests/scripts_syntax.bats
             ;;
diff --git a/scripts/voice-packs.env b/scripts/voice-packs.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14d8052
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/voice-packs.env
@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+# voice-packs.env — tunables for the **frank-tts voice packs**: the three
+# numbers per voice (source file, crop offset, crop length) plus the pinned
+# engine facts that turn a crop into a pack. Read by
+# `scripts/build-voice-pack.sh`, which is the only thing that consumes this
+# file — the running service reads none of it, because the packs themselves are
+# the interface (see scripts/frank-tts.env for what the shim resolves).
+#
+# WHAT IS TRACKED HERE AND WHAT IS NOT. Paths and numbers, never credentials,
+# which is the same rule the other `scripts/*.env` files follow. The pack
+# DIRECTORIES are host state under $VOICE_PACK_DIR and stay out of the repo; the
+# crops that produce them are exactly the kind of decision worth a diff, so the
+# offsets live here. If a crop changes, change it here and rebuild with
+# --force — the manifest inside the pack records what was actually cut.
+#
+# THE OFFSETS ARE NOT ARBITRARY. Two rules pick them:
+#   1. The source-material invariant: seconds 0-10 of any sample file are
+#      forbidden voice material. The builder refuses a crop that starts inside
+#      that region and asserts the same thing again from the manifest it just
+#      wrote, so the values below are checked, not trusted.
+#   2. Speech density: the trial cut these from a silencedetect scan of the
+#      source (noise -35 dB, 0.6 s) and took the longest run of continuous
+#      speech at or past the scan window — a reference that starts mid-word or
+#      contains a page-turn of silence clones the artefacts, not the voice.
+#      serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Voice Packs.md carries the recipe.
+#
+# WHY THE SHA256 LINES EXIST. A crop offset is a statement about one exact
+# file: 98.739 s into a re-encode of the same audiobook is a different sentence
+# and therefore a different voice. The builder hashes the source, compares it
+# with the pinned digest when one is set, and writes the digest into the pack's
+# manifest — so a pack can always be traced back to the bytes it was cut from.
+# The three values below are the trial's digests (2026-10-18), verified against
+# the files on disk.
+#
+# THE ENGINE BLOCK IS A PIN, NOT A DEFAULT. The speaker artifacts come from
+# `qwen-codec` in the qwentts.cpp tree at $VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT: it takes a
+# 24 kHz WAV, writes the RVQ code stream next to it with the extension swapped,
+# and with --talker also runs that talker's speaker encoder to write the
+# x-vector .spk. The talker has to be a **Base** build — the customvoice and
+# voicedesign GGUFs carry no speaker encoder and the extractor says so. The
+# sizes the builder then verifies (8,192 B of .spk, 5,456-6,864 B of .rvq) are
+# derived from the codec config in the GGUF, so an engine bump that changes them
+# fails the build on purpose; see [[Voice Packs]] for the bump procedure.
+#
+# HOST PATHS, NOT CONTAINER PATHS. This runs on the host that holds the engine
+# build (Dankclaw), outside any container, with no GPU and no fleet endpoint.
+# The model paths below are where scripts/download-frank-tts-engine-qwentts.sh
+# puts the GGUFs; until that fetch has run, the same two files sit in the trial
+# tree at /home/dank/voice-audition/qwentts/models/ and the tool is only in its
+# build directory. The SOURCE paths are the third thing to place: the three
+# sample files live on the workstation today and have to be copied to
+# $VOICE_PACK_SOURCE_DIR on Dankclaw before a build can read them.
+
+# The packs root on the host: the directory frank-tts mounts read-only at
+# /voices, one sub-directory per voice.
+VOICE_PACK_DIR=/home/dank/voices
+
+# The pack list. `--all` walks it in order; every name has to carry the four
+# per-voice values below.
+VOICE_PACKS="narrator1 narrator2 narrator3"
+
+# Where the source recordings live on the engine host.
+VOICE_PACK_SOURCE_DIR=/home/dank/voice-sources
+
+# narrator1 — Randall Munroe "How To", read by Wil Wheaton. Longest speech run
+# at or past the scan window: 98.739-118.636 s, 19.897 s, which packs to the
+# 5,456 B floor of the .rvq window.
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR1_SOURCE=${VOICE_PACK_SOURCE_DIR}/audiosample.mp3
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR1_OFFSET=98.739
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR1_DURATION=19.897
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR1_SHA256=2299510467eb9143455d8c1e6a21601c3b451dd59c1dc99b99d4aacb54d1d850
+
+# narrator2 — "Abyssal Archive" (Lokey). 25 s is the ceiling of the reference
+# window and packs to exactly 6,864 B of .rvq.
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR2_SOURCE=${VOICE_PACK_SOURCE_DIR}/audiosample2.m4b
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR2_OFFSET=191.13
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR2_DURATION=25
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR2_SHA256=8e1e33317baf67b2cca67e4ce1b095ae477a18285c7373ec18ad013f2cc320e0
+
+# narrator3 — "Children of Time" (Adrian Tchaikovsky, author-read).
