fix(responses): classify streamed reasoning as a reasoning item live (#9658)

In the /v1/responses streaming handler a reasoning model's thinking
monologue was streamed to the client as normal message text (a msg_
output item with output_text.delta) and only reclassified into a
reasoning item after the stream completed. Subsequent output_text.delta
events also kept referencing the old msg_ item id instead of the
reasoning_ id.

Root causes:

1. The live reasoning item was gated on extractor.Reasoning(), which is
   only updated by the Go-side raw-tag parser (ProcessToken). When the
   C++ autoparser drives reasoning through reasoning_content ChatDeltas,
   the reasoning delta is computed via ProcessChatDeltaReasoning into a
   separate accumulator, so extractor.Reasoning() stays empty and the
   gate never fired. The reasoning item was thus only reconstructed at
   end-of-stream.

2. The non-tool-call path created the message/msg_ output item eagerly
   before any token, forcing reasoning to a higher output index and
   making mis-split <think> text land on the pre-existing message item.

3. Neither path carried the sticky preferAutoparser flag, so a
   content-only autoparser (the non-jinja pure-content fallback, #9985)
   could leak <think>...</think> tokens into content.

Extract the per-token reasoning-vs-message classification into a pure,
unit-tested streamReasoningRouter (mirroring chooseDeferredReasoning and
processStream in the chat streaming worker): it gates the reasoning item
on the reasoning delta, opens the message item lazily on the first
content delta, and keeps a sticky preferAutoparser fallback. Both
streaming paths now route reasoning deltas to the reasoning_ id and order
the reasoning item ahead of the message at completion.

Assisted-by: claude:claude-opus-4-8 [Claude Code]
Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>

.github/backend-matrix.yml

@@ -703,6 +703,19 @@ include:
     dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
     context: "./"
     ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  - build-type: 'cublas'
+    cuda-major-version: "12"
+    cuda-minor-version: "8"
+    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
+    base-image: "ubuntu:24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
   - build-type: 'cublas'
     cuda-major-version: "12"
     cuda-minor-version: "8"
@@ -1543,6 +1556,19 @@ include:
     dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
     context: "./"
     ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  - build-type: 'cublas'
+    cuda-major-version: "13"
+    cuda-minor-version: "0"
+    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-gpu-nvidia-cuda-13-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
+    base-image: "ubuntu:24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
   - build-type: 'cublas'
     cuda-major-version: "13"
     cuda-minor-version: "0"
@@ -1569,6 +1595,19 @@ include:
     backend: "rfdetr-cpp"
     dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
     context: "./"
+  - build-type: 'cublas'
+    cuda-major-version: "13"
+    cuda-minor-version: "0"
+    platforms: 'linux/arm64'
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-nvidia-l4t-cuda-13-arm64-locate-anything-cpp'
+    base-image: "ubuntu:24.04"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-24.04-arm'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
   - build-type: 'cublas'
     cuda-major-version: "13"
     cuda-minor-version: "0"
@@ -1766,20 +1805,6 @@ include:
     dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.llama-cpp"
     context: "./"
     ubuntu-version: '2404'
-  - build-type: 'hipblas'
-    cuda-major-version: ""
-    cuda-minor-version: ""
-    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
-    tag-latest: 'auto'
-    tag-suffix: '-gpu-rocm-hipblas-turboquant'
-    builder-base-image: 'quay.io/go-skynet/ci-cache:base-grpc-rocm-amd64'
-    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
-    base-image: "rocm/dev-ubuntu-24.04:7.2.1"
-    skip-drivers: 'false'
-    backend: "turboquant"
-    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.turboquant"
-    context: "./"
-    ubuntu-version: '2404'
   - build-type: 'hipblas'
     cuda-major-version: ""
     cuda-minor-version: ""
@@ -2820,6 +2845,74 @@ include:
     dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
     context: "./"
     ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  # locate-anything-cpp
+  - build-type: ''
+    cuda-major-version: ""
+    cuda-minor-version: ""
+    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-cpu-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
+    base-image: "ubuntu:24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  - build-type: 'sycl_f32'
+    cuda-major-version: ""
+    cuda-minor-version: ""
+    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-gpu-intel-sycl-f32-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
+    base-image: "intel/oneapi-basekit:2025.3.0-0-devel-ubuntu24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  - build-type: 'sycl_f16'
+    cuda-major-version: ""
+    cuda-minor-version: ""
+    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-gpu-intel-sycl-f16-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
+    base-image: "intel/oneapi-basekit:2025.3.0-0-devel-ubuntu24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  - build-type: 'vulkan'
+    cuda-major-version: ""
+    cuda-minor-version: ""
+    platforms: 'linux/amd64'
+    platform-tag: 'amd64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-gpu-vulkan-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
+    base-image: "ubuntu:24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
+  - build-type: 'vulkan'
+    cuda-major-version: ""
+    cuda-minor-version: ""
+    platforms: 'linux/arm64'
+    platform-tag: 'arm64'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-gpu-vulkan-locate-anything-cpp'
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-24.04-arm'
+    base-image: "ubuntu:24.04"
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2404'
   - build-type: 'sycl_f32'
     cuda-major-version: ""
     cuda-minor-version: ""
@@ -2913,6 +3006,19 @@ include:
     dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
     context: "./"
     ubuntu-version: '2204'
+  - build-type: 'cublas'
+    cuda-major-version: "12"
+    cuda-minor-version: "0"
+    platforms: 'linux/arm64'
+    skip-drivers: 'false'
+    tag-latest: 'auto'
+    tag-suffix: '-nvidia-l4t-arm64-locate-anything-cpp'
+    base-image: "nvcr.io/nvidia/l4t-jetpack:r36.4.0"
+    runs-on: 'ubuntu-24.04-arm'
+    backend: "locate-anything-cpp"
+    dockerfile: "./backend/Dockerfile.golang"
+    context: "./"
+    ubuntu-version: '2204'
   # whisper
   - build-type: ''
     cuda-major-version: ""
@@ -4355,6 +4461,10 @@ includeDarwin:
     tag-suffix: "-metal-darwin-arm64-silero-vad"
     build-type: "metal"
     lang: "go"
+  - backend: "sherpa-onnx"
+    tag-suffix: "-metal-darwin-arm64-sherpa-onnx"
+    build-type: "metal"
+    lang: "go"
   - backend: "local-store"
     tag-suffix: "-metal-darwin-arm64-local-store"
     build-type: "metal"
@@ -4362,3 +4472,6 @@ includeDarwin:
   - backend: "llama-cpp-quantization"
     tag-suffix: "-metal-darwin-arm64-llama-cpp-quantization"
     build-type: "mps"
+  - backend: "speaker-recognition"
+    tag-suffix: "-metal-darwin-arm64-speaker-recognition"
+    build-type: "mps"

.github/gallery-agent/main.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"strconv"
@@ -113,6 +114,17 @@ func main() {
 	fmt.Println("Searching for trending models on HuggingFace...")
 	rawModels, err := client.GetTrending(searchTerm, limit)
 	if err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, hfapi.ErrRateLimited) {
+			fmt.Printf("HuggingFace API is rate limited after retries, skipping this run: %v\n", err)
+			writeSummary(AddedModelSummary{
+				SearchTerm:     searchTerm,
+				TotalFound:     0,
+				ModelsAdded:    0,
+				Quantization:   quantization,
+				ProcessingTime: time.Since(startTime).String(),
+			})
+			return
+		}
 		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Error fetching models: %v\n", err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
@@ -277,4 +289,3 @@ func truncateString(s string, maxLen int) string {
 	}
 	return s[:maxLen] + "..."
 }
-

.github/workflows/bump_deps.yaml

@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@ jobs:
             variable: "RFDETR_VERSION"
             branch: "main"
             file: "backend/go/rfdetr-cpp/Makefile"
+          - repository: "mudler/locate-anything.cpp"
+            variable: "LOCATEANYTHING_VERSION"
+            branch: "master"
+            file: "backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/Makefile"
           - repository: "predict-woo/qwen3-tts.cpp"
             variable: "QWEN3TTS_CPP_VERSION"
             branch: "main"

.github/workflows/secscan.yaml

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ jobs:
         if: ${{ github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]' }}
       - name: Run Gosec Security Scanner
         if: ${{ github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]' }}
-        uses: securego/gosec@v2.22.9
+        uses: securego/gosec@v2.27.1
         with:
           # we let the report trigger content trigger a failure using the GitHub Security features.
           args: '-no-fail -fmt sarif -out results.sarif ./...'

.github/workflows/test-extra.yml

@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ jobs:
       acestep-cpp: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.acestep-cpp }}
       qwen3-tts-cpp: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.qwen3-tts-cpp }}
       rfdetr-cpp: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.rfdetr-cpp }}
+      locate-anything-cpp: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.locate-anything-cpp }}
       vibevoice-cpp: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.vibevoice-cpp }}
       localvqe: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.localvqe }}
       voxtral: ${{ steps.detect.outputs.voxtral }}
@@ -563,7 +564,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Run e2e-backends smoke
         env:
           BACKEND_IMAGE: quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-cpu-llama-cpp
-          BACKEND_TEST_CAPS: health,load,predict,stream,logprobs,logit_bias
+          BACKEND_TEST_CAPS: health,load,predict,stream,logprobs,logit_bias,tokenize
         run: |
           make test-extra-backend
   # Realtime e2e with sherpa-onnx driving VAD + STT + TTS against a mocked LLM.
@@ -901,6 +902,45 @@ jobs:
       - name: Test rfdetr-cpp
         run: |
           make --jobs=5 --output-sync=target -C backend/go/rfdetr-cpp test
+  # Per-backend e2e for locate-anything-cpp: builds the .so + Go binary and
+  # runs `make -C backend/go/locate-anything-cpp test`. test.sh fetches the
+  # locate-anything-q8_0 GGUF (~6.3 GB, NVIDIA LocateAnything-3B) from the
+  # published mudler/locate-anything.cpp-gguf HF repo + a COCO image, then the
+  # Go wire test loads the model and runs an open-vocabulary Detect, asserting
+  # at least one labeled box. Heavier than the other Go backends (it is a 3B),
+  # so it is gated to changes under backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/.
+  tests-locate-anything-cpp:
+    needs: detect-changes
+    if: needs.detect-changes.outputs.locate-anything-cpp == 'true' || needs.detect-changes.outputs.run-all == 'true'
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Clone
+        uses: actions/checkout@v6
+        with:
+          submodules: true
+      - name: Dependencies
+        run: |
+          sudo apt-get update
+          sudo apt-get install -y build-essential cmake curl libopenblas-dev
+      - name: Setup Go
+        uses: actions/setup-go@v5
+      - name: Display Go version
+        run: go version
+      - name: Proto Dependencies
+        run: |
+          # Install protoc
+          curl -L -s https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/download/v26.1/protoc-26.1-linux-x86_64.zip -o protoc.zip && \
+          unzip -j -d /usr/local/bin protoc.zip bin/protoc && \
+          rm protoc.zip
+          go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go@v1.34.2
+          go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc@1958fcbe2ca8bd93af633f11e97d44e567e945af
+          PATH="$PATH:$HOME/go/bin" make protogen-go
+      - name: Build locate-anything-cpp
+        run: |
+          make --jobs=5 --output-sync=target -C backend/go/locate-anything-cpp
+      - name: Test locate-anything-cpp
+        run: |
+          make --jobs=5 --output-sync=target -C backend/go/locate-anything-cpp test
   # Per-backend smoke for vibevoice-cpp: builds the .so + Go binary and
   # runs `make -C backend/go/vibevoice-cpp test`. test.sh auto-downloads
   # the published mudler/vibevoice.cpp-models bundle (TTS Q8_0 + ASR Q4_K

.github/workflows/test.yml

@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ jobs:
           if-no-files-found: ignore
       - name: Setup tmate session if tests fail
         if: ${{ failure() }}
-        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.24
+        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.23
         with:
           detached: true
           connect-timeout-seconds: 180
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ jobs:
           PATH="$PATH:$HOME/go/bin" BUILD_TYPE="GITHUB_CI_HAS_BROKEN_METAL" CMAKE_ARGS="-DGGML_F16C=OFF -DGGML_AVX512=OFF -DGGML_AVX2=OFF -DGGML_FMA=OFF" make --jobs 4 --output-sync=target test
       - name: Setup tmate session if tests fail
         if: ${{ failure() }}
-        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.24
+        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.23
         with:
           detached: true
           connect-timeout-seconds: 180

.github/workflows/tests-aio.yml

@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ jobs:
             PATH="$PATH:$HOME/go/bin" make backends/local-store backends/silero-vad backends/llama-cpp backends/whisper backends/piper backends/stablediffusion-ggml docker-build-e2e e2e-aio
       - name: Setup tmate session if tests fail
         if: ${{ failure() }}
-        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.24
+        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.23
         with:
           detached: true
           connect-timeout-seconds: 180

.github/workflows/tests-e2e.yml

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ jobs:
           PATH="$PATH:$HOME/go/bin" make build-mock-backend test-e2e
       - name: Setup tmate session if tests fail
         if: ${{ failure() }}
-        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.24
+        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.23
         with:
           detached: true
           connect-timeout-seconds: 180

.github/workflows/tests-ui-e2e.yml

@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ jobs:
           retention-days: 7
       - name: Setup tmate session if tests fail
         if: ${{ failure() }}
-        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.24
+        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3.23
         with:
           detached: true
           connect-timeout-seconds: 180

Dockerfile

@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ RUN <<EOT bash
         apt-get update && \
         apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
             cuda-nvcc-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
+            cuda-nvrtc-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
             libcufft-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
             libcurand-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
             libcublas-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \

Makefile

@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ osx-signed: build
 
 ## Run
 run: ## run local-ai
-	CGO_LDFLAGS="$(CGO_LDFLAGS)" $(GOCMD) run ./
+	CGO_LDFLAGS="$(CGO_LDFLAGS)" $(GOCMD) run ./cmd/local-ai
 
 prepare-test: protogen-go build-mock-backend
 
@@ -309,13 +309,20 @@ run-e2e-aio: protogen-go
 	@echo 'Running e2e AIO tests'
 	$(GOCMD) run github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2/ginkgo --flake-attempts $(TEST_FLAKES) -v -r ./tests/e2e-aio
 
+# Distributed architecture e2e (PostgreSQL + NATS via testcontainers).
+# Includes NatsJWT specs (JWT-enabled NATS). Requires Docker.
+# VLLMMultinode is excluded here; use test-e2e-vllm-multinode for that.
+test-e2e-distributed: protogen-go
+	@echo 'Running distributed e2e tests (label Distributed, incl. NatsJWT)'
+	$(GOCMD) run github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2/ginkgo --label-filter='Distributed && !VLLMMultinode' --flake-attempts $(TEST_FLAKES) -v -r ./tests/e2e/distributed
+
 # vLLM multi-node DP smoke (CPU). Builds local-ai:tests and the
 # cpu-vllm backend from the current working tree, then drives a
 # head + headless follower via testcontainers-go and asserts a chat
 # completion. BuildKit caches both images, so re-runs only rebuild
 # what changed. The test lives under tests/e2e/distributed and is
 # selected by the VLLMMultinode label so it doesn't run alongside
-# the other distributed-suite tests by default.
+# test-e2e-distributed.
 test-e2e-vllm-multinode: docker-build-e2e extract-backend-vllm protogen-go
 	@echo 'Running e2e vLLM multi-node DP test'
 	LOCALAI_IMAGE=local-ai \
@@ -559,6 +566,7 @@ prepare-test-extra: protogen-python
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/python/speaker-recognition
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/rust/kokoros kokoros-grpc
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/go/rfdetr-cpp
+	$(MAKE) -C backend/go/locate-anything-cpp
 
 test-extra: prepare-test-extra
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/python/transformers test
@@ -586,6 +594,7 @@ test-extra: prepare-test-extra
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/python/speaker-recognition test
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/rust/kokoros test
 	$(MAKE) -C backend/go/rfdetr-cpp test
+	$(MAKE) -C backend/go/locate-anything-cpp test
 
