Replace OpenAI-only STT with a dual-provider system mirroring the TTS
architecture (Edge TTS free / ElevenLabs paid):
STT: faster-whisper local (free, default) / OpenAI Whisper API (paid)
Changes:
- tools/transcription_tools.py: Full rewrite with provider dispatch,
config loading, local faster-whisper backend, and OpenAI API backend.
Auto-downloads model (~150MB for 'base') on first voice message.
Singleton model instance reused across calls.
- pyproject.toml: Add faster-whisper>=1.0.0 as core dependency
- hermes_cli/config.py: Expand stt config to match TTS pattern with
provider selection and per-provider model settings
- agent/context_compressor.py: Fix .strip() crash when LLM returns
non-string content (dict from llama.cpp, None). Fixes#1100 partially.
- tests/: 23 new tests for STT providers + 2 for compressor fix
- docs/: Updated Voice & TTS page with STT provider table, model sizes,
config examples, and fallback behavior
Fallback behavior:
- Local not installed → OpenAI API (if key set)
- OpenAI key not set → local whisper (if installed)
- Neither → graceful error message to user
Co-authored-by: Jah-yee <Jah-yee@users.noreply.github.com>
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