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR3_SOURCE=${VOICE_PACK_SOURCE_DIR}/audiosample3.m4b
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR3_OFFSET=489.232
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR3_DURATION=25
+VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR3_SHA256=6875d2c1db421ab96ccbb68855fa9efd4e054297e94dd1b4345eb6a9869da945
+
+# The pinned extractor and the two GGUFs it needs. $VOICE_PACK_TOOL is a build
+# output, not a download: rebuild it at $VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT after a bump
+# rather than pointing this line at a newer tree.
+VOICE_PACK_TOOL=/home/dank/voice-audition/qwentts/qwentts.cpp/build/qwen-codec
+VOICE_PACK_CODEC_MODEL=/home/dank/models/Qwen3-TTS-GGUF/qwen-tokenizer-12hz-Q8_0.gguf
+VOICE_PACK_TALKER_MODEL=/home/dank/models/Qwen3-TTS-GGUF/qwen-talker-1.7b-base-Q4_K_M.gguf
+VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_REPO=https://github.com/ServeurpersoCom/qwentts.cpp
+VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT=5916bf7c79dbb4e66fc059cdc507a79a23a28bb4
+
+# CPU only, and never in the way of the text endpoints on this box: ggml thread
+# count and `nice -n`. The extractor picks the best backend it is given, so the
+# device is stated rather than guessed.
+VOICE_PACK_DEVICE=CPU
+VOICE_PACK_THREADS=8
+VOICE_PACK_NICE=19
+
+# The reference window and the shape the packs are cut to. 24 kHz mono PCM is
+# the codec's own input rate, so no resampling happens inside the engine.
+VOICE_PACK_SAMPLE_RATE=24000
+VOICE_PACK_MIN_SECONDS=18
+VOICE_PACK_MAX_SECONDS=25
+
+# Artifact arithmetic, all four values read out of the pinned tree: the codec
+# runs at 12.5 Hz (1,920 samples per frame at 24 kHz), packs 16 codebooks at 11
+# bits = 22 bytes per frame, and the Base talker's speaker encoder emits
+# enc_dim 2048 f32 = 8,192 bytes. The .rvq window is 22 x 248 = 5,456 B up to
+# 22 x 312 = 6,864 B, i.e. crops of 19.84-25 s: an 18 s crop is a legal
+# reference.wav but too little code for the engine, and the builder says so
+# before it runs anything.
+VOICE_PACK_FRAME_RATE=12.5
+VOICE_PACK_RVQ_BYTES_PER_FRAME=22
+VOICE_PACK_SPK_BYTES=8192
+VOICE_PACK_RVQ_MIN_BYTES=5456
+VOICE_PACK_RVQ_MAX_BYTES=6864
+
+# Where a --force rebuild puts the pack it replaced. Nothing is ever deleted;
+# the retired directory stays readable beside its replacement until a human
+# clears it.
+VOICE_PACK_TRASH_DIRNAME=.AGENTTRASH
diff --git a/serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Voice Packs.md b/serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Voice Packs.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce23c2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Voice Packs.md	
@@ -0,0 +1,251 @@
+---
+type: reference
+description: "How a frank-tts voice pack is built on Dankclaw: the three files every pack must carry, the 10-second source-material gate scripts/build-voice-pack.sh enforces, how to add a fourth voice, and what to do when a pinned engine bump changes the extractor's output sizes."
+tags:
+  - dankclaw
+  - frank-tts
+  - voices
+  - tts
+timestamp: 2026-10-18
+---
+
+# Voice Packs
+
+A **voice pack** is the unit of identity for **frank-tts**: one directory under
+`/home/dank/voices`, named by the voice, carrying the reference audio that makes
+the name real plus the pinned engine's own speaker artifacts and a provenance
+record. `voice=narrator1` on `POST /v1/audio/speech` resolves to
+`/home/dank/voices/narrator1/reference.wav` and to nothing else — a name without
+that file is a 400 that lists the names that do exist, because a silent fallback
+voice is how a wrong-voice endpoint stays wrong for weeks.
+
+**Host:** Dankclaw (192.168.0.143) — **Pack root:** `/home/dank/voices`, host
+state that stays out of the repo, mounted read-only at `/voices` by the façade
+unit — **Builder:** `scripts/build-voice-pack.sh` with tunables in
+`scripts/voice-packs.env` — **Seam:** `tests/voice_pack_unit.bats` — **Engine:**
+arm A `qwentts.cpp`, decided in [[Local TTS and Voice Cloning]].
+
+Packs are **world-readable on purpose** (`drwxr-xr-x`, owner `dank`): the façade
+container runs as uid 10000 and reads the mount from outside its own uid map.
+
+## The required files
+
+| File | What it is | Who reads it |
+|------|------------|--------------|
+| `reference.wav` | the crop: 24 kHz mono `pcm_s16le`, **18–25 s** of clean single-speaker audio | the façade (it is the existence gate for the name) and the engine's boot warmer, which base64s it and registers the voice with no transcript |
+| `reference.spk` | the engine's x-vector: **8,192 B** = `enc_dim` 2048 × f32 | the engine, for the ICL/`--ref-spk` path |
+| `reference.rvq` | the engine's RVQ code stream: **5,456–6,864 B**, 16 codebooks × T frames packed at 11 bits = 22 B per 12.5 Hz frame | the engine, for the ICL/`--ref-rvq` path |
+| `manifest.json` | provenance: source path and sha256, crop start/end offsets, sample rate, duration, the tool and engine commit that made the artifacts, and the `voice` name | humans, and the builder itself on its second gate assertion |
+
+`qwen-codec.log` rides along with the extractor's own record of the run; the
+façade ignores anything it does not name and never deletes anything.