 ##
 ## End-to-end gRPC tests that exercise a built backend container image.

README.md

@@ -149,6 +149,16 @@ local-ai run https://gist.githubusercontent.com/.../phi-2.yaml
 local-ai run oci://localai/phi-2:latest
 ```
 
+To test a running LocalAI server from the terminal, open an interactive chat session from another shell. Inside the prompt, `/models` lists installed models and `/model <name>` switches between them.
+
+```bash
+# Terminal 1
+local-ai run llama-3.2-1b-instruct:q4_k_m
+
+# Terminal 2
+local-ai chat --model llama-3.2-1b-instruct:q4_k_m
+```
+
 > **Automatic Backend Detection**: LocalAI automatically detects your GPU capabilities and downloads the appropriate backend. For advanced options, see [GPU Acceleration](https://localai.io/features/gpu-acceleration/).
 
 For more details, see the [Getting Started guide](https://localai.io/basics/getting_started/).

backend/Dockerfile.golang

@@ -206,6 +206,16 @@ RUN if [ "${BACKEND}" = "opus" ]; then \
     apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
 fi
 
+# CrispASR's piper TTS backend dlopens libespeak-ng at runtime to phonemize
+# non-English text (the MIT-clean path; English uses a built-in G2P). Install
+# the espeak-ng runtime + its libpcaudio/libsonic deps + voice data so
+# package.sh can bundle them into the FROM scratch image.
+RUN if [ "${BACKEND}" = "crispasr" ]; then \
+    apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        espeak-ng-data libespeak-ng1 libpcaudio0 libsonic0 && \
+    apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
+fi
+
 COPY . /LocalAI
 
 RUN git config --global --add safe.directory /LocalAI

backend/Dockerfile.python

@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ RUN <<EOT bash
         apt-get update && \
         apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
             cuda-nvcc-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
+            cuda-nvrtc-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
             libcufft-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
             libcurand-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \
             libcublas-dev-${CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION}-${CUDA_MINOR_VERSION} \

backend/backend.proto

@@ -537,6 +537,15 @@ message TTSRequest {
   string dst = 3;
   string voice = 4;
   optional string language = 5;
+  // instructions is a free-form, per-request style/voice description (maps to
+  // the OpenAI `instructions` field). Backends that support expressive synthesis
+  // (e.g. Qwen3-TTS CustomVoice/VoiceDesign) prefer this over the static YAML
+  // option when set; backends that don't simply ignore it.
+  optional string instructions = 6;
+  // params carries optional, backend-specific per-request generation parameters
+  // (e.g. Chatterbox exaggeration/cfg_weight/temperature). Values are strings and
+  // coerced by the backend; unset leaves the backend's configured defaults.
+  map<string, string> params = 7;
 }
 
 message VADRequest {

backend/cpp/ds4/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -60,10 +60,12 @@ elseif(DS4_GPU STREQUAL "cpu")
     set(DS4_OBJS "${DS4_DIR}/ds4_cpu.o")
 endif()
 
-# ds4.c now references ds4_distributed.c (distributed inference was split into
-# its own translation unit upstream). It is a single GPU-agnostic object shared
-# by every GPU mode, so link it in regardless of DS4_GPU.
+# ds4.c now references ds4_distributed.c (distributed inference) and ds4_ssd.c
+# (SSD expert-cache), each split into its own translation unit upstream. Both
+# are GPU-agnostic objects shared by every GPU mode, so link them in regardless
+# of DS4_GPU.
 list(APPEND DS4_OBJS "${DS4_DIR}/ds4_distributed.o")
+list(APPEND DS4_OBJS "${DS4_DIR}/ds4_ssd.o")
 
 add_executable(${TARGET}
     grpc-server.cpp

backend/cpp/ds4/Makefile

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 # ds4 backend Makefile.
 #
-# Upstream pin lives below as DS4_VERSION?=ba00a8a88c4c5810a3d1fed6b7b8fa2b44b82fdc
+# Upstream pin lives below as DS4_VERSION?=d881f2a05e8ff6bec001315a36b794b4aa310173
 # (.github/bump_deps.sh) can find and update it - matches the
 # llama-cpp / ik-llama-cpp / turboquant convention.
 
-DS4_VERSION?=ba00a8a88c4c5810a3d1fed6b7b8fa2b44b82fdc
+DS4_VERSION?=d881f2a05e8ff6bec001315a36b794b4aa310173
 DS4_REPO?=https://github.com/antirez/ds4
 
 CURRENT_MAKEFILE_DIR := $(dir $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
@@ -18,19 +18,20 @@ UNAME_S := $(shell uname -s)
 
 CMAKE_ARGS ?= -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
 
-# ds4_distributed.o is a GPU-agnostic translation unit that ds4.c/ds4_cpu.o now
-# reference (upstream split distributed inference into its own .c). The same
-# object is shared by every GPU mode, so it is appended unconditionally below.
+# ds4_distributed.o and ds4_ssd.o are GPU-agnostic translation units that
+# ds4.c/ds4_cpu.o now reference (upstream split distributed inference and the
+# SSD expert-cache into their own .c files). Both objects are shared by every
+# GPU mode, so they are appended unconditionally below.
 ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),cublas)
     CMAKE_ARGS += -DDS4_GPU=cuda
-    DS4_OBJ_TARGET := ds4.o ds4_cuda.o ds4_distributed.o
+    DS4_OBJ_TARGET := ds4.o ds4_cuda.o ds4_distributed.o ds4_ssd.o
 else ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Darwin)
     CMAKE_ARGS += -DDS4_GPU=metal
-    DS4_OBJ_TARGET := ds4.o ds4_metal.o ds4_distributed.o
+    DS4_OBJ_TARGET := ds4.o ds4_metal.o ds4_distributed.o ds4_ssd.o
 else
     # CPU reference path (Linux only - macOS CPU path is broken by VM bug per ds4 README).
     CMAKE_ARGS += -DDS4_GPU=cpu
-    DS4_OBJ_TARGET := ds4_cpu.o ds4_distributed.o
+    DS4_OBJ_TARGET := ds4_cpu.o ds4_distributed.o ds4_ssd.o
 endif
 
 ifneq ($(NATIVE),true)
@@ -55,11 +56,11 @@ ds4:
 # the right per-platform compile flags (Objective-C/Metal on Darwin, nvcc on Linux+CUDA).
 ds4/ds4.o: ds4
 ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),cublas)
-	+$(MAKE) -C ds4 ds4.o ds4_cuda.o ds4_distributed.o
+	+$(MAKE) -C ds4 ds4.o ds4_cuda.o ds4_distributed.o ds4_ssd.o
 else ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Darwin)
-	+$(MAKE) -C ds4 ds4.o ds4_metal.o ds4_distributed.o
+	+$(MAKE) -C ds4 ds4.o ds4_metal.o ds4_distributed.o ds4_ssd.o
 else
-	+$(MAKE) -C ds4 ds4_cpu.o ds4_distributed.o
+	+$(MAKE) -C ds4 ds4_cpu.o ds4_distributed.o ds4_ssd.o
 endif
 
 grpc-server: ds4/ds4.o

backend/cpp/ik-llama-cpp/Makefile

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-IK_LLAMA_VERSION?=3f40e73c367ad9f0c1b1819f28c7348c26aa340d
+IK_LLAMA_VERSION?=e6f8112f3ba126eed3ff5b30cdd08085414a7516
 LLAMA_REPO?=https://github.com/ikawrakow/ik_llama.cpp
 
 CMAKE_ARGS?=

backend/cpp/llama-cpp/Makefile

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-LLAMA_VERSION?=5dcb71166686799f0d873eab7386234302d05ecf
+LLAMA_VERSION?=4c6595503fe45d5a39f88d194e270f64c7424677
 LLAMA_REPO?=https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp
 
 CMAKE_ARGS?=

backend/cpp/llama-cpp/grpc-server.cpp

@@ -381,6 +381,15 @@ json parse_options(bool streaming, const backend::PredictOptions* predict, const
             });
     }
 
+    // for each video in the request, add the video data
+    for (int i = 0; i < predict->videos_size(); i++) {
+        data["video_data"].push_back(json
+            {
+                {"id", i},
+                {"data",    predict->videos(i)},
+            });
+    }
+
     data["stop"] = predict->stopprompts();
     // data["n_probs"] = predict->nprobs();
     //TODO: images,
@@ -482,23 +491,13 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
     if (!request->draftmodel().empty()) {
         params.speculative.draft.mparams.path = request->draftmodel();
         // Default to draft type if a draft model is set but no explicit type.
-        // Upstream (post ggml-org/llama.cpp#22838) made the speculative type a
-        // vector; the turboquant fork still uses the legacy scalar. The
-        // LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC macro is injected by
-        // backend/cpp/turboquant/patch-grpc-server.sh for fork builds only.
-        // Upstream renamed COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT -> ..._DRAFT_SIMPLE
-        // in ggml-org/llama.cpp#22964; the fork still uses the old name.
-#ifdef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC
-        if (params.speculative.type == COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE) {
-            params.speculative.type = COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT;
-        }
-#else
+        // Upstream made the speculative type a vector (ggml-org/llama.cpp#22838)
+        // and renamed COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT -> ..._DRAFT_SIMPLE (#22964).
         const bool no_spec_type = params.speculative.types.empty() ||
             (params.speculative.types.size() == 1 && params.speculative.types[0] == COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE);
         if (no_spec_type) {
             params.speculative.types = { COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT_SIMPLE };
         }
-#endif
     }
 
     //  params.model_alias ??
@@ -574,9 +573,10 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
     // tokens (0 disables the minimum). Match upstream's default (256). This
     // field was renamed from `checkpoint_every_nt` in llama.cpp; the semantics
     // also shifted from a fixed cadence to a minimum spacing. The turboquant
-    // fork branched before the field existed, so skip it on the legacy path
-    // (LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC is injected by patch-grpc-server.sh).
-#ifndef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC
+    // fork still lacks common_params::checkpoint_min_step, so skip it there
+    // (LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP is injected by
+    // backend/cpp/turboquant/patch-grpc-server.sh).
+#ifndef LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP
     params.checkpoint_min_step = 256;
 #endif
 
@@ -752,7 +752,7 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
                 params.cache_idle_slots = false;
             }
 
-#ifndef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC
+#ifndef LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP
         // --- minimum context-checkpoint spacing (upstream -cms / --checkpoint-min-step) ---
         // 0 disables the minimum-spacing gate. Old option names (`checkpoint_every_nt`,
         // `checkpoint_every_n_tokens`) are kept as aliases for backward compatibility
@@ -906,17 +906,6 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
 
         // Speculative decoding options
         } else if (!strcmp(optname, "spec_type") || !strcmp(optname, "speculative_type")) {
-#ifdef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC
-            // Fork only knows a single scalar `type`. Take the first comma-
-            // separated value and assign it via the singular helper.
-            std::string first = optval_str;
-            const auto comma = first.find(',');
-            if (comma != std::string::npos) first = first.substr(0, comma);
-            auto type = common_speculative_type_from_name(first);
-            if (type != COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_COUNT) {
-                params.speculative.type = type;
-            }
-#else
             // Upstream switched to a vector of types (comma-separated for multi-type
             // chaining via common_speculative_types_from_names). We keep accepting a
             // single value here, but also tolerate comma-separated lists.
@@ -945,7 +934,6 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
             if (!parsed.empty()) {
                 params.speculative.types = parsed;
             }
-#endif
         } else if (!strcmp(optname, "spec_n_max") || !strcmp(optname, "draft_max")) {
             if (optval != NULL) {
                 try { params.speculative.draft.n_max = std::stoi(optval_str); } catch (...) {}
@@ -983,21 +971,6 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
             // shares the target context size. Accept the option for backward
             // compatibility but silently ignore it.
 
-// Everything below relies on struct shape introduced in ggml-org/llama.cpp#22838
-// (parallel drafting): `ngram_mod`, `ngram_map_k`, `ngram_map_k4v`,
-// `ngram_cache`, and the `draft.{cache_type_*, cpuparams*, tensor_buft_overrides}`
-// fields. The turboquant fork branched before that, so its build defines
-// LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC via patch-grpc-server.sh and these option
-// keys become unrecognized (silently dropped, like any unknown opt) for it.
-//
-// The `#ifdef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC` / `#else` split below sits at the
-// closing-brace position of the `draft_ctx_size` branch on purpose: in the
-// legacy build the chain ends here (the brace closes draft_ctx_size), and in
-// the modern build the chain continues with `} else if (...)` instead, so the
-// brace count stays balanced under both branches of the preprocessor.
-#ifdef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC
-        }
-#else
         // --- ngram_mod family (upstream --spec-ngram-mod-*) ---
         } else if (!strcmp(optname, "spec_ngram_mod_n_min")) {
             if (optval != NULL) {
@@ -1127,7 +1100,6 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
             }
             if (!cur.empty()) flush(cur);
         }
-#endif // LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC — closes the `else`/`#ifdef` opened at draft_ctx_size
     }
 
     // Set params.n_parallel from environment variable if not set via options (fallback)
@@ -1177,15 +1149,11 @@ static void params_parse(server_context& /*ctx_server*/, const backend::ModelOpt
             params.tensor_buft_overrides.push_back({nullptr, nullptr});
         }
     }
-    // The draft tensor_buft_overrides are only populated under the modern
-    // (post-#22838) layout, whose population code is itself gated by
-    // LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC above. The turboquant fork lacks
-    // common_params_speculative::draft entirely, so skip the sentinel there too.
-#ifndef LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC
+    // Terminate the draft tensor_buft_overrides list with a sentinel, mirroring
+    // the main-model handling above.
     if (!params.speculative.draft.tensor_buft_overrides.empty()) {
         params.speculative.draft.tensor_buft_overrides.push_back({nullptr, nullptr});
     }
-#endif
 
     // TODO: Add yarn
 
@@ -1544,7 +1512,7 @@ public:
                     msg_json["role"] = msg.role();
 
                     bool is_last_user_msg = (i == last_user_msg_idx);
-                    bool has_images_or_audio = (request->images_size() > 0 || request->audios_size() > 0);
+                    bool has_images_or_audio = (request->images_size() > 0 || request->audios_size() > 0 || request->videos_size() > 0);
 
                     // Handle content - can be string, null, or array
                     // For multimodal content, we'll embed images/audio from separate fields
@@ -1595,6 +1563,16 @@ public:
                                     content_array.push_back(audio_chunk);
                                 }
                             }
+                            if (request->videos_size() > 0) {
+                                for (int j = 0; j < request->videos_size(); j++) {
+                                    json video_chunk;
+                                    video_chunk["type"] = "input_video";
+                                    json input_video;
+                                    input_video["data"] = request->videos(j);
+                                    video_chunk["input_video"] = input_video;
+                                    content_array.push_back(video_chunk);
+                                }
+                            }
                             msg_json["content"] = content_array;
                         } else {
                             // Use content as-is (already array or not last user message)
@@ -1629,6 +1607,16 @@ public:
                                 content_array.push_back(audio_chunk);
                             }
                         }
+                        if (request->videos_size() > 0) {
+                            for (int j = 0; j < request->videos_size(); j++) {
+                                json video_chunk;
+                                video_chunk["type"] = "input_video";
+                                json input_video;
+                                input_video["data"] = request->videos(j);
+                                video_chunk["input_video"] = input_video;
+                                content_array.push_back(video_chunk);
+                            }
+                        }
                         msg_json["content"] = content_array;
                     } else if (msg.role() == "tool") {
                         // Tool role messages must have content field set, even if empty
@@ -1944,6 +1932,17 @@ public:
                     body_json["chat_template_kwargs"]["enable_thinking"] = (et_it->second == "true");
                 }
 
+                // Pass reasoning_effort via chat_template_kwargs too: the lever
+                // jinja templates like gpt-oss (Harmony) / LFM2.5 read, distinct
+                // from enable_thinking which those templates ignore.
+                auto re_it = metadata.find("reasoning_effort");
+                if (re_it != metadata.end() && !re_it->second.empty()) {
+                    if (!body_json.contains("chat_template_kwargs")) {
+                        body_json["chat_template_kwargs"] = json::object();
+                    }
+                    body_json["chat_template_kwargs"]["reasoning_effort"] = re_it->second;
+                }
+
                 // Debug: Print full body_json before template processing (includes messages, tools, tool_choice, etc.)
                 SRV_DBG("[CONVERSATION DEBUG] PredictStream: Full body_json before oaicompat_chat_params_parse:\n%s\n", body_json.dump(2).c_str());
 
@@ -2069,6 +2068,16 @@ public:
                         files.push_back(decoded_data);
                     }
                 }
+
+                const auto &video_data = data.find("video_data");
+                if (video_data != data.end() && video_data->is_array())
+                {
+                    for (const auto &video : *video_data)
+                    {
+                        auto decoded_data = base64_decode(video["data"].get<std::string>());
+                        files.push_back(decoded_data);
+                    }
+                }
             }
 
             const bool has_mtmd = ctx_server.impl->mctx != nullptr;
@@ -2321,7 +2330,7 @@ public:
                     }
 
                     bool is_last_user_msg = (i == last_user_msg_idx);
-                    bool has_images_or_audio = (request->images_size() > 0 || request->audios_size() > 0);
+                    bool has_images_or_audio = (request->images_size() > 0 || request->audios_size() > 0 || request->videos_size() > 0);
 
                     // Handle content - can be string, null, or array
                     // For multimodal content, we'll embed images/audio from separate fields
@@ -2374,6 +2383,16 @@ public:
                                     content_array.push_back(audio_chunk);
                                 }
                             }
+                            if (request->videos_size() > 0) {
+                                for (int j = 0; j < request->videos_size(); j++) {
+                                    json video_chunk;
+                                    video_chunk["type"] = "input_video";
+                                    json input_video;
+                                    input_video["data"] = request->videos(j);
+                                    video_chunk["input_video"] = input_video;
+                                    content_array.push_back(video_chunk);
+                                }
+                            }
                             msg_json["content"] = content_array;
                         } else {
                             // Use content as-is (already array or not last user message)
@@ -2413,6 +2432,16 @@ public:
                                 content_array.push_back(audio_chunk);
                             }
                         }
+                        if (request->videos_size() > 0) {
+                            for (int j = 0; j < request->videos_size(); j++) {
+                                json video_chunk;
+                                video_chunk["type"] = "input_video";
+                                json input_video;
+                                input_video["data"] = request->videos(j);
+                                video_chunk["input_video"] = input_video;
+                                content_array.push_back(video_chunk);
+                            }
+                        }
                         msg_json["content"] = content_array;
                         SRV_INF("[CONTENT DEBUG] Predict: Message %d created content array with media\n", i);
                     } else if (!msg.tool_calls().empty()) {
@@ -2737,6 +2766,17 @@ public:
                     body_json["chat_template_kwargs"]["enable_thinking"] = (predict_et_it->second == "true");
                 }
 
+                // Pass reasoning_effort via chat_template_kwargs too: the lever
+                // jinja templates like gpt-oss (Harmony) / LFM2.5 read, distinct
+                // from enable_thinking which those templates ignore.
+                auto predict_re_it = predict_metadata.find("reasoning_effort");
+                if (predict_re_it != predict_metadata.end() && !predict_re_it->second.empty()) {
+                    if (!body_json.contains("chat_template_kwargs")) {
+                        body_json["chat_template_kwargs"] = json::object();
+                    }
+                    body_json["chat_template_kwargs"]["reasoning_effort"] = predict_re_it->second;
+                }
+
                 // Debug: Print full body_json before template processing (includes messages, tools, tool_choice, etc.)
                 SRV_DBG("[CONVERSATION DEBUG] Predict: Full body_json before oaicompat_chat_params_parse:\n%s\n", body_json.dump(2).c_str());
 
@@ -2864,6 +2904,16 @@ public:
                         files.push_back(decoded_data);
                     }
                 }
+
+                const auto &video_data = data.find("video_data");
+                if (video_data != data.end() && video_data->is_array())
+                {
+                    for (const auto &video : *video_data)
+                    {
+                        auto decoded_data = base64_decode(video["data"].get<std::string>());
+                        files.push_back(decoded_data);
+                    }
+                }
             }
 
             // process files
@@ -3436,7 +3486,7 @@ public:
         if (body.count("prompt") != 0) {
             const bool add_special = json_value(body, "add_special", false);
 
-            llama_tokens tokens = tokenize_mixed(ctx_server.impl->vocab, body.at("content"), add_special, true);
+            llama_tokens tokens = tokenize_mixed(ctx_server.impl->vocab, body.at("prompt"), add_special, true);
 
 
             for (const auto& token : tokens) {

backend/cpp/turboquant/Makefile

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 
 # Pinned to the HEAD of feature/turboquant-kv-cache on https://github.com/TheTom/llama-cpp-turboquant.
 # Auto-bumped nightly by .github/workflows/bump_deps.yaml.
-TURBOQUANT_VERSION?=5aeb2fdbe26cd4c534c6fa15de73cb5749bd0403
+TURBOQUANT_VERSION?=7d9715f1f071fa07c7b2ad3dbfd320b314139e65
 LLAMA_REPO?=https://github.com/TheTom/llama-cpp-turboquant
 
 CMAKE_ARGS?=

backend/cpp/turboquant/patch-grpc-server.sh

@@ -4,21 +4,19 @@
 #
 #   1. Augment the kv_cache_types[] allow-list so `LoadModel` accepts the
 #      fork-specific `turbo2` / `turbo3` / `turbo4` cache types.
-#   2. Replace `get_media_marker()` (added upstream in ggml-org/llama.cpp#21962,
-#      server-side random per-instance marker) with the legacy "<__media__>"
-#      literal. The fork branched before that PR, so server-common.cpp has no
-#      get_media_marker symbol. The fork's mtmd_default_marker() still returns
-#      "<__media__>", and Go-side tooling falls back to that sentinel when the
-#      backend does not expose media_marker, so substituting the literal keeps
-#      behavior identical on the turboquant path.
-#   3. Revert the `common_params_speculative` field references to the
-#      pre-refactor flat layout. Upstream ggml-org/llama.cpp#22397 split the
-#      struct into nested `draft` / `ngram_simple` / `ngram_mod` / etc. members;
-#      the turboquant fork branched before that PR and still exposes the flat
-#      `n_max`, `mparams_dft`, `ngram_size_n`, ... fields. The substitutions
-#      below map the new nested paths back to the legacy flat names so the
-#      shared grpc-server.cpp keeps compiling against the fork's common.h.
-#      Drop this block once the fork rebases past #22397.
+#   2. Define LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP at the top of the file
+#      so the grpc-server option parser skips the two references to
+#      common_params::checkpoint_min_step (the default and the option handler).