+
+Division of enforcement, which is deliberate and not a gap: the **façade** gates
+on `reference.wav` because that is the only engine-agnostic term (see the
+voice-pack law in `scripts/frank-tts.env`); the **builder** is what refuses to
+emit a pack without its engine artifacts; the **engine** registers a voice from
+the WAV alone because its own `POST /v1/audio/voices` refuses a lone embedding —
+it wants `wav_b64` or **both** `spk_b64` and `rvq_b64`. So the artifacts are in
+the pack to make ICL a per-voice opt-in, not to boot it.
+
+## How a pack is built
+
+```bash
+# everything except the extractor: gate, crop, probe, plan, the manifest it would write
+scripts/build-voice-pack.sh --dry-run narrator1 /home/dank/voices
+
+# the real thing, on the host that holds the engine build
+scripts/build-voice-pack.sh narrator1 /home/dank/voices
+```
+
+Crops come from `scripts/voice-packs.env` — per voice: source path, offset,
+duration, and the source's pinned sha256 — and any of them can be overridden on
+the command line (`--source`, `--offset`, `--duration`, `--sha256`, `--tool`).
+`--all` walks `VOICE_PACKS`. The builder assumes no GPU, no container, no fleet
+endpoint and no network: `ffmpeg` cuts the crop, the pinned extractor makes the
+artifacts, and both run `nice -n 19` so a build never competes with the text
+endpoints on that box.
+
+The extractor is `qwen-codec` in the `qwentts.cpp` tree at
+`VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT` (`5916bf7c79dbb4e66fc059cdc507a79a23a28bb4`). Its
+usage text, read out of that tree and not guessed:
+
+```
+Usage: qwen-codec --model <gguf> [-i <input>] [--talker <gguf>] [--format <fmt>]
+
+Required:
+  --model <gguf>          Codec GGUF (qwen-tokenizer-12hz-*.gguf)
+
+Optional:
+  --device <name>         Compute device: CUDA0, Vulkan0, MTL0, CPU...
+                          (default: best available)
+  -i <path>               Input. WAV -> encode, .rvq -> decode
+  --talker <gguf>         Talker GGUF (Base only). Encode also extracts the speaker
+                          embedding and writes it next to the .rvq as a .spk file
+  --format <fmt>          WAV output format: wav16, wav24, wav32 (default: wav16)
+
+Output is auto-named next to input : clip.wav -> clip.rvq, clip.rvq -> clip.wav.
+```
+
+Three consequences shape the builder. **There is no `-o`**, so the pack's WAV is
+staged under its final stem and the artifacts land beside it with nothing to
+rename. **`--talker` must be a _Base_ talker** — the customvoice and voicedesign
+GGUFs carry no speaker encoder and the tool says `has no speaker encoder (Base
+only)`. **Encode truncates to the hop boundary**, so the `.rvq` size is arithmetic,
+not chance: `22 × floor(samples / 1920)` bytes, which is where the recorded
+5,456–6,864 B window comes from and why the **effective crop window is
+19.84–25 s** even though the WAV law says 18–25 s. A crop shorter than that is
+refused before the extractor runs, with the number in the message.
+
+The build is staged and published, never assembled in place: `reference.wav` is
+the file the façade reads, so it moves into position **last**, after the
+artifacts and the manifest. A failed extractor therefore leaves a pack directory
+that is not a voice. Nothing is ever deleted — an existing pack is refused unless
+`--force`, and `--force` moves the whole old directory to
+`/home/dank/voices/.AGENTTRASH/<voice>-<UTC>/` and builds fresh beside it.
+
+Measured on the shipped `narrator1` crop (2026-10-18, `--dry-run` against the
+real source): 98.739–118.636 s → `955,378 B` of 24 kHz mono `pcm_s16le`, 19.897
+s, planned `.rvq` 5,456 B — the same byte counts the trial produced by hand, and
+the extractor itself costs 1.8–2.1 s and 1.3–1.5 GiB peak per voice.
+
+## The 10-second gate
+
+Project-wide source-material invariant: **the first 10 seconds of any sample
+file used to generate voices is forbidden material.** An offset that starts
+inside it is refused with exit 1 and a message that names the invariant, before
+a directory is created:
+
+```
+ERROR: source-material invariant violated: the crop must start past the first
+10 s of the source file, and 'narrator1' asks for 4.5 s into … — nothing was
+written.
+```
+
+The same gate is then asserted **from the manifest** that was just written —
+`.crop.offset_seconds >= .invariant.forbidden_source_seconds`, plus the recorded
+sha256 against the source it claims — so a pack cannot reach disk carrying a
+forbidden crop even if the offsets in the env file are edited into nonsense.
+`10` is not a knob: `scripts/voice-packs.env` carries the offsets, the sample
+rate, the windows and the engine facts, but the forbidden region is a constant in
+the builder. `tests/voice_pack_unit.bats` pins both halves (a refusal that
+creates nothing, and one legal crop that builds the whole pack) and applies the
+invariant to every crop in the tracked pack list.
+
+## Adding a fourth voice
+
+1. Pick the source file and hash it: `sha256sum /path/to/sample.wav`. A crop
+   offset is a claim about one exact file, so the digest goes in the env with it.
+2. Find a speech-dense stretch **past 10 s**. The trial's recipe, applied once:
+   `ffmpeg -ss 60 -t 600 -i SRC -af silencedetect=noise=-35dB:d=0.6 -f null -`,
+   build the runs of non-silence, keep runs ≥ 18 s, take the longest (earliest
+   on ties), and cap at 25 s. Aim for 20–25 s: shorter than 19.84 s and the
+   `.rvq` falls under the floor.
+3. Add the four lines to `scripts/voice-packs.env` and the name to
+   `VOICE_PACKS`:
+
+   ```
+   VOICE_PACKS="narrator1 narrator2 narrator3 narrator4"
+
+   VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR4_SOURCE=/home/dank/voice-sources/audiosample4.m4b
+   VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR4_OFFSET=142.31
+   VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR4_DURATION=24
+   VOICE_PACK_NARRATOR4_SHA256=<64 hex>
+   ```
+
+   The name must be lowercase `[a-z0-9._-]`: the façade matches the directory
+   name verbatim while `tts-server` lowercases names internally, so an uppercase
+   name would be reported one way by the façade and another by the engine. The
+   builder refuses one anyway.
+4. `scripts/build-voice-pack.sh --dry-run narrator4 /home/dank/voices`, read the
+   plan, then drop `--dry-run`.
+5. `./tests/run.sh` (the pack-list invariant test covers the new row for free).
+6. Register it with the running engine. The engine's voice registry is
+   memory-only and warm-on-boot, but a restart re-decodes **every** voice (6–8 s
+   each), so adding one pack uses the hook instead:
+
+   ```bash
+   podman exec frank-tts-engine /app/warm-voices.sh
+   curl -s localhost:7772/v1/audio/voices      # the façade's list, not the engine's
+   ```
+
+   The hook walks `/voices`, registers any pack with a `reference.wav` it has not
+   seen, and logs `voice <name> cold=…ms warm=…ms` to the unit's journal. The
+   rootless unit restart — `systemctl --user restart frank-tts-engine.service` —
+   is for when the unit or its env changed, not for a new pack.
+
+## When the extractor's output size changes on an engine bump
+
+The builder treats the two artifact sizes as properties of the pinned engine, so
+an engine bump that changes them **fails the build**: `reference.spk is N B,
+expected 8192 B` or `reference.rvq is N B, expected …`. That is the failure being
+loud, not a bug. Work through it in order:
+
+1. Re-read the tool's own numbers rather than trusting this page: `qwen-codec`
+   prints `SpeakerEncoder] Loaded: enc_dim=…` and `Pipeline] Ready: hop … , …
+   codebooks @ … Hz` on every run, and the pinned tree's
+   `tools/qwen-codec.cpp` documents the packing. `enc_dim × 4` is the `.spk`;
+   `codebooks × code_bits / 8` bytes per frame × frames is the `.rvq`.
+2. Decide whether the new number is intended. A changed `enc_dim` means the old
+   `.spk` files are unreadable by the new engine, so **every** pack must be
+   rebuilt, not just the failing one.
+3. Update the four arithmetic lines in `scripts/voice-packs.env`
+   (`VOICE_PACK_SPK_BYTES`, `VOICE_PACK_RVQ_MIN_BYTES`, `VOICE_PACK_RVQ_MAX_BYTES`,
+   and `VOICE_PACK_RVQ_BYTES_PER_FRAME` if the codebook packing changed) **and**
+   `VOICE_PACK_ENGINE_COMMIT`, `VOICE_PACK_TOOL`, `VOICE_PACK_CODEC_MODEL`,
+   `VOICE_PACK_TALKER_MODEL` to the new build. An env diff that moves the sizes
+   without moving the commit is the mistake to avoid.
+4. Rebuild all three packs with `--force` (the retired directories keep the old
+   bytes readable beside their replacements until a human clears them), then
+   restart the engine rather than using the warm hook: the hook only registers
+   packs it has **not** seen, and every voice here is already registered against
+   the old artifacts. `systemctl --user restart frank-tts-engine.service`
+   re-warms them all from the new bytes.
+5. `./tests/voice_pack_unit.bats` — the stub in that seam reproduces the packing
+   law, so it needs the same arithmetic update as the env file. The seam's
+   engine-bump test is exactly this scenario with a wrong `.spk` size, and its
+   assertion — no `reference.wav`, no manifest — is the property that matters.
+
+## Host state (census 2026-10-18, read-only)
+
+- `/home/dank/voices/` holds `narrator1`, `narrator2`, `narrator3`, each with
+  `reference.wav`, a `reference16k.wav`, and a `manifest.json` **in the trial's
+  own schema** (`kind: voice-reference-pack`, a silence-scan record). They carry
+  **no** `reference.spk` / `reference.rvq`: the trial's artifacts live in its own
+  work directory (`/home/dank/voice-audition/qwentts/voices/`, and only for
+  narrator1 and narrator2). The builder's first real run is therefore a
+  migration, and it should be a `--force` run per voice so the old directories
+  are retired rather than left half-updated.