+#      That field does not exist in the fork yet; drop this once it does.
+#
+# The fork used to lag upstream on the whole common_params_speculative refactor
+# (ggml-org/llama.cpp#22397/#22838/#22964), the model_tgt rename (#22838) and
+# get_media_marker (#21962), which required a much larger compat shim here
+# (flat-field sed renames + a coarse LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC define). The
+# fork has since rebased past all of those, so the only remaining gap is
+# checkpoint_min_step. If a future bump reintroduces a divergence, add a narrow
+# guard in grpc-server.cpp keyed on a fork-specific macro and inject it here
+# rather than resurrecting the coarse one.
 #
 # We patch the *copy* sitting in turboquant-<flavor>-build/, never the original
 # under backend/cpp/llama-cpp/, so the stock llama-cpp build keeps compiling
@@ -72,72 +70,20 @@ else
     echo "==> KV allow-list patch OK"
 fi
 
-if grep -q 'get_media_marker()' "$SRC"; then
-    echo "==> patching $SRC to replace get_media_marker() with legacy \"<__media__>\" literal"
-    # Only one call site today (ModelMetadata), but replace all occurrences to
-    # stay robust if upstream adds more. Use a temp file to avoid relying on
-    # sed -i portability (the builder image uses GNU sed, but keeping this
-    # consistent with the awk block above).
-    sed 's/get_media_marker()/"<__media__>"/g' "$SRC" > "$SRC.tmp"
-    mv "$SRC.tmp" "$SRC"
-    echo "==> get_media_marker() substitution OK"
+# 2. Define LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP at the top of the file so
+#    the grpc-server option parser skips the two references to
+#    common_params::checkpoint_min_step (the default assignment and the option
+#    handler). That field does not exist in the fork yet. Drop this block once
+#    the fork rebases past the bump that added checkpoint_min_step.
+if grep -q '^#define LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP' "$SRC"; then
+    echo "==> $SRC already defines LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP, skipping"
 else
-    echo "==> $SRC has no get_media_marker() call, skipping media-marker patch"
-fi
-
-if grep -q 'params\.speculative\.draft\.\|params\.speculative\.ngram_simple\.' "$SRC"; then
-    echo "==> patching $SRC to revert common_params_speculative refs to pre-#22397 flat layout"
-    # Each substitution is the exact post-refactor path → legacy flat field.
-    # Order doesn't matter because the source paths are disjoint, but we keep
-    # the most-specific (mparams.path) first for readability.
-    sed -E \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.mparams\.path/params.speculative.mparams_dft.path/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.n_max/params.speculative.n_max/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.n_min/params.speculative.n_min/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.p_min/params.speculative.p_min/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.p_split/params.speculative.p_split/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.n_gpu_layers/params.speculative.n_gpu_layers/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.draft\.n_ctx/params.speculative.n_ctx/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.ngram_simple\.size_n/params.speculative.ngram_size_n/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.ngram_simple\.size_m/params.speculative.ngram_size_m/g' \
-        -e 's/params\.speculative\.ngram_simple\.min_hits/params.speculative.ngram_min_hits/g' \
-        "$SRC" > "$SRC.tmp"
-    mv "$SRC.tmp" "$SRC"
-    echo "==> speculative field rename OK"
-else
-    echo "==> $SRC has no post-#22397 speculative field refs, skipping spec rename patch"
-fi
-
-# 4. Revert the `ctx_server.impl->model_tgt` rename introduced by upstream
-#    ggml-org/llama.cpp#22838 (parallel drafting). The turboquant fork still
-#    exposes the field as `model` on `server_context_impl`. The two call sites
-#    are in the Rerank and ModelMetadata RPC handlers.
-if grep -q 'ctx_server\.impl->model_tgt' "$SRC"; then
-    echo "==> patching $SRC to revert ctx_server.impl->model_tgt -> ctx_server.impl->model"
-    sed -E 's/ctx_server\.impl->model_tgt/ctx_server.impl->model/g' "$SRC" > "$SRC.tmp"
-    mv "$SRC.tmp" "$SRC"
-    echo "==> model_tgt rename OK"
-else
-    echo "==> $SRC has no ctx_server.impl->model_tgt refs, skipping model_tgt rename patch"
-fi
-
-# 5. Define LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC at the top of the file so the
-#    grpc-server option parser skips the new option-handler blocks (ngram_mod,
-#    ngram_map_k, ngram_map_k4v, ngram_cache, draft.cache_type_*, draft.cpuparams*,
-#    draft.tensor_buft_overrides) introduced for the post-#22838 layout, the
-#    draft.tensor_buft_overrides sentinel termination, and the
-#    common_params::checkpoint_min_step default/option (added with the
-#    35c9b1f3 bump). Those blocks reference struct fields that simply do not
-#    exist in the fork.
-if grep -q '^#define LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC' "$SRC"; then
-    echo "==> $SRC already defines LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC, skipping"
-else
-    echo "==> patching $SRC to define LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC at the top"
-    # Insert the define before the very first `#include` so it precedes all the
-    # speculative-decoding code paths.
+    echo "==> patching $SRC to define LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP at the top"
+    # Insert the define before the very first `#include` so it precedes the
+    # checkpoint_min_step references.
     awk '
         !done && /^#include/ {
-            print "#define LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC 1"
+            print "#define LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP 1"
             print "// ^ injected by backend/cpp/turboquant/patch-grpc-server.sh"
             print ""
             done = 1
@@ -145,13 +91,13 @@ else
         { print }
         END {
             if (!done) {
-                print "patch-grpc-server.sh: no #include anchor found to insert LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC" > "/dev/stderr"
+                print "patch-grpc-server.sh: no #include anchor found to insert LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP" > "/dev/stderr"
                 exit 1
             }
         }
     ' "$SRC" > "$SRC.tmp"
     mv "$SRC.tmp" "$SRC"
-    echo "==> LOCALAI_LEGACY_LLAMA_CPP_SPEC define OK"
+    echo "==> LOCALAI_TURBOQUANT_NO_CHECKPOINT_MIN_STEP define OK"
 fi
 
 echo "==> all patches applied"

backend/cpp/turboquant/patches/0001-hip-guard-copy2d-peer-fastpath.patch

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+hip: port the turboquant CUDA additions that ggml's HIP shim doesn't cover
+
+The turboquant fork adds/modifies a few ggml-cuda.cu spots with CUDA APIs
+that ggml's HIP (and MUSA) compatibility layer does not provide, breaking
+the -gpu-rocm-hipblas-turboquant build:
+
+  1. ggml_cuda_copy2d_across_devices() (host-staged cross-device copy for
+     split mul_mat output) uses the CUDA 3D-peer copy APIs
+     cudaMemcpy3DPeerParms / make_cudaPitchedPtr / make_cudaExtent /
+     cudaMemcpy3DPeerAsync. HIP genuinely does not support these (see the
+     fork's own comment "HIP does not support cudaMemcpy3DPeerAsync"), so
+     guard the peer fast path with #if !defined(GGML_USE_HIP) &&
+     !defined(GGML_USE_MUSA) -- matching how the fork already guards the
+     same API for the sibling 2D copy -- and fall through to the existing
+     cudaMemcpyAsync staging fallback below (functionally identical,
+     slightly slower on multi-GPU ROCm).
+
+  2. ggml_backend_cuda_device_event_new() creates its event with plain
+     cudaEventCreate, which ggml's HIP shim does not alias (it only aliases
+     cudaEventCreateWithFlags). Use cudaEventCreateWithFlags(..., 
+     cudaEventDisableTiming) -- exactly what the rest of this file already
+     does (cf. lines ~1034, ~3461) and HIP-safe.
+
+CUDA builds are unaffected. Drop the relevant hunk once the fork HIP-ports
+these; apply-patches.sh fails fast if an anchor goes stale.
+
+diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu b/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu
+index 0427e6b..6352e6a 100644
+--- a/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu
++++ b/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu
+@@ -1933,6 +1933,7 @@ static cudaError_t ggml_cuda_copy2d_across_devices(
+     size_t width, size_t height, cudaStream_t dst_stream, cudaStream_t src_stream) {
+ 
+     const auto & info = ggml_cuda_info();
++#if !defined(GGML_USE_HIP) && !defined(GGML_USE_MUSA)  // 3D-peer copy types unmapped by ggml's HIP/MUSA shim; use staging fallback below
+     if (info.peer_access[src_device][dst_device]) {
+         cudaMemcpy3DPeerParms p = {};
+         p.dstDevice = dst_device;
+@@ -1942,6 +1943,7 @@ static cudaError_t ggml_cuda_copy2d_across_devices(
+         p.extent = make_cudaExtent(width, height, 1);
+         return cudaMemcpy3DPeerAsync(&p, dst_stream);
+     }
++#endif // !defined(GGML_USE_HIP) && !defined(GGML_USE_MUSA)
+ 
+     // Fallback: stage all rows through a single contiguous pinned buffer
+     int prev_device = ggml_cuda_get_device();
+@@ -5714,7 +5716,7 @@ static ggml_backend_event_t ggml_backend_cuda_device_event_new(ggml_backend_dev_
+     ggml_cuda_set_device(dev_ctx->device);
+ 
+     cudaEvent_t event;
+-    CUDA_CHECK(cudaEventCreate(&event));
++    CUDA_CHECK(cudaEventCreateWithFlags(&event, cudaEventDisableTiming));
+ 
+     return new ggml_backend_event {
+         /* .device  = */ dev,

backend/go/cloud-proxy/proxy.go

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mudler/xlog"
 
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/base"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/grpcerrors"
 	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/httpclient"
 )
@@ -145,7 +146,7 @@ func resolveAPIKey(envName, filePath string) (string, error) {
 func (c *CloudProxy) PredictRich(opts *pb.PredictOptions) (reply *pb.Reply, err error) {
 	cfg := c.cfg.Load()
 	if cfg == nil {
-		return nil, errors.New("cloud-proxy: model not loaded")
+		return nil, grpcerrors.ModelNotLoaded("cloud-proxy")
 	}
 	if cfg.mode != modeTranslate {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cloud-proxy: Predict only valid in translate mode (have %s)", cfg.mode)
@@ -175,7 +176,7 @@ func (c *CloudProxy) PredictRich(opts *pb.PredictOptions) (reply *pb.Reply, err
 func (c *CloudProxy) PredictStreamRich(opts *pb.PredictOptions, results chan<- *pb.Reply) (err error) {
 	cfg := c.cfg.Load()
 	if cfg == nil {
-		return errors.New("cloud-proxy: model not loaded")
+		return grpcerrors.ModelNotLoaded("cloud-proxy")
 	}
 	if cfg.mode != modeTranslate {
 		return fmt.Errorf("cloud-proxy: PredictStream only valid in translate mode (have %s)", cfg.mode)
@@ -269,7 +270,7 @@ func (c *CloudProxy) Forward(ctx context.Context, in <-chan *pb.ForwardRequest,
 
 	cfg := c.cfg.Load()
 	if cfg == nil {
-		return errors.New("cloud-proxy: model not loaded")
+		return grpcerrors.ModelNotLoaded("cloud-proxy")
 	}
 	if cfg.mode != modePassthrough {
 		return fmt.Errorf("cloud-proxy: Forward only valid in passthrough mode (have %s)", cfg.mode)

backend/go/crispasr/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ target_include_directories(gocrispasr PRIVATE
 # whisper. crispasr is the referencer; the backend static libs supply the
 # per-architecture symbols; ggml is the math/runtime base.
 target_link_libraries(gocrispasr PRIVATE
-    crispasr
+    crispasr-lib
     parakeet canary canary_ctc cohere granite_speech granite_nle
     voxtral voxtral4b qwen3_asr qwen3_tts orpheus chatterbox indextts
     kokoro voxcpm2_tts m2m100 t5_translate wav2vec2-ggml vibevoice

backend/go/crispasr/Makefile

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ JOBS?=$(shell nproc --ignore=1)
 
 # CrispASR version (release tag)
 CRISPASR_REPO?=https://github.com/CrispStrobe/CrispASR
-CRISPASR_VERSION?=05e60432bcb5bc2113f8c395a41e86497c11504a
+CRISPASR_VERSION?=d745bda4386ae0f9d1d2f23fff8ec95d76428221
 SO_TARGET?=libgocrispasr.so
 
 CMAKE_ARGS+=-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF

backend/go/crispasr/gocrispasr.go

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/go-audio/audio"
 	"github.com/go-audio/wav"
+	gguf "github.com/gpustack/gguf-parser-go"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/base"
 	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/utils"
@@ -37,6 +38,39 @@ var (
 
 type CrispASR struct {
 	base.SingleThread
+	// sampleRate is the output rate (Hz) of the loaded TTS engine's PCM, used to
+	// write a correct WAV header. Most CrispASR TTS backends emit 24 kHz, but
+	// piper returns its model's native rate (16 kHz for x_low/low voices,
+	// 22.05 kHz for medium/high), so it is read from the GGUF metadata at Load.
+	sampleRate int
+}
+
+// defaultTTSSampleRate is the output rate assumed for CrispASR TTS engines that
+// don't advertise one in GGUF metadata (vibevoice/orpheus/chatterbox/qwen3-tts
+// all emit 24 kHz). piper is the exception and carries piper.sample_rate.
+const defaultTTSSampleRate = 24000
+
+// piperSampleRate reads the piper.sample_rate metadata key from a GGUF model.
+// CrispASR's piper backend returns PCM at the model's native rate without
+// resampling, so the WAV header must match it. Returns ok=false for non-piper
+// models (key absent) or an unreadable file, letting the caller fall back to
+// defaultTTSSampleRate.
+func piperSampleRate(modelPath string) (int, bool) {
+	// Only scalar architecture keys are read, so skip the large array metadata
+	// (phoneme map) and mmap the header - same rationale as pkg/vram's reader.
+	f, err := gguf.ParseGGUFFile(modelPath, gguf.UseMMap(), gguf.SkipLargeMetadata())
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, false
+	}
+	kv, ok := f.Header.MetadataKV.Get("piper.sample_rate")
+	if !ok || kv.ValueType != gguf.GGUFMetadataValueTypeUint32 {
+		return 0, false
+	}
+	rate := int(kv.ValueUint32())
+	if rate <= 0 {
+		return 0, false
+	}
+	return rate, true
 }
 
 // splitOption splits a "prefix:value" model option into its key and value,
@@ -103,6 +137,14 @@ func (w *CrispASR) Load(opts *pb.ModelOptions) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("Failed to load CrispASR transcription model")
 	}
 
+	// Determine the TTS output sample rate for the WAV header. piper voices
+	// carry their native rate in GGUF metadata and CrispASR does not resample;
+	// every other engine emits the 24 kHz default.
+	w.sampleRate = defaultTTSSampleRate
+	if rate, ok := piperSampleRate(opts.ModelFile); ok {
+		w.sampleRate = rate
+	}
+
 	// Load the companion file (codec/tokenizer/s3gen) after the session is open.
 	// rc==0 means success or "not applicable" for the active backend; only a
 	// negative code is fatal.
@@ -390,7 +432,7 @@ func (w *CrispASR) synthesize(text string) ([]float32, error) {
 	}
 	defer CppTTSFree(ptr)
 	src := unsafe.Slice((*float32)(unsafe.Pointer(ptr)), int(n)) //nolint:govet // ptr addresses C-allocated PCM returned across the purego boundary; copied out immediately below, before tts_free.
-	out := make([]float32, int(n)) // copy out of C memory before free
+	out := make([]float32, int(n))                               // copy out of C memory before free
 	copy(out, src)
 	return out, nil
 }
@@ -417,7 +459,7 @@ func (w *CrispASR) TTS(req *pb.TTSRequest) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	return writeWAV24k(req.Dst, pcm)
+	return writeWAV(req.Dst, pcm, w.sampleRate)
 }
 
 // TTSStream is the streaming counterpart to TTS. CrispASR has no progressive
@@ -447,7 +489,7 @@ func (w *CrispASR) TTSStream(req *pb.TTSRequest, results chan []byte) error {
 	}
 	defer func() { _ = os.Remove(dst) }()
 
-	if err := writeWAV24k(dst, pcm); err != nil {
+	if err := writeWAV(dst, pcm, w.sampleRate); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
@@ -459,14 +501,14 @@ func (w *CrispASR) TTSStream(req *pb.TTSRequest, results chan []byte) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// writeWAV24k writes pcm as a 24000 Hz, mono, 16-bit PCM WAV at dst.
-func writeWAV24k(dst string, pcm []float32) error {
+// writeWAV writes pcm as a sampleRate Hz, mono, 16-bit PCM WAV at dst.
+func writeWAV(dst string, pcm []float32, sampleRate int) error {
 	f, err := os.Create(dst)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("crispasr: create %q: %w", dst, err)
 	}
 
-	enc := wav.NewEncoder(f, 24000, 16, 1, 1)
+	enc := wav.NewEncoder(f, sampleRate, 16, 1, 1)
 	ints := make([]int, len(pcm))
 	for i, s := range pcm {
 		if s > 1 {
@@ -477,7 +519,7 @@ func writeWAV24k(dst string, pcm []float32) error {
 		ints[i] = int(s * 32767)
 	}
 	buf := &audio.IntBuffer{
-		Format:         &audio.Format{NumChannels: 1, SampleRate: 24000},
+		Format:         &audio.Format{NumChannels: 1, SampleRate: sampleRate},
 		Data:           ints,
 		SourceBitDepth: 16,
 	}

backend/go/crispasr/gocrispasr_samplerate_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+
+	"github.com/go-audio/wav"
+	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+// GGUF metadata value type tags (subset) from the GGUF spec.
+const (
+	ggufTypeUint32 uint32 = 4
+	ggufTypeString uint32 = 8
+)
+
+type ggufKV struct {
+	key   string
+	vtype uint32
+	val   any
+}
+
+// writeMinimalGGUF emits a valid, tensor-less GGUF file carrying only the given
+// metadata key-values. Enough for the header-only parse path piperSampleRate
+// uses; avoids pulling a real multi-MB voice into the test.
+func writeMinimalGGUF(path string, kvs []ggufKV) error {
+	var b bytes.Buffer
+	b.WriteString("GGUF")                                // magic
+	_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, uint32(3)) // version
+	_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, uint64(0)) // tensor count
+	_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, uint64(len(kvs)))
+	for _, kv := range kvs {
+		_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, uint64(len(kv.key)))
+		b.WriteString(kv.key)
+		_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, kv.vtype)
+		switch v := kv.val.(type) {
+		case uint32:
+			_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, v)
+		case string:
+			_ = binary.Write(&b, binary.LittleEndian, uint64(len(v)))
+			b.WriteString(v)
+		}
+	}
+	return os.WriteFile(path, b.Bytes(), 0o644)
+}
+
+// wavSampleRate decodes the WAV header at path and returns its sample rate.
+func wavSampleRate(path string) (int, error) {
+	f, err := os.Open(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+	defer func() { _ = f.Close() }()
+	dec := wav.NewDecoder(f)
+	dec.ReadInfo()
+	return int(dec.SampleRate), nil
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("piper sample rate", func() {
+	Context("piperSampleRate", func() {
+		It("reads piper.sample_rate from a piper GGUF (medium = 22050)", func() {
+			p := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "voice.gguf")
+			Expect(writeMinimalGGUF(p, []ggufKV{
+				{key: "general.architecture", vtype: ggufTypeString, val: "piper"},
+				{key: "piper.sample_rate", vtype: ggufTypeUint32, val: uint32(22050)},
+			})).To(Succeed())
+
+			rate, ok := piperSampleRate(p)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue(), "piper.sample_rate should be found")
+			Expect(rate).To(Equal(22050))
+		})
+
+		It("reads the low-quality rate (16000)", func() {
+			p := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "voice.gguf")
+			Expect(writeMinimalGGUF(p, []ggufKV{
+				{key: "piper.sample_rate", vtype: ggufTypeUint32, val: uint32(16000)},
+			})).To(Succeed())
+
+			rate, ok := piperSampleRate(p)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue())
+			Expect(rate).To(Equal(16000))
+		})
+
+		It("returns ok=false for a non-piper GGUF (no piper.sample_rate key)", func() {
+			p := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "other.gguf")
+			Expect(writeMinimalGGUF(p, []ggufKV{
+				{key: "general.architecture", vtype: ggufTypeString, val: "vibevoice"},
+			})).To(Succeed())
+
+			_, ok := piperSampleRate(p)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeFalse())
+		})
+
+		It("returns ok=false for an unreadable/non-GGUF file", func() {
+			p := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "garbage.gguf")
+			Expect(os.WriteFile(p, []byte("not a gguf"), 0o644)).To(Succeed())
+
+			_, ok := piperSampleRate(p)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeFalse())
+		})
+	})
+
+	// End-to-end through the built .so. Gated on CRISPASR_PIPER_MODEL_PATH (a
+	// real piper voice GGUF) like the other model-backed specs; never runs in
+	// default CI. Proves CrispASR's piper backend output rate flows into the
+	// WAV header instead of the hardcoded 24 kHz default.
+	Context("piper TTS end-to-end", func() {
+		It("writes the WAV at the model's native piper.sample_rate", func() {
+			model := os.Getenv("CRISPASR_PIPER_MODEL_PATH")
+			if model == "" {
+				Skip("set CRISPASR_PIPER_MODEL_PATH to run the piper e2e spec")
+			}
+			ensureLibLoaded()
+
+			expected, ok := piperSampleRate(model)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue(), "model should carry piper.sample_rate metadata")
+
+			w := &CrispASR{}
+			Expect(w.Load(&pb.ModelOptions{
+				ModelFile: model,
+				Options:   []string{"backend:piper"},
+				Threads:   4,
+			})).To(Succeed())
+
+			dst := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "piper.wav")
+			Expect(w.TTS(&pb.TTSRequest{Text: "Hello from CrispASR piper.", Dst: dst})).To(Succeed())
+
+			info, err := os.Stat(dst)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(info.Size()).To(BeNumerically(">", 1024), "expected a non-trivial WAV")
+
+			rate, err := wavSampleRate(dst)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(rate).To(Equal(expected),
+				"WAV header rate must equal the model's native piper.sample_rate, not the 24k default")
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("writeWAV", func() {
+		It("writes the WAV header at the given sample rate (22050 for piper, not the 24k default)", func() {
+			dst := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "out.wav")
+			pcm := make([]float32, 220) // 10 ms of silence is enough for a header
+			Expect(writeWAV(dst, pcm, 22050)).To(Succeed())
+
+			rate, err := wavSampleRate(dst)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(rate).To(Equal(22050))
+		})
+
+		It("writes a 16000 Hz header for low-quality piper voices", func() {
+			dst := filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "out.wav")
+			pcm := make([]float32, 160)
+			Expect(writeWAV(dst, pcm, 16000)).To(Succeed())
+
+			rate, err := wavSampleRate(dst)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(rate).To(Equal(16000))
+		})
+	})
+})

backend/go/crispasr/package.sh

@@ -51,6 +51,32 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# Bundle espeak-ng (+ its libpcaudio/libsonic runtime deps) and its voice data so
+# the piper TTS backend can phonemize non-English text. CrispASR dlopens
+# libespeak-ng.so.1 at runtime (the MIT-clean path); the dlopen succeeds loading
+# libespeak-ng but FAILS if libpcaudio/libsonic are absent, so all three .so are
+# required. run.sh points CRISPASR_ESPEAK_DATA_PATH at the bundled data dir.
+# Best-effort: only copied when present, so a local dev build without espeak-ng
+# installed still packages the rest (English voices keep working).
+ESPEAK_LIBDIR=""
+for d in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu; do
+    if [ -f "$d/libespeak-ng.so.1" ]; then
+        ESPEAK_LIBDIR="$d"
+        break
+    fi
+done
+if [ -n "$ESPEAK_LIBDIR" ]; then
+    echo "Bundling espeak-ng from $ESPEAK_LIBDIR ..."
+    cp -arfLv "$ESPEAK_LIBDIR/libespeak-ng.so.1" $CURDIR/package/lib/
+    cp -arfLv "$ESPEAK_LIBDIR/libpcaudio.so.0" $CURDIR/package/lib/
+    cp -arfLv "$ESPEAK_LIBDIR/libsonic.so.0" $CURDIR/package/lib/
+    if [ -d "$ESPEAK_LIBDIR/espeak-ng-data" ]; then
+        cp -arfLv "$ESPEAK_LIBDIR/espeak-ng-data" $CURDIR/package/
+    fi
+else
+    echo "espeak-ng not found; non-English piper voices will not phonemize"
+fi
+
 # Package GPU libraries based on BUILD_TYPE
 # The GPU library packaging script will detect BUILD_TYPE and copy appropriate GPU libraries
 GPU_LIB_SCRIPT="${REPO_ROOT}/scripts/build/package-gpu-libs.sh"

backend/go/crispasr/run.sh

@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ fi
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CURDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
 export CRISPASR_LIBRARY=$LIBRARY
 
+# Point piper's espeak-ng phonemizer at the bundled voice data. The variable
+# names the directory CONTAINING espeak-ng-data (package.sh drops it next to
+# this script). Harmless when espeak-ng wasn't bundled.
+export CRISPASR_ESPEAK_DATA_PATH=$CURDIR
+
 # If there is a lib/ld.so, use it
 if [ -f $CURDIR/lib/ld.so ]; then
 	echo "Using lib/ld.so"

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+sources/
+build*/
+package/
+liblocateanythingcpp*.so
+locate-anything-cpp
+test-models/
+test-data/

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.18)
+project(liblocateanythingcpp LANGUAGES C CXX)
+
+set(CMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE ON)
+set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
+set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
+
+# Static-link ggml + locate_anything so the resulting .so has no runtime
+# dependency on extra ggml/locate_anything shared libraries — only on
+# libc/libstdc++/libgomp, which the LocalAI package step bundles into the
+# docker image.
+set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF CACHE BOOL "Build static libraries" FORCE)
+
+# locate-anything.cpp build switches: skip CLI/tests, keep static lib.
+set(LA_BUILD_CLI OFF CACHE BOOL "Disable locate-anything CLI" FORCE)
+set(LA_BUILD_TESTS OFF CACHE BOOL "Disable locate-anything tests" FORCE)
+set(LA_SHARED OFF CACHE BOOL "Build locate_anything as static lib" FORCE)
+
+# Unlike rt-detr.cpp, locate-anything.cpp ships no in-tree ggml patches, so
+# there is no apply_ggml_patches.sh hook to shim here.
+add_subdirectory(./sources/locate-anything.cpp)
+
+# locate-anything.cpp's top-level CMakeLists points its own target's include
+# dirs at ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/{include,src,third_party,...}. CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR
+# is the *top-level* source dir of the whole CMake tree, so when we pull it in
+# via add_subdirectory it resolves to OUR directory, not theirs, and the
+# locate_anything target fails to find its own headers (la_capi.h, stb_image.h,
+# la_gguf_keys.h). Re-add the correct, subdir-relative include paths to the
+# already-defined target so it compiles regardless of where it's nested.
+set(LA_SRC ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/sources/locate-anything.cpp)
+target_include_directories(locate_anything PRIVATE
+    ${LA_SRC}/include
+    ${LA_SRC}/src
+    ${LA_SRC}/third_party
+    ${LA_SRC}/third_party/stb)
+
+# locate-anything.cpp's C-API symbols already live inside liblocate_anything
+# (src/la_capi.cpp is compiled into the lib). We re-export them via a MODULE
+# library that links locate_anything so the symbols are visible at dlopen time.
+add_library(locateanythingcpp MODULE
+    sources/locate-anything.cpp/src/la_capi.cpp)
+
+target_include_directories(locateanythingcpp PRIVATE
+    sources/locate-anything.cpp/include
+    sources/locate-anything.cpp/src
+    sources/locate-anything.cpp/third_party
+    sources/locate-anything.cpp/third_party/stb
+)
+
+target_link_libraries(locateanythingcpp PRIVATE locate_anything ggml)
+
+if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID MATCHES "GNU" AND CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION VERSION_LESS 9.0)
+    target_link_libraries(locateanythingcpp PRIVATE stdc++fs)
+endif()
+
+set_property(TARGET locateanythingcpp PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 17)
+set_target_properties(locateanythingcpp PROPERTIES LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/Makefile

@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+CMAKE_ARGS?=
+BUILD_TYPE?=
+NATIVE?=false
+
+GOCMD?=go
+GO_TAGS?=
+JOBS?=$(shell nproc --ignore=1)
+
+# locate-anything.cpp. Pin to a specific commit for a stable build; leaving
+# this on `master` always picks up the latest C-API surface (incl. the
+# per-detection accessor functions used by golocateanythingcpp.go).
+LOCATEANYTHING_REPO?=https://github.com/mudler/locate-anything.cpp.git
+LOCATEANYTHING_VERSION?=60e450945476d5e97e0754a8c0e71a9ea81690e0
+
+ifeq ($(NATIVE),false)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_NATIVE=OFF
+endif
+
+# Forward LocalAI's BUILD_TYPE to the matching ggml backend switch.
+ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),cublas)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_CUDA=ON -DLA_GGML_CUDA=ON
+else ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),openblas)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_BLAS=ON -DGGML_BLAS_VENDOR=OpenBLAS
+else ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),clblas)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_CLBLAST=ON
+else ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),hipblas)
+	ROCM_HOME ?= /opt/rocm
+	ROCM_PATH ?= /opt/rocm
+	export CXX=$(ROCM_HOME)/llvm/bin/clang++
+	export CC=$(ROCM_HOME)/llvm/bin/clang
+	AMDGPU_TARGETS?=gfx908,gfx90a,gfx942,gfx950,gfx1030,gfx1100,gfx1101,gfx1102,gfx1200,gfx1201
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_HIPBLAS=ON -DAMDGPU_TARGETS=$(AMDGPU_TARGETS)
+else ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),vulkan)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_VULKAN=ON -DLA_GGML_VULKAN=ON
+else ifeq ($(OS),Darwin)
+	ifneq ($(BUILD_TYPE),metal)
+		CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_METAL=OFF
+	else
+		CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_METAL=ON
+		CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_METAL_EMBED_LIBRARY=ON
+		CMAKE_ARGS+=-DLA_GGML_METAL=ON
+	endif
+endif
+
+ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),sycl_f16)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_SYCL=ON \
+		-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=icx \
+		-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=icpx \
+		-DGGML_SYCL_F16=ON
+endif
+
+ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),sycl_f32)
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_SYCL=ON \
+		-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=icx \
+		-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=icpx
+endif
+
+sources/locate-anything.cpp:
+	mkdir -p sources && \
+	git clone --recursive $(LOCATEANYTHING_REPO) sources/locate-anything.cpp && \
+	cd sources/locate-anything.cpp && \
+	git checkout $(LOCATEANYTHING_VERSION) && \
+	git submodule update --init --recursive --depth 1 --single-branch
+
+# Detect OS
+UNAME_S := $(shell uname -s)
+
+# Only build CPU variants on Linux
+ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Linux)
+	VARIANT_TARGETS = liblocateanythingcpp-avx.so liblocateanythingcpp-avx2.so liblocateanythingcpp-avx512.so liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so
+else
+	# On non-Linux (e.g., Darwin), build only fallback variant
+	VARIANT_TARGETS = liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so
+endif
+
+locate-anything-cpp: main.go golocateanythingcpp.go $(VARIANT_TARGETS)
+	CGO_ENABLED=0 $(GOCMD) build -tags "$(GO_TAGS)" -o locate-anything-cpp ./
+
+package: locate-anything-cpp
+	bash package.sh
+
+build: package
+
+clean: purge
+	rm -rf liblocateanythingcpp*.so locate-anything-cpp package sources
+
+purge:
+	rm -rf build*
+
+# Build all variants (Linux only)
+ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Linux)
+liblocateanythingcpp-avx.so: sources/locate-anything.cpp
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+	$(info ${GREEN}I locate-anything-cpp build info:avx${RESET})
+	SO_TARGET=$@ CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=on -DGGML_AVX2=off -DGGML_AVX512=off -DGGML_FMA=off -DGGML_F16C=off -DGGML_BMI2=off" $(MAKE) liblocateanythingcpp-custom
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+
+liblocateanythingcpp-avx2.so: sources/locate-anything.cpp
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+	$(info ${GREEN}I locate-anything-cpp build info:avx2${RESET})
+	SO_TARGET=$@ CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=on -DGGML_AVX2=on -DGGML_AVX512=off -DGGML_FMA=on -DGGML_F16C=on -DGGML_BMI2=on" $(MAKE) liblocateanythingcpp-custom
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+
+liblocateanythingcpp-avx512.so: sources/locate-anything.cpp
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+	$(info ${GREEN}I locate-anything-cpp build info:avx512${RESET})
+	SO_TARGET=$@ CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=on -DGGML_AVX2=on -DGGML_AVX512=on -DGGML_FMA=on -DGGML_F16C=on -DGGML_BMI2=on" $(MAKE) liblocateanythingcpp-custom
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+endif
+
+# Build fallback variant (all platforms)
+liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so: sources/locate-anything.cpp
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+	$(info ${GREEN}I locate-anything-cpp build info:fallback${RESET})
+	SO_TARGET=$@ CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=off -DGGML_AVX2=off -DGGML_AVX512=off -DGGML_FMA=off -DGGML_F16C=off -DGGML_BMI2=off" $(MAKE) liblocateanythingcpp-custom
+	rm -rfv build-$@
+
+liblocateanythingcpp-custom: CMakeLists.txt
+	mkdir -p build-$(SO_TARGET) && \
+	cd build-$(SO_TARGET) && \
+	cmake .. $(CMAKE_ARGS) && \
+	cmake --build . --config Release -j$(JOBS) && \
+	cd .. && \
+	mv build-$(SO_TARGET)/liblocateanythingcpp.so ./$(SO_TARGET)
+
+all: locate-anything-cpp package
+
+# `test` is invoked by the top-level Makefile's `test-extra` target. It builds
+# the backend binary + the fallback shared library (needed for dlopen at
+# runtime), then runs test.sh which downloads the q8_0 GGUF + COCO image and
+# exercises the gRPC Load/Detect wire path via the Go smoke test in
+# main_test.go.
+test: locate-anything-cpp liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so
+	bash test.sh

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/golocateanythingcpp.go

@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+package main
+
+// golocateanythingcpp.go - gRPC handlers (Load, Detect) for the
+// locate-anything-cpp backend.
+//
+// Embeds base.SingleThread to default unimplemented RPCs to "not supported"
+// while we only implement open-vocabulary object detection (Detect).
+
+import (
+	"encoding/base64"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"unsafe"
+
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/base"
+	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
+)
+
+// la_ctx* is an opaque handle. la_capi_load returns it directly (0 == failure),
+// unlike rfdetr's out-parameter convention.
+var (
+	// la_capi_load(const char* gguf_path, int n_threads) -> la_ctx* (0 = fail)
+	CapiLoad func(gguf string, nThreads int32) uintptr
+	// la_capi_free(la_ctx* ctx)
+	CapiFree func(handle uintptr)
+	// la_capi_locate_path(ctx, image_path, prompt, mode) -> char* json (0 = err)
+	CapiLocatePath func(handle uintptr, imagePath string, prompt string, mode int32) uintptr
+	// la_capi_locate_buffer(ctx, bytes, len, prompt, mode) -> char* json (0 = err)
+	CapiLocateBuffer func(handle uintptr, bytes uintptr, length uintptr, prompt string, mode int32) uintptr
+	// la_capi_get_n_detections(ctx) -> int
+	CapiGetNDetections func(handle uintptr) int32
+	// la_capi_get_detection_box(ctx, i, out_xyxy[4]) -> int (0 on success)
+	CapiGetDetectionBox func(handle uintptr, i int32, outXYXY uintptr) int32
+	// la_capi_get_detection_label(ctx, i, buf, buf_size) -> int (required size incl NUL; two-call sizing)
+	CapiGetDetectionLabel func(handle uintptr, i int32, buf uintptr, bufSize int32) int32
+	// la_capi_free_string(char* s)
+	CapiFreeString func(s uintptr)
+	// la_capi_last_error(ctx) -> const char* (owned by ctx, "" if none / null ctx).
+	// purego marshals the returned C string into a Go string (a copy), so we
+	// never free it and avoid raw pointer arithmetic.
+	CapiLastError func(handle uintptr) string
+)
+
+type LocateAnythingCpp struct {
+	base.SingleThread
+	handle uintptr
+}
+
+// Load loads the GGUF model at opts.ModelFile (joined with opts.ModelPath if
+// relative) and stores the la_ctx handle for later Detect calls.
+func (r *LocateAnythingCpp) Load(opts *pb.ModelOptions) error {
+	modelFile := opts.ModelFile
+	if modelFile == "" {
+		modelFile = opts.Model
+	}
+	if modelFile == "" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: ModelFile is empty")
+	}
+
+	var modelPath string
+	if filepath.IsAbs(modelFile) {
+		modelPath = modelFile
+	} else {
+		modelPath = filepath.Join(opts.ModelPath, modelFile)
+	}
+
+	if _, err := os.Stat(modelPath); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: model file not found: %s: %w", modelPath, err)
+	}
+
+	threads := opts.Threads
+	if threads <= 0 {
+		threads = 4
+	}
+
+	// Release previous model if any (re-Load).
+	if r.handle != 0 {
+		CapiFree(r.handle)
+		r.handle = 0
+	}
+
+	h := CapiLoad(modelPath, threads)
+	if h == 0 {
+		// la_capi_last_error needs a ctx; on a failed load we have none (it
+		// returns "" for a null ctx), so the text is best-effort. Surface it
+		// when present.
+		if msg := CapiLastError(0); msg != "" {
+			return fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: la_capi_load failed for %s: %s", modelPath, msg)
+		}
+		return fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: la_capi_load failed for %s", modelPath)
+	}
+	r.handle = h
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Detect runs open-vocabulary detection on the base64-encoded image in opts.Src
+// using the required text prompt in opts.Prompt, returning one pb.Detection per
+// located object with its predicted label as ClassName.
+func (r *LocateAnythingCpp) Detect(opts *pb.DetectOptions) (pb.DetectResponse, error) {
+	if r.handle == 0 {
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: model not loaded")
+	}
+
+	// Open-vocabulary detection is prompt-driven; without a prompt there is
+	// nothing to locate.
+	prompt := opts.Prompt
+	if prompt == "" {
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: a text prompt is required (open-vocabulary detection)")
+	}
+
+	// Decode base64 image and write to temp file.
+	imgData, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(opts.Src)
+	if err != nil {
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: failed to decode base64 image: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	tmpFile, err := os.CreateTemp("", "locate-anything-*.img")
+	if err != nil {
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: failed to create temp file: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer func() { _ = os.Remove(tmpFile.Name()) }()
+
+	if _, err := tmpFile.Write(imgData); err != nil {
+		_ = tmpFile.Close()
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: failed to write temp file: %w", err)
+	}
+	if err := tmpFile.Close(); err != nil {
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: failed to close temp file: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	// mode 0 = hybrid (Parallel Box Decoding). The JSON return value is unused:
+	// structured detections are read via the accessor functions. Still must
+	// free the returned string.
+	jsonPtr := CapiLocatePath(r.handle, tmpFile.Name(), prompt, 0)
+	if jsonPtr != 0 {
+		CapiFreeString(jsonPtr)
+	}
+
+	n := CapiGetNDetections(r.handle)
+	if n < 0 {
+		return pb.DetectResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("locate-anything-cpp: invalid n_detections=%d", n)
+	}
+
+	detections := make([]*pb.Detection, 0, n)
+	for i := int32(0); i < n; i++ {
+		var xyxy [4]float32 // x1, y1, x2, y2
+		if CapiGetDetectionBox(r.handle, i, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&xyxy[0]))) != 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		// Two-call sizing for the label string.
+		label := ""
+		need := CapiGetDetectionLabel(r.handle, i, 0, 0)
+		if need > 0 {
+			buf := make([]byte, need)
+			CapiGetDetectionLabel(r.handle, i, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&buf[0])), need)
+			label = string(buf[:need-1])
+		}
+
+		detections = append(detections, &pb.Detection{
+			X:          xyxy[0],
+			Y:          xyxy[1],
+			Width:      xyxy[2] - xyxy[0],
+			Height:     xyxy[3] - xyxy[1],
+			Confidence: 1.0,
+			ClassName:  label,
+		})
+	}
+
+	return pb.DetectResponse{
+		Detections: detections,
+	}, nil
+}

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/main.go

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package main
+
+// main.go - entry point for the locate-anything-cpp gRPC backend.
+//
+// Dlopens liblocateanythingcpp-<variant>.so via purego at the path in
+// LOCATEANYTHING_LIBRARY (set by run.sh based on /proc/cpuinfo), registers
+// the la_capi_* C ABI symbols, then starts the gRPC server.
+
+import (
+	"flag"
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/ebitengine/purego"
+	grpc "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc"
+)
+
+var (
+	addr = flag.String("addr", "localhost:50051", "the address to connect to")
+)
+
+type LibFuncs struct {
+	FuncPtr any
+	Name    string
+}
+
+func main() {
+	// Get library name from environment variable, default to fallback
+	libName := os.Getenv("LOCATEANYTHING_LIBRARY")
+	if libName == "" {
+		libName = "./liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so"
+	}
+
+	lib, err := purego.Dlopen(libName, purego.RTLD_NOW|purego.RTLD_GLOBAL)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	libFuncs := []LibFuncs{
+		{&CapiLoad, "la_capi_load"},
+		{&CapiFree, "la_capi_free"},
+		{&CapiLocatePath, "la_capi_locate_path"},
+		{&CapiLocateBuffer, "la_capi_locate_buffer"},
+		{&CapiGetNDetections, "la_capi_get_n_detections"},
+		{&CapiGetDetectionBox, "la_capi_get_detection_box"},
+		{&CapiGetDetectionLabel, "la_capi_get_detection_label"},
+		{&CapiFreeString, "la_capi_free_string"},
+		{&CapiLastError, "la_capi_last_error"},
+	}
+
+	for _, lf := range libFuncs {
+		purego.RegisterLibFunc(lf.FuncPtr, lib, lf.Name)
+	}
+
+	flag.Parse()
+
+	if err := grpc.StartServer(*addr, &LocateAnythingCpp{}); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+}

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/main_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,176 @@
+package main
+
+// main_test.go - end-to-end smoke test for the locate-anything-cpp gRPC backend.
+//
+// Spawns the compiled locate-anything-cpp binary on a free local port, dials it
+// via gRPC, and exercises LoadModel + Detect against the test fixtures
+// downloaded by test.sh: the q8_0 GGUF of nvidia/LocateAnything-3B and a real
+// COCO image with people + cars. Asserts that open-vocabulary detection driven
+// by a text prompt returns at least one detection, each carrying a non-empty
+// class name and a bounding box of non-zero size.
+//
+// The spec Skip()s cleanly if its fixtures (the ~6.3 GB model, the test image,
+// the built binary, or the fallback .so) are missing, so the test target stays
+// usable on a fresh checkout / on CI runners where the large model hasn't been
+// downloaded.
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/base64"
+	"fmt"
+	"net"
+	"os"
+	"os/exec"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/credentials/insecure"
+)
+
+func TestDetect(t *testing.T) {
+	RegisterFailHandler(Fail)
+	RunSpecs(t, "locate-anything-cpp backend smoke suite")
+}
+
+// freePort grabs an ephemeral TCP port and immediately releases it so the
+// spawned backend can bind to it. There is a tiny TOCTOU window here but in
+// practice it's adequate for a smoke test on a quiet runner.
+func freePort() int {
+	l, err := net.Listen("tcp", "127.0.0.1:0")
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred(), "freePort listen")
+	port := l.Addr().(*net.TCPAddr).Port
+	Expect(l.Close()).To(Succeed())
+	return port
+}
+
+// startBackend spawns the locate-anything-cpp binary on the given port and
+// waits until it accepts TCP connections (up to 10s). It mirrors how main.go
+// resolves the purego library: the LOCATEANYTHING_LIBRARY env var points the
+// dlopen at the freshly built fallback .so, and the la_capi_* symbols are
+// registered there. The returned cleanup func kills the process and reaps it.
+func startBackend(port int) func() {
+	binary, err := filepath.Abs("./locate-anything-cpp")
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	if _, err := os.Stat(binary); err != nil {
+		Skip(fmt.Sprintf("backend binary not built: %s (run `make locate-anything-cpp` first)", binary))
+	}
+
+	libPath, err := filepath.Abs("./liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so")
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	if _, err := os.Stat(libPath); err != nil {
+		Skip(fmt.Sprintf("fallback library not built: %s (run `make liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so` first)", libPath))
+	}
+
+	addr := fmt.Sprintf("127.0.0.1:%d", port)
+	cmd := exec.Command(binary, "--addr", addr)
+	cmd.Env = append(os.Environ(), "LOCATEANYTHING_LIBRARY="+libPath)
+	cmd.Stdout = os.Stderr
+	cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
+	Expect(cmd.Start()).To(Succeed())
+
+	cleanup := func() {
+		if cmd.Process != nil {
+			_ = cmd.Process.Kill()
+			_, _ = cmd.Process.Wait()
+		}
+	}
+
+	deadline := time.Now().Add(10 * time.Second)
+	for time.Now().Before(deadline) {
+		c, err := net.DialTimeout("tcp", addr, 200*time.Millisecond)
+		if err == nil {
+			_ = c.Close()
+			return cleanup
+		}
+		time.Sleep(200 * time.Millisecond)
+	}
+
+	cleanup()
+	Fail(fmt.Sprintf("backend did not become ready on %s within 10s", addr))
+	return func() {}
+}
+
+// loadTestImage reads the COCO test image downloaded by test.sh and returns its
+// base64-encoded content (the wire format accepted by the Detect RPC).
+func loadTestImage() string {
+	imgPath, err := filepath.Abs("test-data/test.jpg")
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	imgBytes, err := os.ReadFile(imgPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		Skip(fmt.Sprintf("test image not present: %s (run test.sh first)", imgPath))
+	}
+	return base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(imgBytes)
+}
+
+// dialBackend opens a gRPC client connection to the spawned backend.
+func dialBackend(port int) (pb.BackendClient, func()) {
+	addr := fmt.Sprintf("127.0.0.1:%d", port)
+	conn, err := grpc.NewClient(addr, grpc.WithTransportCredentials(insecure.NewCredentials()))
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	return pb.NewBackendClient(conn), func() { _ = conn.Close() }
+}
+
+// modelPathOrSkip resolves the model file under ./test-models/ and Skip()s the
+// current spec if it's missing (the ~6.3 GB GGUF is not present on a fresh
+// checkout / on CI runners without the download).
+func modelPathOrSkip(name string) string {
+	modelDir, err := filepath.Abs("test-models")
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	modelPath := filepath.Join(modelDir, name)
+	if _, err := os.Stat(modelPath); err != nil {
+		Skip(fmt.Sprintf("model not present: %s (run test.sh first)", modelPath))
+	}
+	return modelPath
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("locate-anything-cpp backend", func() {
+	It("runs open-vocabulary detection against a known-good COCO image", func() {
+		modelPath := modelPathOrSkip("locate-anything-q8_0.gguf")
+		imgB64 := loadTestImage()
+
+		port := freePort()
+		cleanup := startBackend(port)
+		defer cleanup()
+
+		client, closeConn := dialBackend(port)
+		defer closeConn()
+
+		// The q8_0 model is ~6.3 GB and hybrid Parallel Box Decoding on CPU is
+		// not cheap, so give LoadModel + Detect a generous deadline.
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 20*time.Minute)
+		defer cancel()
+
+		loadResp, err := client.LoadModel(ctx, &pb.ModelOptions{
+			Model:     "locate-anything-q8_0.gguf",
+			ModelFile: modelPath,
+			Threads:   4,
+		})
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred(), "LoadModel")
+		Expect(loadResp.GetSuccess()).To(BeTrue(), "LoadModel reported failure: %s", loadResp.GetMessage())
+
+		// Open-vocabulary detection is prompt-driven; the prompt names the
+		// classes to locate (people + cars), separated by the </c> control token.
+		detResp, err := client.Detect(ctx, &pb.DetectOptions{
+			Src:    imgB64,
+			Prompt: "Locate all the instances that matches the following description: person</c>car.",
+		})
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred(), "Detect")
+		Expect(detResp.GetDetections()).ToNot(BeEmpty(), "no detections returned on a known-good COCO image")
+
+		_, _ = fmt.Fprintf(GinkgoWriter, "detection OK: %d detections\n", len(detResp.GetDetections()))
+		for i, d := range detResp.GetDetections() {
+			Expect(d.GetClassName()).ToNot(BeEmpty(), "detection %d has empty class_name", i)
+			Expect(d.GetWidth()).To(BeNumerically(">", float32(0)),
+				"detection %d has non-positive width", i)
+			Expect(d.GetHeight()).To(BeNumerically(">", float32(0)),
+				"detection %d has non-positive height", i)
+			_, _ = fmt.Fprintf(GinkgoWriter, "  [%d] %s box=(%.1f,%.1f,%.1fx%.1f)\n",
+				i, d.GetClassName(), d.GetX(), d.GetY(), d.GetWidth(), d.GetHeight())
+		}
+	})
+})

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/package.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Script to copy the appropriate libraries based on architecture
+
+set -e
+
+CURDIR=$(dirname "$(realpath $0)")
+REPO_ROOT="${CURDIR}/../../.."
+
+# Create lib directory
+mkdir -p $CURDIR/package/lib
+
+cp -avf $CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-*.so $CURDIR/package/
+cp -avf $CURDIR/locate-anything-cpp $CURDIR/package/
+cp -fv $CURDIR/run.sh $CURDIR/package/
+
+# Detect architecture and copy appropriate libraries
+if [ -f "/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2" ]; then
+    # x86_64 architecture
+    echo "Detected x86_64 architecture, copying x86_64 libraries..."
+    cp -arfLv /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 $CURDIR/package/lib/ld.so
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 $CURDIR/package/lib/libc.so.6
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 $CURDIR/package/lib/libstdc++.so.6
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 $CURDIR/package/lib/libm.so.6
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgomp.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/libgomp.so.1
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 $CURDIR/package/lib/libdl.so.2
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/librt.so.1
+    cp -arfLv /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 $CURDIR/package/lib/libpthread.so.0
+elif [ -f "/lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1" ]; then
+    # ARM64 architecture
+    echo "Detected ARM64 architecture, copying ARM64 libraries..."