+- The three source files (`/home/blank/audiosample.mp3`,
+  `audiosample2.m4b`, `audiosample3.m4b`, digests pinned in
+  `scripts/voice-packs.env`) live on the workstation, not on Dankclaw; the
+  builder reads them from `$VOICE_PACK_SOURCE_DIR=/home/dank/voice-sources`, so
+  they have to be copied there once before a build.
+- `VOICE_PACK_TOOL` points at the trial's build tree
+  (`/home/dank/voice-audition/qwentts/qwentts.cpp/build/qwen-codec`, checked out
+  at exactly `5916bf7c`), and the two GGUFs at
+  `/home/dank/models/Qwen3-TTS-GGUF/`, which is where the engine slice's
+  download script puts them — that directory does not exist yet, so until it
+  does the models have to come from the trial's `models/` directory.
+- Nothing is deployed: nothing listens on 7772 or 8880 today, so building packs
+  is possible on that host while serving them is not.
+
+## Known gaps, on purpose
+
+- **No transcript in the manifest.** ICL wants a `ref_text` that matches the
+  crop, and the trial's machine transcripts came back wrong ("Demon Souls" for
+  *Dark Souls*). Transcribing on the host is not a fix, so the pack carries none
+  and the engine registers the WAV-only voice, which is what its boot warmer
+  does anyway. When ICL becomes a per-voice opt-in, the curated transcript
+  belongs in this manifest — a human-supplied field, not something the builder
+  can derive.
+- **No 16 kHz variant.** The packs the trial left behind carry
+  `reference16k.wav` for the `llama-tts-cli` rollback engine; arm A is native
+  24 kHz, so the builder emits one reference. `--force` retires the whole
+  directory including that variant, so if the rollback engine is ever revived:
+  `ffmpeg -i reference.wav -ar 16000 -c:a pcm_s16le reference16k.wav`.
+- **No loudness pass.** The trial's pipeline also measured and normalised
+  (two-pass `loudnorm`, `astats`, `ebur128`, spectrograms) to a `-16 LUFS` spec.
+  None of that is in the pack law, which asks for 24 kHz mono inside the
+  duration window, so the builder does only that; a future engine that is
+  loudness-sensitive should get the pass as an explicit, documented step.
diff --git a/serverAppConfigs-docs/index.md b/serverAppConfigs-docs/index.md
index fe38343..65571ad 100644
--- a/serverAppConfigs-docs/index.md
+++ b/serverAppConfigs-docs/index.md
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ macOS mini) as quadlets inside its podman machine — not on Dankserver.
 - [[Seerr]] — unified *arr request manager (guard-chained; fronts FrankBook-Pro's stack)
 - [[Marreta]] — content-cleaning proxy (guard-chained; shares SearXNG's Gluetun egress)
 - [[Open Notebook]] — podcast generator (scripts by frank-zealot, voices by frank-tts); repo-owned config, not deployed
+- [[Voice Packs]] — how a frank-tts voice is built: reference.wav + the pinned engine's speaker artifacts, cut past the 10-second source-material gate
 
 ## Infrastructure
 
diff --git a/serverAppConfigs-docs/log.md b/serverAppConfigs-docs/log.md
index 81b1454..74fba84 100644
--- a/serverAppConfigs-docs/log.md
+++ b/serverAppConfigs-docs/log.md
@@ -2441,3 +2441,56 @@ every restart since the cutover.
   `~/.harbor/compose.opennotebook.yml` pins the deprecated `-single` image,
   carries no encryption key and injects the whole harbor env — left untouched,
   read-only, as the record of what not to copy.
+
+## 2026-10-18 — voice-pack builder: the 10-second source-material gate becomes code
+
+- Third slice of the voice stack (after the façade and the engine decision):
+  `scripts/build-voice-pack.sh` turns a source recording plus a crop offset into
+  a deployable pack — `reference.wav` (24 kHz mono `pcm_s16le`, 18–25 s), the
+  engine's own `reference.spk` (8,192 B) + `reference.rvq` (5,456–6,864 B) made
+  from it, and `manifest.json` provenance. Tracked tunables in
+  `scripts/voice-packs.env`: pack list, per-voice source/offset/duration/pinned
+  source sha256, extractor path and engine commit, artifact arithmetic. New runbook
+  [[Voice Packs]].
+- **The gate is the product.** The project-wide invariant — no voice material
+  from the first 10 s of a sample file — had only ever been a sentence in
+  `scripts/frank-tts.env`. An offset inside it now exits 1 before a directory is
+  created, and the same assertion runs again against the manifest that was just
+  written, next to the recorded sha256, so a pack cannot carry a forbidden crop
+  even if the env file is edited into nonsense. `10` stays a constant in the
+  builder; the env file carries offsets, never the law.
+- **The extractor's contract was read, not guessed:** `qwen-codec` in qwentts.cpp
+  `5916bf7c` takes `--model <codec gguf> --talker <base talker gguf> -i <wav>`
+  with an optional `--device`, has **no `-o`** and names both artifacts next to
+  the input with the extension swapped. So the WAV is staged under its final stem
+  and `reference.wav` — the file the façade gates on — is moved into place
+  **last**, after the artifacts and the manifest: a failed extractor leaves a
+  directory that is not a voice. `--force` retires an existing pack whole to
+  `.AGENTTRASH/` instead of touching bytes; nothing in this script deletes.