+    cp -arfLv /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/ld.so
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 $CURDIR/package/lib/libc.so.6
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 $CURDIR/package/lib/libstdc++.so.6
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 $CURDIR/package/lib/libm.so.6
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libgomp.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/libgomp.so.1
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 $CURDIR/package/lib/libdl.so.2
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 $CURDIR/package/lib/librt.so.1
+    cp -arfLv /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 $CURDIR/package/lib/libpthread.so.0
+elif [ $(uname -s) = "Darwin" ]; then
+    echo "Detected Darwin"
+else
+    echo "Error: Could not detect architecture"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Package GPU libraries based on BUILD_TYPE
+GPU_LIB_SCRIPT="${REPO_ROOT}/scripts/build/package-gpu-libs.sh"
+if [ -f "$GPU_LIB_SCRIPT" ]; then
+    echo "Packaging GPU libraries for BUILD_TYPE=${BUILD_TYPE:-cpu}..."
+    source "$GPU_LIB_SCRIPT" "$CURDIR/package/lib"
+    package_gpu_libs
+fi
+
+echo "Packaging completed successfully"
+ls -liah $CURDIR/package/
+ls -liah $CURDIR/package/lib/

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/run.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -ex
+
+# Get the absolute current dir where the script is located
+CURDIR=$(dirname "$(realpath $0)")
+
+cd /
+
+echo "CPU info:"
+if [ "$(uname)" != "Darwin" ]; then
+	grep -e "model\sname" /proc/cpuinfo | head -1
+	grep -e "flags" /proc/cpuinfo | head -1
+fi
+
+LIBRARY="$CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-fallback.so"
+
+if [ "$(uname)" != "Darwin" ]; then
+	if grep -q -e "\savx\s" /proc/cpuinfo ; then
+		echo "CPU:    AVX    found OK"
+		if [ -e $CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-avx.so ]; then
+			LIBRARY="$CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-avx.so"
+		fi
+	fi
+
+	if grep -q -e "\savx2\s" /proc/cpuinfo ; then
+		echo "CPU:    AVX2   found OK"
+		if [ -e $CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-avx2.so ]; then
+			LIBRARY="$CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-avx2.so"
+		fi
+	fi
+
+	# Check avx 512
+	if grep -q -e "\savx512f\s" /proc/cpuinfo ; then
+		echo "CPU:    AVX512F found OK"
+		if [ -e $CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-avx512.so ]; then
+			LIBRARY="$CURDIR/liblocateanythingcpp-avx512.so"
+		fi
+	fi
+fi
+
+export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CURDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+export LOCATEANYTHING_LIBRARY=$LIBRARY
+
+# If there is a lib/ld.so, use it
+if [ -f $CURDIR/lib/ld.so ]; then
+	echo "Using lib/ld.so"
+	echo "Using library: $LIBRARY"
+	exec $CURDIR/lib/ld.so $CURDIR/locate-anything-cpp "$@"
+fi
+
+echo "Using library: $LIBRARY"
+exec $CURDIR/locate-anything-cpp "$@"

backend/go/locate-anything-cpp/test.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+
+CURDIR=$(dirname "$(realpath $0)")
+
+echo "Running locate-anything-cpp backend tests..."
+
+# Test model from the mudler/locate-anything.cpp-gguf HuggingFace repo. This is
+# the q8_0 quantization of nvidia/LocateAnything-3B (~6.3 GB), so the download
+# is the slow step. It is resumed with `curl -C -` and skipped entirely if the
+# file is already present.
+LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_DIR="${LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_DIR:-$CURDIR/test-models}"
+
+LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_FILE="${LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_FILE:-locate-anything-q8_0.gguf}"
+LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_URL="${LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_URL:-https://huggingface.co/mudler/locate-anything.cpp-gguf/resolve/main/locate-anything-q8_0.gguf}"
+
+mkdir -p "$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_DIR"
+
+if [ ! -f "$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_DIR/$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_FILE" ]; then
+    echo "Downloading locate-anything q8_0 model (~6.3 GB, this is slow)..."
+    # -C - resumes a partial download so an interrupted run doesn't restart from 0.
+    curl -L -C - -o "$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_DIR/$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_FILE" "$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_URL" --progress-bar
+fi
+
+# Use a real COCO test image (people + cars) from the upstream rf-detr.cpp repo
+# (~46 KB). Open-vocabulary detection needs real content to locate, so a
+# synthetic image would trivially yield zero detections.
+TEST_IMAGE_DIR="$CURDIR/test-data"
+TEST_IMAGE_FILE="$TEST_IMAGE_DIR/test.jpg"
+TEST_IMAGE_URL="${TEST_IMAGE_URL:-https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mudler/rf-detr.cpp/main/tests/fixtures/ci/test_image.jpg}"
+
+mkdir -p "$TEST_IMAGE_DIR"
+if [ ! -f "$TEST_IMAGE_FILE" ]; then
+    echo "Downloading COCO test image..."
+    curl -L -o "$TEST_IMAGE_FILE" "$TEST_IMAGE_URL" --progress-bar
+fi
+
+echo "locate-anything-cpp test setup complete."
+echo "  model:      $LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_DIR/$LOCATEANYTHING_MODEL_FILE"
+echo "  test image: $TEST_IMAGE_FILE"
+
+# Run the Go smoke test: spawns the backend binary on a free port, calls
+# LoadModel + Detect via gRPC against the downloaded GGUF + COCO image.
+echo ""
+echo "Running Go smoke test..."
+cd "$CURDIR"
+go test -v -timeout 30m ./...

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/Makefile

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # parakeet-cpp backend Makefile.
 #
-# Upstream pin lives below as PARAKEET_VERSION?=8a7c48209d7882a7ce79a6b306270e4703194543
+# Upstream pin lives below as PARAKEET_VERSION?=b8012f11e5269126eddb7f4fd02f891a2ccc29b0
 # (.github/bump_deps.sh) can find and update it - matches the
 # whisper.cpp / ds4 / vibevoice-cpp convention.
 #
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 # That's what the L0 smoke test uses. The default target below does the
 # proper clone-at-pin + cmake build so CI doesn't need a side-checkout.
 
-PARAKEET_VERSION?=8a7c48209d7882a7ce79a6b306270e4703194543
+PARAKEET_VERSION?=b8012f11e5269126eddb7f4fd02f891a2ccc29b0
 PARAKEET_REPO?=https://github.com/mudler/parakeet.cpp
 
 GOCMD?=go
@@ -39,7 +39,10 @@ endif
 # is overwritten back to OFF and the build silently falls back to CPU. Forward the
 # PARAKEET_GGML_* options instead. (openblas is not gated, so -DGGML_BLAS passes through.)
 ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),cublas)
-	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DPARAKEET_GGML_CUDA=ON
+	# GGML_CUDA_GRAPHS is OFF by ggml default; enabling it gives a small free
+	# speedup (~1% measured on GB10, never negative) by capturing/replaying the
+	# CUDA graph. Not gated by parakeet.cpp, so it passes straight through to ggml.
+	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DPARAKEET_GGML_CUDA=ON -DGGML_CUDA_GRAPHS=ON
 else ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),openblas)
 	CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_BLAS=ON -DGGML_BLAS_VENDOR=OpenBLAS
 else ifeq ($(BUILD_TYPE),hipblas)

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/batcher.go

@@ -7,8 +7,12 @@ import "time"
 type batchRequest struct {
 	pcm     []float32
 	decoder int32
-	tag     string
-	reply   chan batchReply
+	// language is the per-request target locale ("" means the model default).
+	// parakeet.cpp's batched C-API takes ONE target_lang for the whole batch,
+	// so the dispatcher only coalesces requests that share a language.
+	language string
+	tag      string
+	reply    chan batchReply
 }
 
 // batchReply carries one per-item JSON object string (an element of the C-API's
@@ -43,13 +47,25 @@ func newBatcher(maxSize int, maxWait time.Duration, runBatch func([]*batchReques
 // run is the dispatcher loop: accumulate submitted requests until either maxSize
 // is reached or maxWait elapses since the first queued request, then dispatch.
 // Exits when stop is closed (draining any partially-filled batch first).
+//
+// A batch carries ONE language (parakeet.cpp's batched C-API takes a single
+// target_lang), so a request whose language differs from the batch leader is
+// not coalesced: it is held in carry and becomes the leader of the next batch.
+// carry is therefore never dropped and its caller never deadlocks: every batch
+// (including a lone carry on stop) is dispatched, and runBatch replies to all.
 func (b *batcher) run(stop <-chan struct{}) {
+	var carry *batchRequest
 	for {
 		var first *batchRequest
-		select {
-		case first = <-b.submit:
-		case <-stop:
-			return
+		if carry != nil {
+			// A mismatched request from the previous fill leads this batch.
+			first, carry = carry, nil
+		} else {
+			select {
+			case first = <-b.submit:
+			case <-stop:
+				return
+			}
 		}
 		batch := []*batchRequest{first}
 
@@ -64,12 +80,22 @@ func (b *batcher) run(stop <-chan struct{}) {
 		for len(batch) < b.maxSize {
 			select {
 			case r := <-b.submit:
+				if r.language != first.language {
+					// Different language: carry it to the next batch so this
+					// batch stays single-language, then dispatch what we have.
+					carry = r
+					break fill
+				}
 				batch = append(batch, r)
 			case <-timer.C:
 				break fill
 			case <-stop:
 				timer.Stop()
 				b.runBatch(batch)
+				// Don't strand a carried request's caller on shutdown.
+				if carry != nil {
+					b.runBatch([]*batchRequest{carry})
+				}
 				return
 			}
 		}

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/batcher_test.go

@@ -105,4 +105,60 @@ var _ = Describe("batcher", func() {
 		go func() { <-rep }()
 		Eventually(dispatched, "2s").Should(Receive(Equal(1)))
 	})
+
+	It("never coalesces requests with different languages into one batch", func() {
+		// parakeet.cpp's batched C-API takes ONE target_lang per batch, so the
+		// dispatcher must keep every dispatched batch single-language. Submit a
+		// mix of languages and assert (a) no batch ever carries more than one
+		// distinct language and (b) every submitted request still gets a reply
+		// (the mismatched carry-over is never dropped).
+		var mu sync.Mutex
+		var langsPerBatch [][]string
+		run := func(reqs []*batchRequest) {
+			seen := map[string]struct{}{}
+			var distinct []string
+			for _, r := range reqs {
+				if _, ok := seen[r.language]; !ok {
+					seen[r.language] = struct{}{}
+					distinct = append(distinct, r.language)
+				}
+			}
+			mu.Lock()
+			langsPerBatch = append(langsPerBatch, distinct)
+			mu.Unlock()
+			echoReply(reqs)
+		}
+		// Large window + size so the fill loop stays open across submits and the
+		// language constraint (not the timer) is what splits the batches.
+		b := newBatcher(16, 200*time.Millisecond, run)
+		stop := make(chan struct{})
+		go b.run(stop)
+		defer close(stop)
+
+		langs := []string{"en", "en", "de", "de", "en", "fr", "fr"}
+		const N = 7
+		var wg sync.WaitGroup
+		got := make([]string, N)
+		for i := 0; i < N; i++ {
+			wg.Add(1)
+			go func(i int) {
+				defer wg.Done()
+				rep := make(chan batchReply, 1)
+				b.submit <- &batchRequest{tag: string(rune('a' + i)), language: langs[i], reply: rep}
+				got[i] = (<-rep).json
+			}(i)
+		}
+		wg.Wait()
+
+		mu.Lock()
+		defer mu.Unlock()
+		// Invariant: every dispatched batch is single-language.
+		for _, distinct := range langsPerBatch {
+			Expect(len(distinct)).To(Equal(1), "a batch coalesced more than one language: %v", distinct)
+		}
+		// Liveness: every request got a reply (carry-over never stranded).
+		for i := 0; i < N; i++ {
+			Expect(got[i]).To(Equal(string(rune('a' + i))))
+		}
+	})
 })

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/goparakeetcpp.go

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/go-audio/wav"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/base"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/grpcerrors"
 	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/utils"
 	"github.com/mudler/xlog"
@@ -47,6 +48,13 @@ var (
 	// side reads them as const float*/const int*.
 	CppTranscribePcmBatchJSON func(ctx uintptr, samplesConcat []float32, nSamples []int32, nClips int32, sampleRate int32, decoder int32) uintptr
 
+	// CppTranscribePcmBatchJSONLang is the multilingual variant of the batched
+	// JSON entry point: identical, plus a trailing target_lang. "" (the model
+	// default, "auto") is passed for non-prompt models, which ignore it; an
+	// unknown locale on a prompt model returns 0 and sets last_error. Present
+	// only in newer libparakeet.so; nil falls back to CppTranscribePcmBatchJSON.
+	CppTranscribePcmBatchJSONLang func(ctx uintptr, samplesConcat []float32, nSamples []int32, nClips int32, sampleRate int32, decoder int32, targetLang string) uintptr
+
 	// Cache-aware streaming (RNN-T) entry points. stream_begin returns 0 for
 	// non-streaming models. feed/finalize return a malloc'd char* (uintptr,
 	// freed via CppFreeString); feed writes 1 to *eouOut on an <EOU>/<EOB>.
@@ -54,6 +62,18 @@ var (
 	CppStreamFeed     func(s uintptr, pcm []float32, nSamples int32, eouOut unsafe.Pointer) uintptr
 	CppStreamFinalize func(s uintptr) uintptr
 	CppStreamFree     func(s uintptr)
+
+	// CppStreamBeginLang is the multilingual variant of stream_begin: identical,
+	// plus a trailing target_lang ("" means the model default). Present only in
+	// newer libparakeet.so; nil falls back to CppStreamBegin.
+	CppStreamBeginLang func(ctx uintptr, targetLang string) uintptr
+
+	// Streaming JSON variants (ABI v4): feed/finalize returning a malloc'd char*
+	// JSON document {text,eou,frame_sec,words} (uintptr, freed via CppFreeString)
+	// so streaming segments can carry per-word timestamps. Present only in newer
+	// libparakeet.so; nil falls back to the text-only CppStreamFeed/Finalize path.
+	CppStreamFeedJSON     func(s uintptr, pcm []float32, nSamples int32) uintptr
+	CppStreamFinalizeJSON func(s uintptr) uintptr
 )
 
 // streamChunkSamples is how much 16 kHz mono PCM we hand to stream_feed per
@@ -71,9 +91,30 @@ const streamChunkSamples = 16000
 //
 // "start"/"end"/"t" are seconds; "conf" is confidence in (0,1].
 type transcriptJSON struct {
-	Text   string            `json:"text"`
-	Words  []transcriptWord  `json:"words"`
-	Tokens []transcriptToken `json:"tokens"`
+	Text     string            `json:"text"`
+	FrameSec float64           `json:"frame_sec"`
+	Words    []transcriptWord  `json:"words"`
+	Tokens   []transcriptToken `json:"tokens"`
+}
+
+// streamFeedJSON mirrors the document returned by
+// parakeet_capi_stream_feed_json / parakeet_capi_stream_finalize_json (ABI v5):
+//
+//	{"text":"...","eou":0,"eob":0,"frame_sec":0.080000,
+//	 "words":[{"w":"...","start":0.480,"end":0.640,"conf":0.9100}, ...]}
+//
+// "text" is the newly-finalized text since the last call; "eou" is 1 when an
+// <EOU> (end of utterance) fired this feed and "eob" is 1 when an <EOB>
+// (backchannel) fired. ABI v4 conflated the two into "eou"; v5 split them, so
+// we read both and treat either as an utterance boundary for segmentation.
+// "words" are the words finalized this call with absolute (stream-relative)
+// start/end seconds.
+type streamFeedJSON struct {
+	Text     string           `json:"text"`
+	Eou      int              `json:"eou"`
+	Eob      int              `json:"eob"`
+	FrameSec float64          `json:"frame_sec"`
+	Words    []transcriptWord `json:"words"`
 }
 
 type transcriptWord struct {
@@ -102,6 +143,10 @@ type ParakeetCpp struct {
 	engineMu sync.Mutex // sole guard of the one C engine (dispatcher + streaming)
 	bat      *batcher
 	batStop  chan struct{}
+	// segmentGapFrames is NeMo's segment_gap_threshold in ENCODER FRAMES (model
+	// YAML option, default 0=off). When >0 it adds NeMo's silence-gap split on
+	// top of the punctuation split; converted to seconds via the JSON frame_sec.
+	segmentGapFrames int
 }
 
 // Load is the LocalAI gRPC entry point for LoadModel: it calls
@@ -131,6 +176,11 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) Load(opts *pb.ModelOptions) error {
 	if maxWaitMs < 0 {
 		maxWaitMs = 0
 	}
+
+	// NeMo's segment_gap_threshold (encoder frames, default 0=off). Off by
+	// default matches NeMo's default (punctuation-only segments); when set it
+	// additionally splits segments on inter-word silence (see transcriptResultFromDoc).
+	p.segmentGapFrames = optInt(opts, "segment_gap_threshold", 0)
 	if CppTranscribePcmBatchJSON != nil {
 		p.batStop = make(chan struct{})
 		p.bat = newBatcher(maxSize, time.Duration(maxWaitMs)*time.Millisecond, p.runBatch)
@@ -186,8 +236,19 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) runBatch(reqs []*batchRequest) {
 	if len(reqs) > 0 {
 		dec = reqs[0].decoder
 	}
+	// All requests in a batch share one language (the batcher coalesces only
+	// same-language requests), so any element's language describes the batch.
+	lang := ""
+	if len(reqs) > 0 {
+		lang = reqs[0].language
+	}
 	p.engineMu.Lock()
-	cstr := CppTranscribePcmBatchJSON(p.ctxPtr, concat, nSamples, int32(len(reqs)), 16000, dec)
+	var cstr uintptr
+	if CppTranscribePcmBatchJSONLang != nil {
+		cstr = CppTranscribePcmBatchJSONLang(p.ctxPtr, concat, nSamples, int32(len(reqs)), 16000, dec, lang)
+	} else {
+		cstr = CppTranscribePcmBatchJSON(p.ctxPtr, concat, nSamples, int32(len(reqs)), 16000, dec)
+	}
 	p.engineMu.Unlock()
 	if cstr == 0 {
 		err := fmt.Errorf("parakeet-cpp: batch transcribe failed: %s", CppLastError(p.ctxPtr))
@@ -225,21 +286,31 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) runBatch(reqs []*batchRequest) {
 // OpenAI API, whose default is segment-level); token ids always populate
 // Segment.Tokens.
 //
-// translate/diarize/prompt/temperature/language/threads are not applicable to
-// parakeet and are ignored; streaming is handled by AudioTranscriptionStream
+// translate/diarize/prompt/temperature/threads are not applicable to parakeet
+// and are ignored; language is honored on the batched + streaming paths (see
+// opts.GetLanguage() below); streaming is handled by AudioTranscriptionStream
 // (L2).
 func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscription(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.TranscriptRequest) (pb.TranscriptResult, error) {
 	if p.ctxPtr == 0 {
-		return pb.TranscriptResult{}, errors.New("parakeet-cpp: model not loaded")
+		return pb.TranscriptResult{}, grpcerrors.ModelNotLoaded("parakeet-cpp")
 	}
 	if opts.Dst == "" {
 		return pb.TranscriptResult{}, errors.New("parakeet-cpp: TranscriptRequest.dst (audio path) is required")
 	}
 
-	// Fallback when the batched C-API is unavailable: transcribe directly from
-	// the file path (original behavior, no batching).
+	// Fallback when the batched C-API is unavailable: transcribe from a file
+	// path (original behavior, no batching). The C library's audio loader only
+	// understands 16 kHz mono WAV/PCM, so convert the input first - otherwise
+	// any non-WAV upload (MP3, etc.) fails with "failed to load audio". This
+	// mirrors what every other audio backend (whisper, crispasr) does via
+	// utils.AudioToWav before handing the file to the engine.
 	if p.bat == nil {
-		cstr := CppTranscribePathJSON(p.ctxPtr, opts.Dst, 0)
+		converted, cleanup, err := convertToWavMono16k(opts.Dst)
+		if err != nil {
+			return pb.TranscriptResult{}, err
+		}
+		defer cleanup()
+		cstr := CppTranscribePathJSON(p.ctxPtr, converted, 0)
 		if cstr == 0 {
 			return pb.TranscriptResult{}, fmt.Errorf("parakeet-cpp: transcribe_path_json failed: %s", CppLastError(p.ctxPtr))
 		}
@@ -249,7 +320,7 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscription(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Transcrip
 		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(raw), &doc); err != nil {
 			return pb.TranscriptResult{}, fmt.Errorf("parakeet-cpp: decode transcript json: %w", err)
 		}
-		return transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, opts), nil
+		return transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, opts, p.segmentGapFrames), nil
 	}
 
 	// Batched path: decode to PCM, submit to the batcher, wait for this request's
@@ -261,7 +332,7 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscription(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Transcrip
 	}
 	rep := make(chan batchReply, 1)
 	select {
-	case p.bat.submit <- &batchRequest{pcm: pcm, decoder: 0, reply: rep}:
+	case p.bat.submit <- &batchRequest{pcm: pcm, decoder: 0, language: opts.GetLanguage(), reply: rep}:
 	case <-ctx.Done():
 		return pb.TranscriptResult{}, status.Error(codes.Canceled, "transcription cancelled")
 	}
@@ -278,34 +349,172 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscription(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Transcrip
 	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(res.json), &doc); err != nil {
 		return pb.TranscriptResult{}, fmt.Errorf("parakeet-cpp: decode transcript json: %w", err)
 	}
-	return transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, opts), nil
+	return transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, opts, p.segmentGapFrames), nil
 }
 
+// segmentSeparators is NeMo's default segment_seperators (sentence-ending
+// punctuation). Splitting on these matches NeMo's default segment timestamps.
+var segmentSeparators = []rune{'.', '?', '!'}
+
 // transcriptResultFromDoc maps a decoded transcriptJSON to a TranscriptResult,
-// synthesising a single whole-clip segment and attaching word timings only when
-// the caller requested word granularity. Shared by the batched and direct paths.
-func transcriptResultFromDoc(doc transcriptJSON, opts *pb.TranscriptRequest) pb.TranscriptResult {
+// grouping words into NeMo-faithful segments (see splitWordsIntoSegments). The
+// optional gapFrames (NeMo's segment_gap_threshold, in encoder FRAMES; 0=off)
+// additionally splits on inter-word silence; it is converted to a seconds gap
+// with the document's frame_sec. Per-segment word timings are attached only when
+// the caller requested word granularity; token ids populate each segment's
+// Tokens by time-window membership. Shared by the batched and direct paths.
+func transcriptResultFromDoc(doc transcriptJSON, opts *pb.TranscriptRequest, gapFrames int) pb.TranscriptResult {
 	text := strings.TrimSpace(doc.Text)
-	words := make([]*pb.TranscriptWord, 0, len(doc.Words))
-	for _, w := range doc.Words {
-		words = append(words, &pb.TranscriptWord{Start: secondsToNanos(w.Start), End: secondsToNanos(w.End), Text: w.W})
+
+	// Frame-unit gap threshold -> seconds (NeMo segment_gap_threshold). 0 = off.
+	gapSeconds := 0.0
+	if gapFrames > 0 {
+		if doc.FrameSec > 0 {
+			gapSeconds = float64(gapFrames) * doc.FrameSec
+		} else {
+			xlog.Warn("parakeet-cpp: segment_gap_threshold set but libparakeet.so " +
+				"did not report frame_sec; falling back to punctuation-only segments")
+		}
 	}
-	tokens := make([]int32, 0, len(doc.Tokens))
-	for _, t := range doc.Tokens {
-		tokens = append(tokens, t.ID)
+
+	groups := splitWordsIntoSegments(doc.Words, segmentSeparators, gapSeconds)
+	if len(groups) == 0 {
+		// No words (edge case): single whole-clip text segment.
+		return pb.TranscriptResult{
+			Text:     text,
+			Segments: []*pb.TranscriptSegment{{Id: 0, Text: text}},
+		}
 	}
-	var segStart, segEnd int64
-	if len(words) > 0 {
-		segStart = words[0].Start
-		segEnd = words[len(words)-1].End
+
+	wantWords := wordsRequested(opts.TimestampGranularities)
+	segments := make([]*pb.TranscriptSegment, 0, len(groups))
+	for id, group := range groups {
+		parts := make([]string, len(group))
+		for i, gw := range group {
+			parts[i] = gw.W
+		}
+		seg := &pb.TranscriptSegment{
+			Id:     int32(id),
+			Start:  secondsToNanos(group[0].Start),
+			End:    secondsToNanos(group[len(group)-1].End),
+			Text:   strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(parts, " ")),
+			Tokens: tokensInWindow(doc.Tokens, group[0].Start, group[len(group)-1].End),
+		}
+		if wantWords {
+			ws := make([]*pb.TranscriptWord, len(group))
+			for i, gw := range group {
+				ws[i] = &pb.TranscriptWord{Start: secondsToNanos(gw.Start), End: secondsToNanos(gw.End), Text: gw.W}
+			}
+			seg.Words = ws
+		}
+		segments = append(segments, seg)
 	}
-	seg := &pb.TranscriptSegment{Id: 0, Start: segStart, End: segEnd, Text: text, Tokens: tokens}
-	if wordsRequested(opts.TimestampGranularities) {
-		seg.Words = words
-	}
-	return pb.TranscriptResult{Text: text, Segments: []*pb.TranscriptSegment{seg}}
+	return pb.TranscriptResult{Text: text, Segments: segments}
 }
 
+// splitWordsIntoSegments groups words into segments exactly as NeMo's
+// get_segment_offsets does (nemo/collections/asr/parts/utils/timestamp_utils.py).
+// Walking the words, it closes a segment when (1) the gap rule is enabled
+// (gapSeconds > 0) and the segment already has words and the gap from the
+// previous word's end to this word's start is >= gapSeconds - the current word
+// then STARTS a new segment - or, checked only when the gap rule did not apply
+// (NeMo's elif), (2) the word ends with (or is) a separator, which closes the
+// segment INCLUDING that word. Trailing words flush into a final segment.
+// gapSeconds <= 0 disables the gap rule, matching NeMo's default
+// segment_gap_threshold=None (punctuation-only segments).
+func splitWordsIntoSegments(words []transcriptWord, separators []rune, gapSeconds float64) [][]transcriptWord {
+	var segments [][]transcriptWord
+	var cur []transcriptWord
+	for i, word := range words {
+		gapActive := gapSeconds > 0 && len(cur) > 0
+		if gapActive && (word.Start-words[i-1].End) >= gapSeconds {
+			segments = append(segments, cur)
+			cur = []transcriptWord{word}
+			continue
+		}
+		if !gapActive && endsWithSeparator(word.W, separators) {
+			cur = append(cur, word)
+			segments = append(segments, cur)
+			cur = nil
+			continue
+		}
+		cur = append(cur, word)
+	}
+	if len(cur) > 0 {
+		segments = append(segments, cur)
+	}
+	return segments
+}
+
+// endsWithSeparator reports whether w's last rune is in separators (matching
+// NeMo's `word[-1] in delims or word in delims`).
+func endsWithSeparator(w string, separators []rune) bool {
+	r := []rune(strings.TrimSpace(w))
+	if len(r) == 0 {
+		return false
+	}
+	last := r[len(r)-1]
+	for _, s := range separators {
+		if last == s {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// tokensInWindow returns the ids of tokens whose timestamp t falls in
+// [start, end] (inclusive), assigning each token to the segment that spans its
+// time. The last segment's end is the last word end, so the final token is
+// included.
+func tokensInWindow(tokens []transcriptToken, start, end float64) []int32 {
+	var ids []int32
+	for _, t := range tokens {
+		if t.T >= start && t.T <= end {
+			ids = append(ids, t.ID)
+		}
+	}
+	return ids
+}
+
+// streamSegmenter accumulates streaming words into per-utterance segments. EOU
+// is the model's own utterance boundary; each closed segment takes its start/end
+// from its first/last accumulated word.
+type streamSegmenter struct {
+	segs   []*pb.TranscriptSegment
+	cur    []transcriptWord
+	nextID int32
+}
+
+func (s *streamSegmenter) add(doc streamFeedJSON) {
+	s.cur = append(s.cur, doc.Words...)
+	// Close the segment on either turn signal: <EOU> (end of utterance) or
+	// <EOB> (backchannel). ABI v4 reported both via "eou"; v5 split them, so we
+	// OR them here to keep the v4 segmentation boundaries.
+	if doc.Eou != 0 || doc.Eob != 0 {
+		s.flush()
+	}
+}
+
+func (s *streamSegmenter) flush() {
+	if len(s.cur) == 0 {
+		return
+	}
+	parts := make([]string, len(s.cur))
+	for i, w := range s.cur {
+		parts[i] = w.W
+	}
+	s.segs = append(s.segs, &pb.TranscriptSegment{
+		Id:    s.nextID,
+		Start: secondsToNanos(s.cur[0].Start),
+		End:   secondsToNanos(s.cur[len(s.cur)-1].End),
+		Text:  strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(parts, " ")),
+	})
+	s.nextID++
+	s.cur = nil
+}
+
+func (s *streamSegmenter) segments() []*pb.TranscriptSegment { return s.segs }
+
 // wordsRequested reports whether the caller asked for word-level timestamps.
 // The OpenAI transcription API gates word timings behind
 // timestamp_granularities[] containing "word" and defaults to segment-level
@@ -342,7 +551,7 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscriptionStream(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Tra
 	defer close(results)
 
 	if p.ctxPtr == 0 {
-		return errors.New("parakeet-cpp: model not loaded")
+		return grpcerrors.ModelNotLoaded("parakeet-cpp")
 	}
 	if opts.Dst == "" {
 		return errors.New("parakeet-cpp: TranscriptRequest.dst (audio path) is required")
@@ -351,7 +560,12 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscriptionStream(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Tra
 		return status.Error(codes.Canceled, "transcription cancelled")
 	}
 
-	stream := CppStreamBegin(p.ctxPtr)
+	var stream uintptr
+	if CppStreamBeginLang != nil {
+		stream = CppStreamBeginLang(p.ctxPtr, opts.GetLanguage())
+	} else {
+		stream = CppStreamBegin(p.ctxPtr)
+	}
 	if stream == 0 {
 		// Not a cache-aware streaming model: run a normal offline
 		// transcription and emit it as one delta + a closing final result.
@@ -380,6 +594,14 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscriptionStream(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Tra
 		return err
 	}
 
+	// ABI v4: when the streaming JSON entry points are present, drive them so the
+	// per-utterance segments carry per-word start/end timestamps. Falls through to
+	// the text-only loop below against an older libparakeet.so. Runs under the
+	// engineMu already held above.
+	if CppStreamFeedJSON != nil {
+		return p.streamJSON(ctx, stream, data, duration, results)
+	}
+
 	var (
 		full     strings.Builder
 		segText  strings.Builder
@@ -456,21 +678,103 @@ func (p *ParakeetCpp) AudioTranscriptionStream(ctx context.Context, opts *pb.Tra
 	return nil
 }
 
+// streamJSON drives the streaming JSON entry points (present since ABI v4): each
+// feed/finalize returns a {text,eou,eob,frame_sec,words} document. The
+// newly-finalized text is emitted as a delta (unchanged streaming contract)
+// while words are accumulated into per-utterance segments (closed on <EOU> or
+// <EOB>) so the closing FinalResult carries timestamped segments. Runs under
+// engineMu (already held by the caller).
+func (p *ParakeetCpp) streamJSON(ctx context.Context, stream uintptr, data []float32,
+	duration float32, results chan *pb.TranscriptStreamResponse) error {
+	var (
+		full strings.Builder
+		seg  streamSegmenter
+	)
+	// consume frees the malloc'd char* (a 0 return is an error), parses the JSON,
+	// emits the delta, and routes words through the segmenter.
+	consume := func(ret uintptr) error {
+		if ret == 0 {
+			msg := CppLastError(p.ctxPtr)
+			if msg == "" {
+				msg = "unknown error"
+			}
+			return fmt.Errorf("parakeet-cpp: stream feed/finalize failed: %s", msg)
+		}
+		raw := goStringFromCPtr(ret)
+		CppFreeString(ret)
+		var doc streamFeedJSON
+		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(raw), &doc); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("parakeet-cpp: decode stream json: %w", err)
+		}
+		if doc.Text != "" {
+			full.WriteString(doc.Text)
+			results <- &pb.TranscriptStreamResponse{Delta: doc.Text}
+		}
+		seg.add(doc)
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	for off := 0; off < len(data); off += streamChunkSamples {
+		if err := ctx.Err(); err != nil {
+			return status.Error(codes.Canceled, "transcription cancelled")
+		}
+		end := min(off+streamChunkSamples, len(data))
+		chunk := data[off:end]
+		if err := consume(CppStreamFeedJSON(stream, chunk, int32(len(chunk)))); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+	if err := consume(CppStreamFinalizeJSON(stream)); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	seg.flush() // close any trailing utterance that never saw an EOU
+
+	text := strings.TrimSpace(full.String())
+	segments := seg.segments()
+	if len(segments) == 0 && text != "" {
+		segments = append(segments, &pb.TranscriptSegment{Id: 0, Text: text})
+	}
+	results <- &pb.TranscriptStreamResponse{
+		FinalResult: &pb.TranscriptResult{
+			Text:     text,
+			Segments: segments,
+			Duration: duration,
+		},
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // decodeWavMono16k converts any input audio to 16 kHz mono PCM and returns the
 // float samples plus the clip duration in seconds. Mirrors the whisper
 // backend: utils.AudioToWav (ffmpeg) normalises rate/channels, go-audio
 // decodes the PCM.
-func decodeWavMono16k(path string) ([]float32, float32, error) {
+// convertToWavMono16k converts an arbitrary audio file to a 16 kHz mono WAV in
+// a fresh temp dir and returns the path together with a cleanup func the caller
+// must defer. WAV inputs already at 16 kHz/mono/16-bit are passed through by
+// utils.AudioToWav (hardlink/copy), everything else is transcoded via ffmpeg.
+// Used by the direct (non-batched) transcription path, which hands a file path
+// to the C library's WAV-only audio loader.
+func convertToWavMono16k(path string) (string, func(), error) {
 	dir, err := os.MkdirTemp("", "parakeet")
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, 0, err
+		return "", func() {}, err
 	}
-	defer func() { _ = os.RemoveAll(dir) }()
+	cleanup := func() { _ = os.RemoveAll(dir) }
 
 	converted := filepath.Join(dir, "converted.wav")
 	if err := utils.AudioToWav(path, converted); err != nil {
+		cleanup()
+		return "", func() {}, err
+	}
+	return converted, cleanup, nil
+}
+
+func decodeWavMono16k(path string) ([]float32, float32, error) {
+	converted, cleanup, err := convertToWavMono16k(path)
+	if err != nil {
 		return nil, 0, err
 	}
+	defer cleanup()
 
 	fh, err := os.Open(converted)
 	if err != nil {

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/goparakeetcpp_test.go

@@ -3,11 +3,14 @@ package main
 import (
 	"context"
 	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/ebitengine/purego"
+	"github.com/go-audio/audio"
+	"github.com/go-audio/wav"
 	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
@@ -50,6 +53,10 @@ func ensureLibLoaded() {
 		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFeed, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_feed")
 		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFinalize, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_finalize")
 		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFree, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_free")
+		if sym, err := purego.Dlsym(lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_feed_json"); err == nil && sym != 0 {
+			purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFeedJSON, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_feed_json")
+			purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFinalizeJSON, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_finalize_json")
+		}
 		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppFreeString, lib, "parakeet_capi_free_string")
 		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppLastError, lib, "parakeet_capi_last_error")
 	})
@@ -70,6 +77,24 @@ func fixturesOrSkip() (string, string) {
 	return modelPath, audioPath
 }
 
+// writeMono16kWav writes `samples` frames of 16 kHz mono 16-bit silence to
+// path. The result is already in AudioToWav's target format, so the conversion
+// helper copies it through without invoking ffmpeg.
+func writeMono16kWav(path string, samples int) {
+	GinkgoHelper()
+	f, err := os.Create(path)
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	enc := wav.NewEncoder(f, 16000, 16, 1, 1)
+	buf := &audio.IntBuffer{
+		Format:         &audio.Format{NumChannels: 1, SampleRate: 16000},
+		SourceBitDepth: 16,
+		Data:           make([]int, samples),
+	}
+	Expect(enc.Write(buf)).To(Succeed())
+	Expect(enc.Close()).To(Succeed())
+	Expect(f.Close()).To(Succeed())
+}
+
 var _ = Describe("ParakeetCpp", func() {
 	Context("AudioTranscription", func() {
 		It("transcribes a WAV via the parakeet C-API", func() {
@@ -86,13 +111,22 @@ var _ = Describe("ParakeetCpp", func() {
 			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
 			Expect(strings.TrimSpace(res.Text)).ToNot(BeEmpty(),
 				"expected non-empty transcript for %s", audioPath)
-			Expect(res.Segments).To(HaveLen(1),
-				"synthesises a single whole-clip segment")
-			Expect(res.Segments[0].Text).To(Equal(res.Text),
-				"single segment text must equal the top-level text")
-			// Default (no granularities) is segment-level: no per-word timings.
-			Expect(res.Segments[0].Words).To(BeEmpty(),
-				"word timings are opt-in via timestamp_granularities")
+			// NeMo-faithful segmentation: one or more punctuation-delimited
+			// segments, each with text and a monotonically-advancing time span.
+			Expect(res.Segments).ToNot(BeEmpty(), "expected at least one segment")
+			var prevEnd int64
+			for i, seg := range res.Segments {
+				Expect(strings.TrimSpace(seg.Text)).ToNot(BeEmpty(),
+					"segment %d must have text", i)
+				Expect(seg.End).To(BeNumerically(">=", seg.Start),
+					"segment %d end must not precede its start", i)
+				Expect(seg.Start).To(BeNumerically(">=", prevEnd),
+					"segments must be in time order")
+				prevEnd = seg.End
+				// Default (no granularities) is segment-level: no per-word timings.
+				Expect(seg.Words).To(BeEmpty(),
+					"word timings are opt-in via timestamp_granularities")
+			}
 		})
 
 		It("emits word-level timestamps when granularity=word", func() {
@@ -108,15 +142,61 @@ var _ = Describe("ParakeetCpp", func() {
 				TimestampGranularities: []string{"word"},
 			})
 			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
-			Expect(res.Segments).To(HaveLen(1))
-			seg := res.Segments[0]
-			Expect(seg.Words).ToNot(BeEmpty(),
-				"expected per-word timestamps with granularity=word")
-			// Monotonic, non-negative timings spanning the segment.
-			Expect(seg.Words[0].Start).To(BeNumerically(">=", int64(0)))
-			Expect(seg.End).To(BeNumerically(">=", seg.Start))
-			Expect(seg.Words[len(seg.Words)-1].End).To(Equal(seg.End),
-				"segment end tracks the last word")
+			Expect(res.Segments).ToNot(BeEmpty())
+			// With word granularity every segment carries its own words, and each
+			// segment's span tracks its first/last word; word starts advance
+			// monotonically across the whole transcript.
+			totalWords := 0
+			var prevStart int64 = -1
+			for i, seg := range res.Segments {
+				Expect(seg.Words).ToNot(BeEmpty(),
+					"segment %d must carry per-word timestamps with granularity=word", i)
+				Expect(seg.Start).To(Equal(seg.Words[0].Start),
+					"segment %d start tracks its first word", i)
+				Expect(seg.End).To(Equal(seg.Words[len(seg.Words)-1].End),
+					"segment %d end tracks its last word", i)
+				for _, w := range seg.Words {
+					Expect(w.End).To(BeNumerically(">=", w.Start))
+					Expect(w.Start).To(BeNumerically(">=", prevStart))
+					prevStart = w.Start
+					totalWords++
+				}
+			}
+			Expect(totalWords).To(BeNumerically(">", 0))
+			Expect(res.Segments[0].Words[0].Start).To(BeNumerically(">=", int64(0)))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("convertToWavMono16k", func() {
+		// The non-batched transcription path hands a file path to the C
+		// library's WAV-only audio loader, so it must convert first.
+		// utils.AudioToWav passes an already-16kHz/mono/16-bit WAV through
+		// without ffmpeg, which lets us exercise the helper (and the
+		// regression: the direct path used to skip conversion entirely)
+		// without a model, the C library, or ffmpeg.
+		It("returns a decodable 16kHz mono WAV copy and cleans it up", func() {
+			dir := GinkgoT().TempDir()
+			src := filepath.Join(dir, "input.wav")
+			writeMono16kWav(src, 16000) // 1s of silence at 16 kHz
+
+			converted, cleanup, err := convertToWavMono16k(src)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+
+			// It must produce a fresh temp file, not return the original path.
+			Expect(converted).ToNot(Equal(src))
+			Expect(converted).To(BeAnExistingFile())
+
+			pcm, _, err := decodeWavMono16k(converted)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(pcm).To(HaveLen(16000), "round-trips the sample count")
+
+			cleanup()
+			Expect(converted).ToNot(BeAnExistingFile(), "cleanup removes the temp dir")
+		})
+
+		It("errors on a non-existent input rather than passing the path through", func() {
+			_, _, err := convertToWavMono16k(filepath.Join(GinkgoT().TempDir(), "missing.mp3"))
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
 		})
 	})
 

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/main.go

@@ -65,6 +65,25 @@ func main() {
 		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppTranscribePcmBatchJSON, lib, "parakeet_capi_transcribe_pcm_batch_json")
 	}
 
+	// Per-request language variants (multilingual nemotron). Same probe pattern:
+	// present only in libparakeet.so built with multilingual support, so the
+	// backend still loads against an older library and falls back to the
+	// non-lang batched + streaming entry points (model default / "auto").
+	if sym, err := purego.Dlsym(lib, "parakeet_capi_transcribe_pcm_batch_json_lang"); err == nil && sym != 0 {
+		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppTranscribePcmBatchJSONLang, lib, "parakeet_capi_transcribe_pcm_batch_json_lang")
+	}
+	if sym, err := purego.Dlsym(lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_begin_lang"); err == nil && sym != 0 {
+		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamBeginLang, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_begin_lang")
+	}
+
+	// Streaming JSON entry points (ABI v4): surface per-word timestamps on the
+	// streaming path. Same probe pattern; absent in older libparakeet.so, where
+	// the backend falls back to the text-only streaming feed.
+	if sym, err := purego.Dlsym(lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_feed_json"); err == nil && sym != 0 {
+		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFeedJSON, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_feed_json")
+		purego.RegisterLibFunc(&CppStreamFinalizeJSON, lib, "parakeet_capi_stream_finalize_json")
+	}
+
 	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "[parakeet-cpp] ABI=%d\n", CppAbiVersion())
 
 	flag.Parse()

backend/go/parakeet-cpp/segments_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+func tw(text string, start, end float64) transcriptWord {
+	return transcriptWord{W: text, Start: start, End: end}
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("splitWordsIntoSegments (NeMo get_segment_offsets parity)", func() {
+	seps := []rune{'.', '?', '!'}
+
+	It("splits on sentence-ending punctuation, including the delimiter word", func() {
+		words := []transcriptWord{tw("hello", 0, 0.4), tw("world.", 0.4, 0.8), tw("bye", 1.0, 1.3)}
+		segs := splitWordsIntoSegments(words, seps, 0)
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(segs[0]).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(segs[0][1].W).To(Equal("world."))
+		Expect(segs[1]).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(segs[1][0].W).To(Equal("bye"))
+	})
+
+	It("keeps a single segment with no terminal punctuation and gap off", func() {
+		words := []transcriptWord{tw("a", 0, 0.2), tw("b", 0.2, 0.4), tw("c", 5.0, 5.2)}
+		segs := splitWordsIntoSegments(words, seps, 0)
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(1))
+	})
+
+	It("splits on the gap rule when enabled, the gapped word starting the next segment", func() {
+		words := []transcriptWord{tw("a", 0, 0.2), tw("b", 0.2, 0.4), tw("c", 5.0, 5.2)}
+		segs := splitWordsIntoSegments(words, seps, 1.0) // c is 4.6s after b
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(segs[0]).To(HaveLen(2)) // a b
+		Expect(segs[1]).To(HaveLen(1)) // c
+		Expect(segs[1][0].W).To(Equal("c"))
+	})
+
+	It("checks the gap rule before punctuation (NeMo elif order)", func() {
+		// "b." would terminate, but c is far after it -> gap closes [a b.] at b.
+		words := []transcriptWord{tw("a", 0, 0.2), tw("b.", 0.2, 0.4), tw("c", 9.0, 9.2)}
+		segs := splitWordsIntoSegments(words, seps, 1.0)
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(segs[0]).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(segs[1][0].W).To(Equal("c"))
+	})
+
+	It("still splits on punctuation when the gap rule is enabled but does not fire", func() {
+		words := []transcriptWord{tw("hi.", 0, 0.4), tw("bye", 0.4, 0.8)}
+		segs := splitWordsIntoSegments(words, seps, 5.0) // gap never reached
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(segs[0][0].W).To(Equal("hi."))
+	})
+
+	It("returns nothing for empty input", func() {
+		Expect(splitWordsIntoSegments(nil, seps, 0)).To(BeEmpty())
+	})
+})
+
+var _ = Describe("transcriptResultFromDoc (multi-segment)", func() {
+	doc := transcriptJSON{
+		Text:     "hello world. bye now",
+		FrameSec: 0.08,
+		Words: []transcriptWord{
+			{W: "hello", Start: 0.0, End: 0.4},
+			{W: "world.", Start: 0.4, End: 0.8},
+			{W: "bye", Start: 1.0, End: 1.3},
+			{W: "now", Start: 1.3, End: 1.6},
+		},
+		Tokens: []transcriptToken{{ID: 1, T: 0.1}, {ID: 2, T: 0.5}, {ID: 3, T: 1.1}, {ID: 4, T: 1.4}},
+	}
+
+	It("emits one segment per punctuation-delimited group with start/end", func() {
+		res := transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, &pb.TranscriptRequest{}, 0)
+		Expect(res.Segments).To(HaveLen(2))
+		Expect(res.Segments[0].Text).To(Equal("hello world."))
+		Expect(res.Segments[0].Start).To(Equal(int64(0)))
+		Expect(res.Segments[0].End).To(Equal(secondsToNanos(0.8)))
+		Expect(res.Segments[1].Text).To(Equal("bye now"))
+		Expect(res.Segments[1].Start).To(Equal(secondsToNanos(1.0)))
+		Expect(res.Segments[1].Id).To(Equal(int32(1)))
+	})
+
+	It("assigns tokens to the segment whose time window contains them", func() {
+		res := transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, &pb.TranscriptRequest{}, 0)
+		Expect(res.Segments[0].Tokens).To(Equal([]int32{1, 2}))
+		Expect(res.Segments[1].Tokens).To(Equal([]int32{3, 4}))
+	})
+
+	It("attaches per-segment words only when word granularity requested", func() {
+		plain := transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, &pb.TranscriptRequest{}, 0)
+		Expect(plain.Segments[0].Words).To(BeEmpty())
+		withWords := transcriptResultFromDoc(doc, &pb.TranscriptRequest{TimestampGranularities: []string{"word"}}, 0)
+		Expect(withWords.Segments[0].Words).To(HaveLen(2))
+	})
+
+	It("falls back to a single text segment when there are no words", func() {
+		res := transcriptResultFromDoc(transcriptJSON{Text: "hi"}, &pb.TranscriptRequest{}, 0)
+		Expect(res.Segments).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(res.Segments[0].Text).To(Equal("hi"))
+	})
+})
+
+var _ = Describe("streaming segment assembly", func() {
+	It("closes a segment with start/end from its words on EOU", func() {
+		acc := &streamSegmenter{}
+		acc.add(streamFeedJSON{Text: "hello world", Eou: 1, Words: []transcriptWord{
+			{W: "hello", Start: 0.0, End: 0.4}, {W: "world", Start: 0.4, End: 0.9},
+		}})
+		segs := acc.segments()
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(segs[0].Text).To(Equal("hello world"))
+		Expect(segs[0].Start).To(Equal(int64(0)))
+		Expect(segs[0].End).To(Equal(secondsToNanos(0.9)))
+	})
+
+	It("buffers words across feeds until EOU", func() {
+		acc := &streamSegmenter{}
+		acc.add(streamFeedJSON{Text: "hi", Eou: 0, Words: []transcriptWord{{W: "hi", Start: 0, End: 0.3}}})
+		Expect(acc.segments()).To(BeEmpty())
+		acc.add(streamFeedJSON{Text: "there", Eou: 1, Words: []transcriptWord{{W: "there", Start: 0.3, End: 0.7}}})
+		Expect(acc.segments()).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(acc.segments()[0].Text).To(Equal("hi there"))
+	})
+
+	// ABI v5 split <EOB> (backchannel) out of the "eou" flag into its own "eob"
+	// field; a backchannel must still close the segment as it did in v4.
+	It("closes a segment on EOB (backchannel) too", func() {
+		acc := &streamSegmenter{}
+		acc.add(streamFeedJSON{Text: "uh huh", Eou: 0, Eob: 1, Words: []transcriptWord{
+			{W: "uh", Start: 0.0, End: 0.2}, {W: "huh", Start: 0.2, End: 0.5},
+		}})
+		segs := acc.segments()
+		Expect(segs).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(segs[0].Text).To(Equal("uh huh"))
+		Expect(segs[0].End).To(Equal(secondsToNanos(0.5)))
+	})
+})

backend/go/qwen3-tts-cpp/Makefile

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ JOBS?=$(shell nproc --ignore=1)
 
 # qwen3-tts.cpp version
 QWEN3TTS_REPO?=https://github.com/predict-woo/qwen3-tts.cpp
-QWEN3TTS_CPP_VERSION?=7a762e2ad4bacc6fdda81d81bf10a09ffb546f29
+QWEN3TTS_CPP_VERSION?=136e5d36c17083da0321fd96512dc7b263f94a44
 SO_TARGET?=libgoqwen3ttscpp.so
 
 CMAKE_ARGS+=-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF

backend/go/qwen3-tts-cpp/goqwen3ttscpp.go

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/base"
 	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
@@ -21,6 +22,43 @@ type Qwen3TtsCpp struct {
 	threads int
 }
 
+// languageNameAliases maps common full language names to the canonical
+// two-letter code understood by the C++ language_to_id table.
+var languageNameAliases = map[string]string{
+	"english":    "en",
+	"russian":    "ru",
+	"chinese":    "zh",
+	"japanese":   "ja",
+	"korean":     "ko",
+	"german":     "de",
+	"french":     "fr",
+	"spanish":    "es",
+	"italian":    "it",
+	"portuguese": "pt",
+}
+
+// normalizeLanguage coerces a caller-supplied language into the canonical code
+// the model expects. It lowercases, trims, strips any region/locale suffix
+// (en-US, en_US, ja.JP -> en/ja), and resolves common full names (english -> en).
+// An empty input stays empty so the C++ side applies its English default; an
+// unrecognized value is returned normalized so C++ can log it and default.
+func normalizeLanguage(lang string) string {
+	lang = strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(lang))
+	if lang == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+
+	// Strip region/locale suffix: keep the segment before the first separator.
+	if i := strings.IndexAny(lang, "-_."); i >= 0 {
+		lang = lang[:i]
+	}
+
+	if code, ok := languageNameAliases[lang]; ok {
+		return code
+	}
+	return lang
+}
+
 func (q *Qwen3TtsCpp) Load(opts *pb.ModelOptions) error {
 	// ModelFile is the model directory path (containing GGUF files)
 	modelDir := opts.ModelFile
@@ -54,7 +92,7 @@ func (q *Qwen3TtsCpp) TTS(req *pb.TTSRequest) error {
 	dst := req.Dst
 	language := ""
 	if req.Language != nil {
-		language = *req.Language
+		language = normalizeLanguage(*req.Language)
 	}
 
 	// Synthesis parameters with sensible defaults

backend/go/qwen3-tts-cpp/language_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+func TestLanguageNormalization(t *testing.T) {
+	RegisterFailHandler(Fail)
+	RunSpecs(t, "qwen3-tts-cpp language normalization")
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("normalizeLanguage", func() {
+	DescribeTable("maps caller input to the canonical model language code",
+		func(input, expected string) {
+			Expect(normalizeLanguage(input)).To(Equal(expected))
+		},
+		// Canonical codes pass through unchanged