+- Sizes are arithmetic, so they are checked: 16 codebooks × 11 bits = 22 B per
+  12.5 Hz frame (`22 × floor(samples/1920)`) and `enc_dim 2048 × f32` = 8,192 B.
+  That makes the **effective crop window 19.84–25 s**, narrower than the WAV
+  law's 18–25 s, and a too-short crop is refused before the extractor runs. An
+  engine bump that changes either number fails the build by design; the bump
+  procedure is in [[Voice Packs]].
+- Verified against reality, not against the model: the pinned `narrator1` crop
+  (98.739–118.636 s of `audiosample.mp3`, sha256 `2299510…`) comes out of a
+  `--dry-run` at 955,378 B / 19.897 s with 5,456 B of `.rvq` planned — byte-for-byte
+  the trial's hand-cut numbers — and all three pinned source digests match the
+  files on disk.
+- Seam: `tests/voice_pack_unit.bats` (13 tests) — refusal inside the forbidden
+  region creates nothing, a legal crop builds the whole pack, `ffprobe` on the
+  generated reference, manifest round-trip through `jq` with a sha that matches
+  the source, re-run-without-`--force` leaves every byte alone, `--force` retires
+  rather than deletes, `--dry-run` needs no extractor, a wrong-sized artifact
+  from a bumped engine cannot publish a voice, and every crop in the tracked pack
+  list clears the invariant. `qwen-codec` is stood in by a stub with the real
+  tool's I/O shape, so no engine, no GPU, no network, no fleet host. Suite green:
+  **416/416** (`./tests/run.sh`, wall 77 s) — 403 before this branch.
+- Deliberately NOT done: no transcript in the manifest (ICL wants a curated
+  `ref_text`; the trial's machine transcripts were wrong, and the engine
+  registers WAV-only voices anyway), no 16 kHz variant (arm A is native 24 kHz),
+  no loudness pass (not in the pack law), and no pack built on the host — the
+  three sources still live on the workstation and the engine GGUFs have not been
+  fetched to `/home/dank/models/Qwen3-TTS-GGUF` yet, so the first real run is a
+  host step.
diff --git a/tests/voice_pack_unit.bats b/tests/voice_pack_unit.bats
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..77d1d01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/voice_pack_unit.bats
@@ -0,0 +1,268 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bats
+# Seam: the voice-pack builder (scripts/build-voice-pack.sh).
+#
+# The contract this pins is the one frank-tts's packs live or die by. A crop is
+# only usable voice material if it starts PAST the first 10 seconds of the
+# source file — the project-wide source-material invariant — and this builder is
+# the thing that enforces it, because nothing downstream looks at offsets again.
+# A pack is three files plus provenance: reference.wav at 24 kHz mono inside the
+# 18-25 s window, the engine's own speaker artifacts beside it, and a
+# manifest.json whose sha256 still matches the bytes the crop came from. Builds
+# refuse to clobber what is already on disk, and --force retires rather than
+# deletes.
+#
+# No engine binary, no model, no GPU, no network and no fleet host: the crop is
+# cut from a locally generated tone and the pinned extractor is stood in by a
+# stub that mirrors the real tool's I/O shape (no -o flag: outputs named next to
+# the input with the extension swapped, at the sizes the codec's config
+# implies), which is how frank_tts_unit.bats drives its backends too.
+
+load helpers
+
+setup() {
+    BUILDER="$REPO_ROOT/scripts/build-voice-pack.sh"
+    ENV_FILE="$REPO_ROOT/scripts/voice-packs.env"
+    TEST_TMP="$(mktemp -d)"
+    PACKS="$TEST_TMP/packs"
+    mkdir -p "$PACKS"
+    STUB_ARGV="$TEST_TMP/stub-argv.tsv"
+    export STUB_ARGV
+
+    # Forty seconds of "recording": stereo 44.1 kHz, so a legal build has to
+    # downmix and resample just as it does on a real audiobook. Every crop this
+    # file takes starts at or past 12 s, well out of the forbidden region.
+    ffmpeg -v error -y -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=330:sample_rate=44100:duration=40" \
+        -ac 2 -c:a pcm_s16le "$TEST_TMP/source.wav"
+    SOURCE_SHA="$(sha256sum "$TEST_TMP/source.wav" | awk '{ print $1 }')"
+
+    write_stub_tool
+    # The shipped tunables file, then the three machine-local overrides that
+    # point the engine at the stub: the real env stays under test.
+    cat "$ENV_FILE" > "$TEST_TMP/env"
+    {
+        printf 'VOICE_PACK_DIR=%s\n' "$PACKS"
+        printf 'VOICE_PACK_TOOL=%s\n' "$TEST_TMP/qwen-codec"
+        printf 'VOICE_PACK_CODEC_MODEL=%s\n' "$TEST_TMP/codec.gguf"
+        printf 'VOICE_PACK_TALKER_MODEL=%s\n' "$TEST_TMP/talker.gguf"
+    } >> "$TEST_TMP/env"
+    printf 'stub-codec-weights\n' > "$TEST_TMP/codec.gguf"
+    printf 'stub-talker-weights\n' > "$TEST_TMP/talker.gguf"
+}
+
+teardown() {
+    rm -rf "$TEST_TMP"
+}
+
+# write_stub_tool — stand-in for qwen-codec. Records what it was handed and
+# writes <input-stem>.spk / <input-stem>.rvq, exactly where the real tool would.
+# STUB_SPK_BYTES lets one test be an engine that changed its x-vector size.
+write_stub_tool() {
+    cat > "$TEST_TMP/qwen-codec" <<'STUB'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+input="" model="" talker=""
+while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
+    case "$1" in
+        --model)  model="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+        --talker) talker="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+        --device) shift 2 ;;
+        -i)       input="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+        *)        shift ;;
+    esac
+done
+printf 'model=%s\ttalker=%s\tinput=%s\n' "$model" "$talker" "$input" >> "$STUB_ARGV"
+[ -n "$input" ] || exit 2
+[ -s "$model" ] || exit 3
+[ -s "$talker" ] || exit 4
+dur="$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=duration -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$input")"
+frames="$(awk -v d="$dur" 'BEGIN { printf "%d\n", int(int(d * 24000 + 0.5) / 1920) }')"
+head -c "${STUB_SPK_BYTES:-8192}" /dev/zero > "${input%.wav}.spk"
+head -c "$((22 * frames))" /dev/zero > "${input%.wav}.rvq"
+printf '[Stub] Wrote %s.rvq: %d packed bytes\n' "${input%.wav}" "$((22 * frames))" >&2
+STUB
+    chmod +x "$TEST_TMP/qwen-codec"
+}
+
+# build — a real (non-dry) run against the stub tool with the tone as source.
+build() {
+    local voice="$1"
+    shift
+    run "$BUILDER" --env "$TEST_TMP/env" \
+        --source "$TEST_TMP/source.wav" --sha256 "$SOURCE_SHA" "$@" "$voice" "$PACKS"
+}
+
+pack_files() {
+    ls "$PACKS/$1" 2>/dev/null | sort | tr '\n' ' '
+}
+
+@test "a crop offset inside the first ten seconds is refused and names the invariant" {
+    build narrator1 --offset 4.5 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    [[ "$output" == *"source-material invariant"* ]]
+    [[ "$output" == *"first 10 s"* ]]
+    # Refused before anything was created, not cleaned up afterwards.
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1" ]
+    [ ! -s "$STUB_ARGV" ]
+}
+
+@test "the identical crop at a legal offset builds the whole pack" {
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    [[ "$output" == *"CROP       12 s .. 32 s"* ]]
+    [[ "$output" == *"VOICE_PACK_BUILT narrator1 $PACKS/narrator1"* ]]
+    [ -f "$PACKS/narrator1/reference.wav" ]
+    [ -f "$PACKS/narrator1/reference.spk" ]
+    [ -f "$PACKS/narrator1/reference.rvq" ]
+    [ -f "$PACKS/narrator1/manifest.json" ]
+}
+
+@test "reference.wav comes out 24 kHz mono pcm inside the 18-25 s window" {
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    local wav="$PACKS/narrator1/reference.wav"
+    [ "$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$wav")" = "pcm_s16le" ]
+    [ "$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=sample_rate -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$wav")" = "24000" ]
+    [ "$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=channels -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$wav")" = "1" ]
+    local dur
+    dur="$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=nw=1:nk=1 "$wav")"
+    awk -v d="$dur" 'BEGIN { exit !(d >= 18 && d <= 25) }'
+}
+
+@test "the manifest round-trips through jq with offsets and a sha that matches the source" {
+    build narrator2 --offset 15 --duration 22.5
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    local manifest="$PACKS/narrator2/manifest.json"
+    jq -e '
+        .voice == "narrator2"
+        and (.crop.offset_seconds == 15)
+        and (.crop.end_seconds == 37.5)
+        and (.reference.sample_rate == 24000)
+        and (.reference.channels == 1)
+        and (.reference.duration_seconds >= 18 and .reference.duration_seconds <= 25)
+        and (.artifacts.engine_commit | test("^[0-9a-f]{40}$"))
+        and (.artifacts.produced == true)
+        and (.invariant.forbidden_source_seconds == 10)
+    ' "$manifest"
+    # The recorded hash is the source's hash, not a hash of something else.
+    [ "$(jq -r .source.sha256 "$manifest")" = "$(sha256sum "$TEST_TMP/source.wav" | awk '{ print $1 }')" ]
+    # The pack's provenance names the tool that made the artifacts and the files
+    # it wrote beside the WAV.
+    [ "$(jq -r .artifacts.tool "$manifest")" = "$TEST_TMP/qwen-codec" ]
+    grep -q "input=$PACKS/narrator2/staging-reference.wav" "$STUB_ARGV"
+}
+
+@test "a wrong pinned sha stops the build before a crop is cut" {
+    run "$BUILDER" --env "$TEST_TMP/env" --source "$TEST_TMP/source.wav" \
+        --sha256 "$(printf '0%.0s' {1..64})" --offset 12 --duration 20 narrator1 "$PACKS"
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"sha256"* ]]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1" ]
+}
+
+@test "a crop that runs off the end of the source is refused" {
+    build narrator1 --offset 30 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"crop would come out short"* ]]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1" ]
+}
+
+@test "a crop under the engine's artifact window is refused before the extractor runs" {
+    # 18.5 s is inside the reference window but packs to 22 * 231 = 5,082 B of
+    # .rvq, under the 5,456 B the pinned codec config produces — the builder
+    # says so rather than running an extractor that would emit it anyway.