+		Entry("canonical en", "en", "en"),
+		Entry("canonical zh", "zh", "zh"),
+		Entry("canonical pt", "pt", "pt"),
+
+		// Case-insensitive
+		Entry("uppercase", "EN", "en"),
+		Entry("mixed case", "Ja", "ja"),
+
+		// Surrounding whitespace
+		Entry("trims whitespace", "  en  ", "en"),
+
+		// Region/locale stripping
+		Entry("BCP-47 region", "en-US", "en"),
+		Entry("underscore region", "en_US", "en"),
+		Entry("dotted locale", "ja.JP", "ja"),
+		Entry("region + case", "ZH-CN", "zh"),
+
+		// Full-name aliases
+		Entry("english name", "english", "en"),
+		Entry("chinese name cased", "Chinese", "zh"),
+		Entry("japanese name", "japanese", "ja"),
+		Entry("russian name", "russian", "ru"),
+		Entry("portuguese name", "portuguese", "pt"),
+
+		// Empty stays empty (C++ applies the English default)
+		Entry("empty", "", ""),
+		Entry("whitespace only", "   ", ""),
+
+		// Unknown values pass through normalized so C++ can log + default
+		Entry("unknown code", "klingon", "klingon"),
+		Entry("unknown with region", "xx-YY", "xx"),
+	)
+})

backend/go/stablediffusion-ggml/Makefile

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ JOBS?=$(shell nproc --ignore=1)
 
 # stablediffusion.cpp (ggml)
 STABLEDIFFUSION_GGML_REPO?=https://github.com/leejet/stable-diffusion.cpp
-STABLEDIFFUSION_GGML_VERSION?=7948df8ac1070f5f6881b8d34675821893eb97d6
+STABLEDIFFUSION_GGML_VERSION?=19bdfe22d255d5b4dff39d449318b9bc5ea2317f
 
 CMAKE_ARGS+=-DGGML_MAX_NAME=128
 

backend/go/stablediffusion-ggml/cpp/gosd.cpp

@@ -386,6 +386,7 @@ int load_model(const char *model, char *model_path, char* options[], int threads
     const char *llm_vision_path = "";
     const char *diffusion_model_path = stableDiffusionModel;
     const char *high_noise_diffusion_model_path = "";
+    const char *uncond_diffusion_model_path = "";
     const char *taesd_path  = "";
     const char *control_net_path = "";
     const char *embedding_dir = "";
@@ -472,6 +473,7 @@ int load_model(const char *model, char *model_path, char* options[], int threads
         if (!strcmp(optname, "llm_vision_path")) llm_vision_path = strdup(optval);
         if (!strcmp(optname, "diffusion_model_path")) diffusion_model_path = strdup(optval);
         if (!strcmp(optname, "high_noise_diffusion_model_path")) high_noise_diffusion_model_path = strdup(optval);
+        if (!strcmp(optname, "uncond_diffusion_model_path")) uncond_diffusion_model_path = strdup(optval);
         if (!strcmp(optname, "taesd_path")) taesd_path = strdup(optval);
         if (!strcmp(optname, "control_net_path")) control_net_path = strdup(optval);
         if (!strcmp(optname, "embedding_dir")) {
@@ -571,6 +573,7 @@ int load_model(const char *model, char *model_path, char* options[], int threads
     ctx_params.llm_vision_path = llm_vision_path;
     ctx_params.diffusion_model_path = diffusion_model_path;
     ctx_params.high_noise_diffusion_model_path = high_noise_diffusion_model_path;
+    ctx_params.uncond_diffusion_model_path = uncond_diffusion_model_path;
     ctx_params.vae_path = vae_path;
     ctx_params.audio_vae_path = audio_vae_path;
     ctx_params.embeddings_connectors_path = embeddings_connectors_path;

backend/go/vibevoice-cpp/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -26,8 +26,16 @@ add_library(govibevoicecpp MODULE cpp/govibevoicecpp.cpp)
 # vv_capi_* symbols (purego dlopens them by name, nothing in our
 # translation unit references them). Force the static archive's
 # entire contents into the MODULE so dlsym finds vv_capi_load etc.
+#
+# Link the `vibevoice` TARGET (not a bare archive path) so CMake builds
+# libvibevoice.a first and tracks the dependency: the upstream project is added
+# with EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL, so without a target-level link there is no rule to
+# build it. Passing only $<TARGET_FILE:vibevoice> as a path on Apple left the
+# build with "No rule to make target 'vibevoice/libvibevoice.a'" (issue #10267).
+# force_load is then applied as a separate link option.
 if(APPLE)
-    target_link_libraries(govibevoicecpp PRIVATE -Wl,-force_load $<TARGET_FILE:vibevoice>)
+    target_link_libraries(govibevoicecpp PRIVATE vibevoice)
+    target_link_options(govibevoicecpp PRIVATE "-Wl,-force_load,$<TARGET_FILE:vibevoice>")
 elseif(MSVC)
     target_link_libraries(govibevoicecpp PRIVATE vibevoice)
     set_property(TARGET govibevoicecpp APPEND PROPERTY LINK_FLAGS "/WHOLEARCHIVE:vibevoice")

backend/go/vibevoice-cpp/Makefile

@@ -94,26 +94,30 @@ purge:
 # Build all variants (Linux only)
 ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Linux)
 libgovibevoicecpp-avx.so: sources/vibevoice.cpp
+	$(MAKE) purge
 	$(info ${GREEN}I vibevoice-cpp build info:avx${RESET})
 	SO_TARGET=libgovibevoicecpp-avx.so CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=on -DGGML_AVX2=off -DGGML_AVX512=off -DGGML_FMA=off -DGGML_F16C=off -DGGML_BMI2=off" $(MAKE) libgovibevoicecpp-custom
-	rm -rf build-libgovibevoicecpp-avx.so
+	rm -rfv build*
 
 libgovibevoicecpp-avx2.so: sources/vibevoice.cpp
+	$(MAKE) purge
 	$(info ${GREEN}I vibevoice-cpp build info:avx2${RESET})
 	SO_TARGET=libgovibevoicecpp-avx2.so CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=on -DGGML_AVX2=on -DGGML_AVX512=off -DGGML_FMA=on -DGGML_F16C=on -DGGML_BMI2=on" $(MAKE) libgovibevoicecpp-custom
-	rm -rf build-libgovibevoicecpp-avx2.so
+	rm -rfv build*
 
 libgovibevoicecpp-avx512.so: sources/vibevoice.cpp
+	$(MAKE) purge
 	$(info ${GREEN}I vibevoice-cpp build info:avx512${RESET})
 	SO_TARGET=libgovibevoicecpp-avx512.so CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=on -DGGML_AVX2=on -DGGML_AVX512=on -DGGML_FMA=on -DGGML_F16C=on -DGGML_BMI2=on" $(MAKE) libgovibevoicecpp-custom
-	rm -rf build-libgovibevoicecpp-avx512.so
+	rm -rfv build*
 endif
 
 # Build fallback variant (all platforms)
 libgovibevoicecpp-fallback.so: sources/vibevoice.cpp
+	$(MAKE) purge
 	$(info ${GREEN}I vibevoice-cpp build info:fallback${RESET})
 	SO_TARGET=libgovibevoicecpp-fallback.so CMAKE_ARGS="$(CMAKE_ARGS) -DGGML_AVX=off -DGGML_AVX2=off -DGGML_AVX512=off -DGGML_FMA=off -DGGML_F16C=off -DGGML_BMI2=off" $(MAKE) libgovibevoicecpp-custom
-	rm -rf build-libgovibevoicecpp-fallback.so
+	rm -rfv build*
 
 libgovibevoicecpp-custom: CMakeLists.txt cpp/govibevoicecpp.cpp cpp/govibevoicecpp.h
 	mkdir -p build-$(SO_TARGET) && \

backend/go/whisper/Makefile

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ JOBS?=$(shell nproc --ignore=1)
 
 # whisper.cpp version
 WHISPER_REPO?=https://github.com/ggml-org/whisper.cpp
-WHISPER_CPP_VERSION?=23ee03506a91ac3d3f0071b40e66a430eebdfa1d
+WHISPER_CPP_VERSION?=df7638d8229a243af8a4b5a8ae557e0d74e0a0ae
 SO_TARGET?=libgowhisper.so
 
 CMAKE_ARGS+=-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF

backend/index.yaml

@@ -337,6 +337,35 @@
     nvidia-l4t-cuda-13: "cuda13-nvidia-l4t-arm64-rfdetr-cpp"
     intel: "intel-sycl-f32-rfdetr-cpp"
     vulkan: "vulkan-rfdetr-cpp"
+- &locateanything
+  name: "locate-anything"
+  alias: "locate-anything"
+  license: apache-2.0
+  description: |
+    Open-vocabulary object detection and visual grounding (NVIDIA
+    LocateAnything-3B) in C/C++ using GGML. Loads pre-built GGUF weights
+    and, given an image and a free-form text prompt, returns bounding
+    boxes, class labels, and confidence scores for the referred objects.
+  urls:
+    - https://github.com/mudler/locate-anything.cpp
+    - https://huggingface.co/nvidia/LocateAnything-3B
+  tags:
+    - object-detection
+    - visual-grounding
+    - open-vocabulary
+    - locate-anything
+    - gpu
+    - cpu
+  capabilities:
+    default: "cpu-locate-anything-cpp"
+    nvidia: "cuda12-locate-anything-cpp"
+    nvidia-cuda-12: "cuda12-locate-anything-cpp"
+    nvidia-cuda-13: "cuda13-locate-anything-cpp"
+    nvidia-l4t: "nvidia-l4t-arm64-locate-anything-cpp"
+    nvidia-l4t-cuda-12: "nvidia-l4t-arm64-locate-anything-cpp"
+    nvidia-l4t-cuda-13: "cuda13-nvidia-l4t-arm64-locate-anything-cpp"
+    intel: "intel-sycl-f32-locate-anything-cpp"
+    vulkan: "vulkan-locate-anything-cpp"
 - &vllm
   name: "vllm"
   license: apache-2.0
@@ -1225,6 +1254,7 @@
     default: "cpu-sherpa-onnx"
     nvidia: "cuda12-sherpa-onnx"
     nvidia-cuda-12: "cuda12-sherpa-onnx"
+    metal: "metal-sherpa-onnx"
 - !!merge <<: *neutts
   name: "neutts-development"
   capabilities:
@@ -1557,6 +1587,7 @@
     - localai/localai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-kitten-tts
 - !!merge <<: *local-store
   name: "local-store-development"
+  alias: "local-store"
   uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-cpu-local-store"
   mirrors:
     - localai/localai-backends:master-cpu-local-store
@@ -1567,6 +1598,7 @@
     - localai/localai-backends:latest-metal-darwin-arm64-local-store
 - !!merge <<: *local-store
   name: "metal-local-store-development"
+  alias: "local-store"
   uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-local-store"
   mirrors:
     - localai/localai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-local-store
@@ -4685,12 +4717,14 @@
     default: "cpu-speaker-recognition"
     nvidia: "cuda12-speaker-recognition"
     nvidia-cuda-12: "cuda12-speaker-recognition"
+    metal: "metal-speaker-recognition"
 - !!merge <<: *speakerrecognition
   name: "speaker-recognition-development"
   capabilities:
     default: "cpu-speaker-recognition-development"
     nvidia: "cuda12-speaker-recognition-development"
     nvidia-cuda-12: "cuda12-speaker-recognition-development"
+    metal: "metal-speaker-recognition-development"
 - !!merge <<: *speakerrecognition
   name: "cpu-speaker-recognition"
   uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:latest-cpu-speaker-recognition"
@@ -4711,6 +4745,16 @@
   uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12-speaker-recognition"
   mirrors:
     - localai/localai-backends:master-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12-speaker-recognition
+- !!merge <<: *speakerrecognition
+  name: "metal-speaker-recognition"
+  uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:latest-metal-darwin-arm64-speaker-recognition"
+  mirrors:
+    - localai/localai-backends:latest-metal-darwin-arm64-speaker-recognition
+- !!merge <<: *speakerrecognition
+  name: "metal-speaker-recognition-development"
+  uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-speaker-recognition"
+  mirrors:
+    - localai/localai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-speaker-recognition
 ## sherpa-onnx
 - !!merge <<: *sherpa-onnx
   name: "sherpa-onnx-development"
@@ -4718,6 +4762,7 @@
     default: "cpu-sherpa-onnx-development"
     nvidia: "cuda12-sherpa-onnx-development"
     nvidia-cuda-12: "cuda12-sherpa-onnx-development"
+    metal: "metal-sherpa-onnx-development"
 - !!merge <<: *sherpa-onnx
   name: "cpu-sherpa-onnx"
   uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:latest-cpu-sherpa-onnx"
@@ -4738,3 +4783,13 @@
   uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12-sherpa-onnx"
   mirrors:
     - localai/localai-backends:master-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12-sherpa-onnx
+- !!merge <<: *sherpa-onnx
+  name: "metal-sherpa-onnx"
+  uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:latest-metal-darwin-arm64-sherpa-onnx"
+  mirrors:
+    - localai/localai-backends:latest-metal-darwin-arm64-sherpa-onnx
+- !!merge <<: *sherpa-onnx
+  name: "metal-sherpa-onnx-development"
+  uri: "quay.io/go-skynet/local-ai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-sherpa-onnx"
+  mirrors:
+    - localai/localai-backends:master-metal-darwin-arm64-sherpa-onnx

backend/python/chatterbox/backend.py

@@ -37,6 +37,20 @@ def is_int(s):
     except ValueError:
         return False
 
+def coerce_param_value(value):
+    """Coerce a TTSRequest.params value (string on the wire) to the type the
+    Chatterbox generate() kwargs expect (float/int/bool), matching how static
+    YAML options are coerced at load time. Non-string values pass through."""
+    if not isinstance(value, str):
+        return value
+    if is_float(value):
+        return float(value)
+    if is_int(value):
+        return int(value)
+    if value.lower() in ["true", "false"]:
+        return value.lower() == "true"
+    return value
+
 def split_text_at_word_boundary(text, max_length=250):
     """
     Split text at word boundaries without truncating words.
@@ -191,6 +205,14 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
             # add options to kwargs
             kwargs.update(self.options)
 
+            # Merge per-request params (TTSRequest.params), overriding the static
+            # YAML options. This exposes Chatterbox generation knobs (e.g.
+            # exaggeration, cfg_weight, temperature) per request. Values arrive as
+            # strings on the wire and are coerced to float/int/bool.
+            if hasattr(request, "params") and request.params:
+                for key, value in request.params.items():
+                    kwargs[key] = coerce_param_value(value)
+
             # Check if text exceeds 250 characters
             # (chatterbox does not support long text)
             # https://github.com/resemble-ai/chatterbox/issues/60

backend/python/mlx/backend.py

@@ -407,6 +407,24 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
         if not request.Prompt and request.UseTokenizerTemplate and request.Messages:
             messages = messages_to_dicts(request.Messages)
 
+            # The mlx-lm tokenizer only carries a text-LM chat template. A
+            # vision-language checkpoint (e.g. gemma-4 E4B) loaded here has no
+            # usable template, so apply_chat_template silently passes the raw
+            # text through and the model just echoes/loops (issue #10269).
+            # Warn loudly so the misroute is visible; such models belong on the
+            # mlx-vlm backend.
+            chat_template = getattr(self.tokenizer, "chat_template", None)
+            if not chat_template:
+                underlying = getattr(self.tokenizer, "_tokenizer", None)
+                chat_template = getattr(underlying, "chat_template", None)
+            if not chat_template:
+                print(
+                    "WARNING: this model has no chat template; output may be "
+                    "degenerate. Vision-language models (e.g. gemma-4 E4B) must "
+                    "use the 'mlx-vlm' backend instead of 'mlx'.",
+                    file=sys.stderr,
+                )
+
             kwargs = {"tokenize": False, "add_generation_prompt": True}
             if request.Tools:
                 try:

backend/python/qwen-tts/backend.py

@@ -47,6 +47,26 @@ def is_int(s):
         return False
 
 
+def coerce_param_value(value):
+    """Coerce a string param value (from the TTSRequest.params map, which is
+    string-typed on the wire) into the most specific Python type the model
+    generation kwargs expect: bool, int, float, else the original string."""
+    if not isinstance(value, str):
+        return value
+    lowered = value.strip().lower()
+    if lowered in ("true", "false"):
+        return lowered == "true"
+    try:
+        return int(value)
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        return float(value)
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    return value
+
+
 _ONE_DAY_IN_SECONDS = 60 * 60 * 24
 
 # If MAX_WORKERS are specified in the environment use it, otherwise default to 1
@@ -322,6 +342,19 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
 
         return backend_pb2.Result(message="Model loaded successfully", success=True)
 
+    def _effective_instruct(self, request):
+        """Resolve the instruction/style string for this request, preferring the
+        per-request TTSRequest.instructions value and falling back to the static
+        YAML `instruct` option. Empty string means "no instruction"."""
+        req_instruct = (
+            request.instructions
+            if hasattr(request, "instructions") and request.instructions
+            else ""
+        )
+        if req_instruct:
+            return req_instruct
+        return self.options.get("instruct", "") or ""
+
     def _detect_mode(self, request):
         """Detect which mode to use based on request parameters."""
         # Priority: VoiceClone > VoiceDesign > CustomVoice
@@ -338,8 +371,8 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
         if self.audio_path or self.voices:
             return "VoiceClone"
 
-        # VoiceDesign: instruct option is provided
-        if "instruct" in self.options and self.options["instruct"]:
+        # VoiceDesign: instruct provided per-request or via YAML option
+        if self._effective_instruct(request):
             return "VoiceDesign"
 
         # Default to CustomVoice
@@ -690,10 +723,20 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
             if do_sample is not None:
                 generation_kwargs["do_sample"] = do_sample
 
-            instruct = self.options.get("instruct", "")
+            # Prefer the per-request instruction (TTSRequest.instructions) over the
+            # static YAML `instruct` option. This lets clients set a different style
+            # (CustomVoice emotion) or designed voice (VoiceDesign) per request.
+            instruct = self._effective_instruct(request)
             if instruct is not None and instruct != "":
                 generation_kwargs["instruct"] = instruct
 
+            # Merge any per-request backend-specific params (TTSRequest.params).
+            # Values arrive as strings on the wire; coerce to int/float/bool so the
+            # model receives the types it expects. These override YAML-derived kwargs.
+            if hasattr(request, "params") and request.params:
+                for key, value in request.params.items():
+                    generation_kwargs[key] = coerce_param_value(value)
+
             # Generate audio based on mode
             if mode == "VoiceClone":
                 # VoiceClone mode

backend/python/speaker-recognition/requirements-mps.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+torch
+torchaudio
+speechbrain
+transformers
+onnxruntime

backend/python/transformers/requirements.txt

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-grpcio==1.80.0
+grpcio==1.81.0
 protobuf==7.35.0
 certifi
 setuptools

backend/python/vllm/backend.py

@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ from vllm.engine.arg_utils import AsyncEngineArgs
 from vllm.engine.async_llm_engine import AsyncLLMEngine
 from vllm.sampling_params import SamplingParams
 from vllm.utils import random_uuid
-from vllm.transformers_utils.tokenizer import get_tokenizer
+try:
+    from vllm.tokenizers import get_tokenizer  # vLLM >= 0.22
+except ImportError:
+    from vllm.transformers_utils.tokenizer import get_tokenizer  # vLLM < 0.22
 from vllm.multimodal.utils import fetch_image
 from vllm.assets.video import VideoAsset
 import base64
@@ -147,9 +150,24 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
                 d["reasoning_content"] = msg.reasoning_content
             if msg.tool_calls:
                 try:
-                    d["tool_calls"] = json.loads(msg.tool_calls)
+                    tool_calls = json.loads(msg.tool_calls)
                 except json.JSONDecodeError:
                     pass
+                else:
+                    # OpenAI wire format carries function.arguments as a
+                    # JSON-encoded string, but chat templates (e.g. Qwen3)
+                    # iterate over it as a mapping. vLLM's own OpenAI server
+                    # parses arguments before applying the template, so do
+                    # the same here.
+                    if isinstance(tool_calls, list):
+                        for tc in tool_calls:
+                            func = tc.get("function") if isinstance(tc, dict) else None
+                            if isinstance(func, dict) and isinstance(func.get("arguments"), str):
+                                try:
+                                    func["arguments"] = json.loads(func["arguments"])
+                                except json.JSONDecodeError:
+                                    pass
+                    d["tool_calls"] = tool_calls
             result.append(d)
         return result
 

backend/python/vllm/requirements-cublas13-after.txt

@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@
 # on a cu130 host. Pull the cu130-flavoured wheel from vLLM's per-tag index
 # instead — the cublas13 case in install.sh adds --index-strategy=unsafe-best-match
 # so uv consults this index alongside PyPI.
---extra-index-url https://wheels.vllm.ai/0.22.0/cu130
-vllm==0.22.0
+--extra-index-url https://wheels.vllm.ai/0.22.1/cu130
+vllm==0.22.1

backend/python/vllm/requirements.txt

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-grpcio==1.80.0
+grpcio==1.81.0
 protobuf
 certifi
 setuptools

core/application/distributed.go

@@ -102,7 +102,12 @@ func initDistributed(cfg *config.ApplicationConfig, authDB *gorm.DB, configLoade
 	xlog.Info("Distributed instance", "id", cfg.Distributed.InstanceID)
 
 	// Connect to NATS
-	natsClient, err := messaging.New(cfg.Distributed.NatsURL)
+	natsAuth := cfg.Distributed.NatsAuthConfig()
+	if natsAuth.RequireAuth && (natsAuth.ServiceUserJWT == "" || natsAuth.ServiceUserSeed == "") {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("LOCALAI_NATS_REQUIRE_AUTH requires LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_JWT and LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_SEED")
+	}
+	natsOpts := cfg.Distributed.NatsMessagingOptions("", "")
+	natsClient, err := messaging.New(cfg.Distributed.NatsURL, natsOpts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("connecting to NATS: %w", err)
 	}

core/application/mitm.go

@@ -11,6 +11,29 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mudler/xlog"
 )
 
+// startMITMIfConfigured brings up the cloudproxy MITM listener when an
+// address is configured, treating any startup failure as non-fatal.
+//
+// The listener is opt-in middleware whose address is persisted in runtime
+// settings (/api/settings → runtime_settings.json) and replayed on every
+// boot. A bad value — e.g. a host the process can't bind, like a LAN IP
+// inside a container — must NOT abort the whole server: doing so crash-loops
+// with no way out, because the Settings UI used to correct the address can't
+// load if startup never completes. So on failure we log loudly and carry on;
+// the admin fixes the address via /api/settings, which calls RestartMITM.
+func startMITMIfConfigured(app *Application, options *config.ApplicationConfig) {
+	if options.MITMListen == "" {
+		return
+	}
+	if err := startMITMProxy(app, options); err != nil {
+		xlog.Error("mitm: cloudproxy listener failed to start — continuing without it",
+			"listen", options.MITMListen,
+			"error", err,
+			"hint", "fix the address via Settings (e.g. \":8082\" to bind all interfaces) and the listener will restart",
+		)
+	}
+}
+
 func startMITMProxy(app *Application, options *config.ApplicationConfig) error {
 	app.mitmMutex.Lock()
 	defer app.mitmMutex.Unlock()

core/application/mitm_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+package application
+
+import (
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/config"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/system"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+// minimal Application wired enough for startMITMProxy: an empty model
+// config loader (no host claims), CA written under a temp DataPath.
+func newMITMTestApp(dataPath string) (*Application, *config.ApplicationConfig) {
+	state, err := system.GetSystemState()
+	Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
+	state.Model.ModelsPath = dataPath
+	opts := config.NewApplicationConfig(
+		config.WithSystemState(state),
+		config.WithDataPath(dataPath),
+	)
+	return newApplication(opts), opts
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("startMITMIfConfigured", func() {
+	It("does nothing when no listen address is configured", func() {
+		app, opts := newMITMTestApp(GinkgoT().TempDir())
+		opts.MITMListen = ""
+
+		Expect(func() { startMITMIfConfigured(app, opts) }).NotTo(Panic())
+		Expect(app.mitmServer.Load()).To(BeNil(), "no listener should be stored when disabled")
+	})
+
+	// Regression: a persisted-but-unbindable MITM address (e.g. a LAN host
+	// inside a container) must not abort startup. startMITMIfConfigured
+	// swallows the bind error so the rest of LocalAI still comes up and the
+	// admin can fix the address via the Settings UI.
+	It("logs and continues when the listen address cannot be bound", func() {
+		app, opts := newMITMTestApp(GinkgoT().TempDir())
+		// 192.0.2.1 is TEST-NET-1 (RFC 5737): guaranteed not assigned to any
+		// local interface, so bind fails deterministically without DNS.
+		opts.MITMListen = "192.0.2.1:8082"
+
+		Expect(func() { startMITMIfConfigured(app, opts) }).NotTo(Panic())
+		Expect(app.mitmServer.Load()).To(BeNil(), "failed listener must not be stored")
+	})
+
+	It("starts and stores the listener on a bindable address", func() {
+		app, opts := newMITMTestApp(GinkgoT().TempDir())
+		opts.MITMListen = "127.0.0.1:0" // OS-assigned free port
+
+		startMITMIfConfigured(app, opts)
+
+		srv := app.mitmServer.Load()
+		Expect(srv).NotTo(BeNil(), "listener should be stored on success")
+		DeferCleanup(srv.Stop)
+		Expect(srv.Addr()).NotTo(BeEmpty())
+	})
+})

core/application/router_factories.go

@@ -1,63 +1,120 @@
 package application
 
 import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/backend"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/config"