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 18.5
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    [[ "$output" == *"5456"* ]]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1" ]
+    [ ! -s "$STUB_ARGV" ]
+}
+
+@test "an extractor whose artifact size changed does not get a published voice" {
+    # The engine-bump case: a 4,096 B x-vector is not the 8,192 B the pinned
+    # encoder emits, so the pack must not reach the state the shim reads.
+    export STUB_SPK_BYTES=4096
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"reference.spk"* ]]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1/reference.wav" ]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1/manifest.json" ]
+}
+
+@test "re-running without --force refuses and leaves every byte alone" {
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    sha256sum "$PACKS"/narrator1/* > "$TEST_TMP/before.sha"
+
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    [[ "$output" == *"--force"* ]]
+    sha256sum -c --quiet "$TEST_TMP/before.sha"
+    [ "$(find "$PACKS" -name .AGENTTRASH -prune -o -type f -newer "$TEST_TMP/before.sha" -print | wc -l)" -eq 0 ]
+}
+
+@test "--force retires the previous pack instead of deleting anything" {
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    cp "$PACKS/narrator1/reference.wav" "$TEST_TMP/first-reference.wav"
+
+    build narrator1 --offset 12 --duration 20 --force
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    [[ "$output" == *"RETIRED"* ]]
+    # The old bytes survive, whole, under the trash directory beside the pack.
+    local retired
+    retired="$(find "$PACKS/.AGENTTRASH" -name reference.wav | head -n1)"
+    [ -n "$retired" ]
+    cmp "$retired" "$TEST_TMP/first-reference.wav"
+    [ -f "$PACKS/narrator1/reference.wav" ]
+}
+
+@test "--dry-run needs no extractor at all" {
+    # Everything up to the engine: the gate, the crop, the probe, the plan and
+    # the manifest it would write — with the tool path pointed at nothing.
+    run "$BUILDER" --env "$TEST_TMP/env" --tool "$TEST_TMP/no-such-tool" \
+        --source "$TEST_TMP/source.wav" --sha256 "$SOURCE_SHA" \
+        --offset 12 --duration 20 --dry-run narrator1 "$PACKS"
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ] || { echo "$output"; false; }
+    [[ "$output" == *"not present"* ]]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/narrator1" ]
+    [ ! -s "$STUB_ARGV" ]
+    printf '%s\n' "$output" | awk '/^MANIFEST_BEGIN$/{p=1;next} /^MANIFEST_END$/{p=0} p' \
+        | jq -e '.voice == "narrator1" and .crop.offset_seconds == 12 and .artifacts.produced == false'
+}
+
+@test "a name the façade could not resolve is refused" {
+    # app.py matches the directory name verbatim while the engine lowercases
+    # names, and a slash would escape $VOICES_DIR: both are refused here, at the
+    # only moment anyone can still fix them.
+    for bad in 'Narrator1' '../evil' 'voice name'; do
+        run "$BUILDER" --env "$TEST_TMP/env" --source "$TEST_TMP/source.wav" \
+            --offset 12 --duration 20 "$bad" "$PACKS"
+        [ "$status" -ne 0 ] || { echo "accepted '$bad': $output"; false; }
+        [[ "$output" == *"voice name"* ]]
+    done
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/Narrator1" ]
+    [ ! -e "$PACKS/evil" ]
+}
+
+@test "every crop in the tracked pack list clears the invariant" {
+    # The law applied to the values the repo actually ships: no pack may be
+    # described by an offset inside the forbidden region, a length outside the
+    # reference window, or a source with no digest to verify it against.
+    set -a
+    # shellcheck disable=SC1090
+    source "$ENV_FILE"
+    set +a
+    local checked=0 pack upper
+    read -r -a packs <<<"$VOICE_PACKS"
+    for pack in "${packs[@]}"; do
+        upper="$(printf '%s' "$pack" | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]')"
+        local offset_var="VOICE_PACK_${upper}_OFFSET" duration_var="VOICE_PACK_${upper}_DURATION"
+        local sha_var="VOICE_PACK_${upper}_SHA256" source_var="VOICE_PACK_${upper}_SOURCE"
+        [ -n "${!source_var:-}" ] || { echo "$pack has no source path"; false; }
+        printf '%s' "${!sha_var}" | grep -Eq '^[0-9a-f]{64}$' || { echo "$pack has no pinned sha256"; false; }
+        awk -v o="${!offset_var}" 'BEGIN { exit !(o >= 10) }' || { echo "$pack crops at ${!offset_var} s, inside the forbidden first 10 s"; false; }
+        awk -v d="${!duration_var}" 'BEGIN { exit !(d >= 18 && d <= 25) }' || { echo "$pack crops ${!duration_var} s, outside 18-25 s"; false; }
+        checked=$((checked + 1))
+    done
+    [ "$checked" -gt 0 ]
+}