 )
 
-// adapterConfig resolves a model name to its runtime ModelConfig, or
-// nil when the name is unknown. Shared by the router-facing factories
-// below and by ModelConfigLookup.
+// adapterConfig resolves a model name to its runtime ModelConfig, or nil when
+// unknown. LoadModelConfigFileByNameDefaultOptions never returns nil — for an
+// unknown name it returns a defaults-filled stub with an empty Name (the YAML
+// `name:` field is required by Validate), which is how we tell the two apart.
 func (a *Application) adapterConfig(modelName string) *config.ModelConfig {
 	cfg, err := a.backendLoader.LoadModelConfigFileByNameDefaultOptions(modelName, a.applicationConfig)
-	if err != nil || cfg == nil {
+	if err != nil || cfg == nil || cfg.Name == "" {
 		return nil
 	}
 	return cfg
 }
 
-// ModelConfigLookup is the lookup function the router middleware's
-// classifier validator uses to confirm classifier_model declares
-// FLAG_SCORE before binding it.
+// ModelConfigLookup is the lookup the router middleware's classifier validator
+// uses to confirm classifier_model declares FLAG_SCORE before binding it.
 func (a *Application) ModelConfigLookup() func(modelName string) *config.ModelConfig {
 	return a.adapterConfig
 }
 
-// Scorer returns a backend.Scorer bound to the named model, or nil
-// when the model is unknown. Used as a method value (app.Scorer) by
-// router.ClassifierDeps — no factory-of-factory wrapper needed.
+// The router-facing factories below (Scorer, Embedder, Reranker, TokenCounter)
+// bind a model NAME at construction and re-resolve the CONFIG on every call.
+// Capturing the config at construction would bake in whatever state
+// adapterConfig saw first — including a stub returned before the YAML reached
+// bcl.configs (e.g. /import-model or gallery install racing startup). The
+// classifier registry caches factories by router-config fingerprint, so a
+// once-stale capture stays stale until the router config is edited.
+
 func (a *Application) Scorer(modelName string) backend.Scorer {
-	cfg := a.adapterConfig(modelName)
-	if cfg == nil {
+	if a.adapterConfig(modelName) == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
-	return backend.NewScorer(a.modelLoader, *cfg, a.applicationConfig)
+	return &lazyScorer{app: a, modelName: modelName}
+}
+
+type lazyScorer struct {
+	app       *Application
+	modelName string
+}
+
+func (l *lazyScorer) Score(ctx context.Context, prompt string, candidates []string) ([]backend.CandidateScore, error) {
+	cfg := l.app.adapterConfig(l.modelName)
+	if cfg == nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("scorer: model %q no longer available", l.modelName)
+	}
+	return backend.NewScorer(l.app.modelLoader, *cfg, l.app.applicationConfig).Score(ctx, prompt, candidates)
+}
+
+// TokenCounter returns a func so the middleware's literal field type accepts
+// it as a method value without importing core/http/middleware from here.
+func (a *Application) TokenCounter(modelName string) func(string) (int, error) {
+	if a.adapterConfig(modelName) == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	return func(text string) (int, error) {
+		cfg := a.adapterConfig(modelName)
+		if cfg == nil {
+			return 0, fmt.Errorf("token counter: model %q no longer available", modelName)
+		}
+		resp, err := backend.ModelTokenize(text, a.modelLoader, *cfg, a.applicationConfig)
+		if err != nil {
+			return 0, err
+		}
+		return len(resp.Tokens), nil
+	}
 }
 
-// Reranker returns a backend.Reranker bound to the named model, or
-// nil when unknown. The reranker model's `type:` (e.g. "colbert")
-// selects the scoring head inside the rerankers backend.
 func (a *Application) Reranker(modelName string) backend.Reranker {
-	cfg := a.adapterConfig(modelName)
-	if cfg == nil {
+	if a.adapterConfig(modelName) == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
-	return backend.NewReranker(a.modelLoader, *cfg, a.applicationConfig)
+	return &lazyReranker{app: a, modelName: modelName}
+}
+
+type lazyReranker struct {
+	app       *Application
+	modelName string
+}
+
+func (l *lazyReranker) Rerank(ctx context.Context, query string, documents []string) ([]backend.RerankResult, error) {
+	cfg := l.app.adapterConfig(l.modelName)
+	if cfg == nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("reranker: model %q no longer available", l.modelName)
+	}
+	return backend.NewReranker(l.app.modelLoader, *cfg, l.app.applicationConfig).Rerank(ctx, query, documents)
 }
 
-// Embedder returns a backend.Embedder bound to the named model, or
-// nil when unknown. Used by the router's L2 embedding cache.
 func (a *Application) Embedder(modelName string) backend.Embedder {
-	cfg := a.adapterConfig(modelName)
-	if cfg == nil {
+	if a.adapterConfig(modelName) == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
-	return backend.NewEmbedder(a.modelLoader, *cfg, a.applicationConfig)
+	return &lazyEmbedder{app: a, modelName: modelName}
 }
 
-// VectorStore returns a backend.VectorStore for the named collection,
-// or nil when the name is empty. Each router model gets its own
-// backend process via the model loader's cache keyed by storeName.
+type lazyEmbedder struct {
+	app       *Application
+	modelName string
+}
+
+func (l *lazyEmbedder) Embed(ctx context.Context, text string) ([]float32, error) {
+	cfg := l.app.adapterConfig(l.modelName)
+	if cfg == nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("embedder: model %q no longer available", l.modelName)
+	}
+	return backend.NewEmbedder(l.app.modelLoader, *cfg, l.app.applicationConfig).Embed(ctx, text)
+}
+
+// VectorStore takes a store name, not a model name — no adapterConfig, no
+// staleness to avoid.
 func (a *Application) VectorStore(storeName string) backend.VectorStore {
 	return backend.NewVectorStore(a.modelLoader, a.applicationConfig, storeName)
 }

core/application/router_factories_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+package application
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/config"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/model"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/system"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+// Regression: the router-facing factories used to capture
+// *config.ModelConfig at construction. A gallery install that raced
+// startup left a stub (Backend="") bound for the lifetime of the
+// classifier registry's cache entry, bypassing the user's `backend:`
+// config. These specs pin the lazy re-resolve.
+var _ = Describe("router_factories lazy config resolution", func() {
+	var (
+		tmpDir string
+		app    *Application
+	)
+
+	BeforeEach(func() {
+		var err error
+		tmpDir, err = os.MkdirTemp("", "router-factories-*")
+		Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
+
+		appCfg := &config.ApplicationConfig{
+			Context:     context.Background(),
+			SystemState: &system.SystemState{Model: system.Model{ModelsPath: tmpDir}},
+		}
+		app = &Application{
+			backendLoader:     config.NewModelConfigLoader(tmpDir),
+			modelLoader:       model.NewModelLoader(appCfg.SystemState),
+			applicationConfig: appCfg,
+		}
+	})
+
+	AfterEach(func() {
+		_ = os.RemoveAll(tmpDir)
+	})
+
+	// writeCfg seeds both the on-disk YAML and the in-memory cache —
+	// removing only the cache would fall through to file-read.
+	writeCfg := func(name, backend string) {
+		yaml := "name: " + name + "\nbackend: " + backend + "\nparameters:\n  model: " + name + ".bin\n"
+		Expect(os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, name+".yaml"), []byte(yaml), 0644)).To(Succeed())
+		Expect(app.backendLoader.LoadModelConfigsFromPath(tmpDir)).To(Succeed())
+		cfg, ok := app.backendLoader.GetModelConfig(name)
+		Expect(ok).To(BeTrue(), "config must be loaded before the spec runs")
+		Expect(cfg.Backend).To(Equal(backend))
+	}
+
+	// removeCfg purges both the cache and the YAML so LoadModelConfigFileByName
+	// returns the empty-stub case and adapterConfig returns nil.
+	removeCfg := func(name string) {
+		app.backendLoader.RemoveModelConfig(name)
+		Expect(os.Remove(filepath.Join(tmpDir, name+".yaml"))).To(Succeed())
+	}
+
+	Context("Embedder", func() {
+		It("returns nil at construction for an unknown model", func() {
+			Expect(app.Embedder("missing")).To(BeNil())
+		})
+
+		It("re-resolves the model config on each Embed call", func() {
+			writeCfg("emb-test", "llama-cpp")
+			emb := app.Embedder("emb-test")
+			Expect(emb).NotTo(BeNil())
+
+			// The factory must hold the NAME, not a captured config —
+			// otherwise stale captures survive cache invalidation.
+			lazy, ok := emb.(*lazyEmbedder)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue(), "Embedder must return *lazyEmbedder")
+			Expect(lazy.modelName).To(Equal("emb-test"))
+
+			// Mutate the cached config. A lazy implementation sees the
+			// update on the next adapterConfig call; a captured-at-
+			// construction implementation would still see "llama-cpp".
+			app.backendLoader.UpdateModelConfig("emb-test", func(c *config.ModelConfig) {
+				c.Backend = "rerankers"
+			})
+			Expect(lazy.app.adapterConfig("emb-test").Backend).To(Equal("rerankers"))
+
+			// Remove the config entirely → Embed must surface the disappearance.
+			removeCfg("emb-test")
+			_, err := emb.Embed(context.Background(), "anything")
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("no longer available"))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("Scorer", func() {
+		It("returns nil at construction for an unknown model", func() {
+			Expect(app.Scorer("missing")).To(BeNil())
+		})
+
+		It("re-resolves the model config on each Score call", func() {
+			writeCfg("score-test", "llama-cpp")
+			sc := app.Scorer("score-test")
+			Expect(sc).NotTo(BeNil())
+
+			lazy, ok := sc.(*lazyScorer)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue(), "Scorer must return *lazyScorer")
+			Expect(lazy.modelName).To(Equal("score-test"))
+
+			removeCfg("score-test")
+			_, err := sc.Score(context.Background(), "prompt", []string{"a"})
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("no longer available"))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("Reranker", func() {
+		It("returns nil at construction for an unknown model", func() {
+			Expect(app.Reranker("missing")).To(BeNil())
+		})
+
+		It("re-resolves the model config on each Rerank call", func() {
+			writeCfg("rerank-test", "rerankers")
+			rr := app.Reranker("rerank-test")
+			Expect(rr).NotTo(BeNil())
+
+			lazy, ok := rr.(*lazyReranker)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue(), "Reranker must return *lazyReranker")
+			Expect(lazy.modelName).To(Equal("rerank-test"))
+
+			removeCfg("rerank-test")
+			_, err := rr.Rerank(context.Background(), "q", []string{"d"})
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("no longer available"))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("TokenCounter", func() {
+		It("returns nil at construction for an unknown model", func() {
+			Expect(app.TokenCounter("missing")).To(BeNil())
+		})
+
+		It("re-resolves the model config on each call", func() {
+			writeCfg("tok-test", "llama-cpp")
+			tc := app.TokenCounter("tok-test")
+			Expect(tc).NotTo(BeNil())
+
+			removeCfg("tok-test")
+			_, err := tc("anything")
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("no longer available"))
+		})
+	})
+})

core/application/startup.go

@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/services/routing/pii"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/services/routing/router"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/services/storage"
-	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/signals"
 	coreStartup "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/startup"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/internal"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/signals"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/vram"
 
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/model"
@@ -308,10 +308,31 @@ func New(opts ...config.AppOption) (*Application, error) {
 			application.galleryService.SetNATSClient(distSvc.Nats)
 			if distSvc.DistStores != nil && distSvc.DistStores.Gallery != nil {
 				// Clean up stale in-progress operations from previous crashed instances
-				if err := distSvc.DistStores.Gallery.CleanStale(30 * time.Minute); err != nil {
+				if _, err := distSvc.DistStores.Gallery.CleanStale(30 * time.Minute); err != nil {
 					xlog.Warn("Failed to clean stale gallery operations", "error", err)
 				}
 				application.galleryService.SetGalleryStore(distSvc.DistStores.Gallery)
+
+				// Reap stale ops periodically, not just at boot: an op orphaned by
+				// a replica that died mid-install (its foreground handler goroutine
+				// gone) would otherwise linger "processing" in the UI until the next
+				// restart. 30m matches the install/upgrade ceiling so a genuinely
+				// slow op is never reaped out from under itself.
+				gsvc := application.galleryService
+				go func() {
+					ticker := time.NewTicker(15 * time.Minute)
+					defer ticker.Stop()
+					for {
+						select {
+						case <-options.Context.Done():
+							return
+						case <-ticker.C:
+							if _, err := gsvc.ReapStaleOperations(30 * time.Minute); err != nil {
+								xlog.Warn("Failed to reap stale gallery operations", "error", err)
+							}
+						}
+					}
+				}()
 			}
 			// Hydrate from the store first so the wildcard subscriber finds an
 			// already-populated statuses map for any operations still in flight
@@ -441,11 +462,7 @@ func New(opts ...config.AppOption) (*Application, error) {
 	// traffic doesn't need a parallel config for MITM traffic.
 	// Runs after loadRuntimeSettingsFromFile so a listener configured
 	// via /api/settings is brought back up across restarts.
-	if options.MITMListen != "" {
-		if err := startMITMProxy(application, options); err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("mitm: startup: %w", err)
-		}
-	}
+	startMITMIfConfigured(application, options)
 
 	application.ModelLoader().SetBackendLoggingEnabled(options.EnableBackendLogging)
 

core/application/upgrade_checker.go

@@ -214,7 +214,9 @@ func (uc *UpgradeChecker) runCheck(ctx context.Context) {
 				"from", info.InstalledVersion, "to", info.AvailableVersion)
 			var err error
 			if bm != nil {
-				err = bm.UpgradeBackend(ctx, name, nil)
+				// Background auto-upgrade: no live admin watching a progress bar,
+				// so opID is empty and the distributed path skips progress streaming.
+				err = bm.UpgradeBackend(ctx, "", name, nil)
 			} else {
 				err = gallery.UpgradeBackend(ctx, uc.systemState, uc.modelLoader,
 					uc.galleries, name, nil, uc.appConfig.RequireBackendIntegrity)

core/backend/ctx_propagation_test.go

@@ -123,14 +123,14 @@ var _ = Describe("X-LocalAI-Node ctx propagation contract", func() {
 	})
 
 	It("ModelTTS forwards the request context to the SmartRouter", func() {
-		_, _, err := backend.ModelTTS(reqCtx, "hello", "", "", loader, appCfg, modelCfg)
+		_, _, err := backend.ModelTTS(reqCtx, "hello", "", "", "", nil, loader, appCfg, modelCfg)
 		Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
 		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("router short-circuit (test)"))
 		stampViaRouterCtx()
 	})
 
 	It("ModelTTSStream forwards the request context to the SmartRouter", func() {
-		err := backend.ModelTTSStream(reqCtx, "hello", "", "", loader, appCfg, modelCfg, func([]byte) error { return nil })
+		err := backend.ModelTTSStream(reqCtx, "hello", "", "", "", nil, loader, appCfg, modelCfg, func([]byte) error { return nil })
 		Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
 		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("router short-circuit (test)"))
 		stampViaRouterCtx()

core/backend/embeddings.go

@@ -100,8 +100,13 @@ func ModelEmbedding(ctx context.Context, s string, tokens []int, loader *model.M
 		trace.InitBackendTracingIfEnabled(appConfig.TracingMaxItems, appConfig.TracingMaxBodyBytes)
 
 		traceData := map[string]any{
-			"input_text":         trace.TruncateString(s, 1000),
-			"input_tokens_count": len(tokens),
+			"input_text": trace.TruncateString(s, 1000),
+		}
+		// Only present for token-mode callers (pre-tokenized override);
+		// emitting "0" alongside input_text would read as "consumed zero
+		// tokens", which is wrong.
+		if len(tokens) > 0 {
+			traceData["input_tokens_count"] = len(tokens)
 		}
 
 		startTime := time.Now()

core/backend/options.go

@@ -87,11 +87,47 @@ func getSeed(c config.ModelConfig) int32 {
 	return seed
 }
 
-func grpcModelOpts(c config.ModelConfig, modelPath string) *pb.ModelOptions {
-	b := 512
-	if c.Batch != 0 {
-		b = c.Batch
+// DefaultContextSize and DefaultBatchSize are the backend's fallbacks when a
+// model config leaves them unset. Exported so callers that must respect the
+// effective decode window — notably the router's prompt trimmer — resolve the
+// same numbers grpcModelOpts does instead of guessing.
+const (
+	DefaultContextSize = 4096
+	DefaultBatchSize   = 512
+)
+
+// EffectiveContextSize is the context window the backend will run with: the
+// configured value, or DefaultContextSize when unset.
+func EffectiveContextSize(c config.ModelConfig) int {
+	if c.ContextSize != nil {
+		return *c.ContextSize
 	}
+	return DefaultContextSize
+}
+
+// EffectiveBatchSize is the single-decode batch the backend will run with.
+// Score, embedding and rerank all process the whole input in one pass: score
+// decodes prompt+candidate (asserts n_tokens <= n_batch), and embedding/rerank
+// pool over the full sequence in one physical batch (n_ubatch). So the batch
+// is sized to the context — anything that fits the context fits one pass,
+// avoiding both the GGML_ASSERT crash and the "input is too large to process"
+// error. Explicit `batch:` always wins.
+func EffectiveBatchSize(c config.ModelConfig) int {
+	if c.Batch != 0 {
+		return c.Batch
+	}
+	singlePass := c.HasUsecases(config.FLAG_SCORE) ||
+		c.HasUsecases(config.FLAG_EMBEDDINGS) ||
+		c.HasUsecases(config.FLAG_RERANK)
+	if ctx := EffectiveContextSize(c); singlePass && ctx > DefaultBatchSize {
+		return ctx
+	}
+	return DefaultBatchSize
+}
+
+func grpcModelOpts(c config.ModelConfig, modelPath string) *pb.ModelOptions {
+	ctxSize := EffectiveContextSize(c)
+	b := EffectiveBatchSize(c)
 
 	flashAttention := "auto"
 
@@ -134,11 +170,6 @@ func grpcModelOpts(c config.ModelConfig, modelPath string) *pb.ModelOptions {
 		}
 	}
 
-	ctxSize := 4096
-	if c.ContextSize != nil {
-		ctxSize = *c.ContextSize
-	}
-
 	mmlock := false
 	if c.MMlock != nil {
 		mmlock = *c.MMlock
@@ -239,13 +270,13 @@ func grpcModelOpts(c config.ModelConfig, modelPath string) *pb.ModelOptions {
 
 	if c.Backend == "cloud-proxy" {
 		opts.Proxy = &pb.ProxyOptions{
-			UpstreamUrl:            c.Proxy.UpstreamURL,
-			Mode:                   c.Proxy.Mode,
-			Provider:               c.Proxy.Provider,
-			ApiKeyEnv:              c.Proxy.APIKeyEnv,
-			ApiKeyFile:             c.Proxy.APIKeyFile,
-			UpstreamModel:          c.Proxy.UpstreamModel,
-			RequestTimeoutSeconds:  int32(c.Proxy.RequestTimeoutSeconds),
+			UpstreamUrl:           c.Proxy.UpstreamURL,
+			Mode:                  c.Proxy.Mode,
+			Provider:              c.Proxy.Provider,
+			ApiKeyEnv:             c.Proxy.APIKeyEnv,
+			ApiKeyFile:            c.Proxy.APIKeyFile,
+			UpstreamModel:         c.Proxy.UpstreamModel,
+			RequestTimeoutSeconds: int32(c.Proxy.RequestTimeoutSeconds),
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -323,6 +354,12 @@ func gRPCPredictOpts(c config.ModelConfig, modelPath string) *pb.PredictOptions
 			metadata["enable_thinking"] = "true"
 		}
 	}
+	// Forward the effective reasoning effort so the backend can pass it to the
+	// jinja chat template (chat_template_kwargs.reasoning_effort) — the lever
+	// models like gpt-oss / LFM2.5 actually read, distinct from enable_thinking.
+	if c.ReasoningEffort != "" {
+		metadata["reasoning_effort"] = c.ReasoningEffort
+	}
 	pbOpts.Metadata = metadata
 
 	// Logprobs and TopLogprobs are set by the caller if provided

core/backend/options_internal_test.go

@@ -75,3 +75,89 @@ var _ = Describe("gRPCPredictOpts enable_thinking metadata", func() {
 		Expect(opts.Metadata).ToNot(HaveKey("enable_thinking"))
 	})
 })
+
+// Guards forwarding the effective reasoning_effort into PredictOptions.Metadata,
+// where the backend passes it to the jinja chat template (chat_template_kwargs)
+// so models like gpt-oss / LFM2.5 honor it.
+var _ = Describe("gRPCPredictOpts reasoning_effort metadata", func() {
+	withEffort := func(effort string) config.ModelConfig {
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{}
+		cfg.SetDefaults()
+		cfg.ReasoningEffort = effort
+		return cfg
+	}
+
+	It("forwards reasoning_effort when set", func() {
+		opts := gRPCPredictOpts(withEffort("none"), "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.Metadata).To(HaveKeyWithValue("reasoning_effort", "none"))
+	})
+
+	It("omits reasoning_effort when empty", func() {
+		opts := gRPCPredictOpts(withEffort(""), "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.Metadata).ToNot(HaveKey("reasoning_effort"))
+	})
+})
+
+var _ = Describe("grpcModelOpts NBatch", func() {
+	scoreUsecase := config.FLAG_SCORE
+	threads := 1
+	ctx := 4096
+
+	It("defaults to 512 for an ordinary model", func() {
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, LLMConfig: config.LLMConfig{ContextSize: &ctx}}
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(512))
+	})
+
+	It("sizes the batch to the context window for score models", func() {
+		// Score models decode the whole prompt+candidate in one
+		// llama_decode; n_batch must cover it or the backend aborts.
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, LLMConfig: config.LLMConfig{ContextSize: &ctx}, KnownUsecases: &scoreUsecase}
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(4096))
+	})
+
+	It("keeps an explicit batch over the score default", func() {
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, LLMConfig: config.LLMConfig{ContextSize: &ctx}, KnownUsecases: &scoreUsecase}
+		cfg.Batch = 1024
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(1024))
+	})
+
+	It("sizes the batch to the context window for embedding models", func() {
+		// Embedding/rerank pool over the whole sequence in one physical batch
+		// (n_ubatch); without this the input is capped at the 512 default and
+		// the backend returns "input is too large to process".
+		embeddings := true
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, LLMConfig: config.LLMConfig{ContextSize: &ctx}}
+		cfg.Embeddings = &embeddings
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(4096))
+	})
+
+	It("sizes the batch to the context window for rerank models", func() {
+		reranking := true
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, LLMConfig: config.LLMConfig{ContextSize: &ctx}}
+		cfg.Reranking = &reranking
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(4096))
+	})
+
+	It("does not raise the batch when a score model's context is below the default", func() {
+		small := 256
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, LLMConfig: config.LLMConfig{ContextSize: &small}, KnownUsecases: &scoreUsecase}
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(512))
+	})
+
+	It("sizes the batch to the effective 4096 default for a score model with no explicit context_size", func() {
+		// The crash case: the backend defaults n_ctx to 4096, so n_batch must
+		// follow even when context_size is unset — otherwise n_batch stays 512
+		// against a 4096 window and the score decode hits the GGML_ASSERT.
+		cfg := config.ModelConfig{Threads: &threads, KnownUsecases: &scoreUsecase}
+		Expect(cfg.ContextSize).To(BeNil())
+		opts := grpcModelOpts(cfg, "/tmp/models")
+		Expect(opts.NBatch).To(BeEquivalentTo(4096))
+		Expect(opts.ContextSize).To(BeEquivalentTo(4096), "n_batch must match the effective n_ctx the backend receives")
+	})
+})

core/backend/stores.go

@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ package backend
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
-	"strings"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/config"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/trace"
 
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/model"
@@ -39,34 +40,85 @@ func (s *localVectorStore) backend(_ context.Context) (grpc.Backend, error) {
 	return StoreBackend(s.loader, s.appConfig, s.storeName, "")
 }
 
-func (s *localVectorStore) Search(ctx context.Context, vec []float32) (float64, []byte, bool, error) {
-	be, err := s.backend(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return 0, nil, false, fmt.Errorf("vector store load: %w", err)
+func (s *localVectorStore) Search(ctx context.Context, vec []float32) (sim float64, payload []byte, ok bool, err error) {
+	start := time.Now()
+	outcome := "hit"
+	defer func() {
+		s.recordTrace(start, "search", len(vec), sim, outcome, err)
+	}()
+	be, berr := s.backend(ctx)
+	if berr != nil {
+		outcome = "backend_load_error"
+		return 0, nil, false, fmt.Errorf("vector store load: %w", berr)
 	}
-	_, values, similarities, err := store.Find(ctx, be, vec, 1)
-	if err != nil {
-		// local-store's Find returns "existing length is -1" before
-		// any keys are inserted. Surface that as a clean miss so the
-		// cache layer treats it as an empty store and proceeds to
-		// Insert rather than skipping.
-		if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "existing length is -1") {
-			return 0, nil, false, nil
-		}
-		return 0, nil, false, fmt.Errorf("vector store find: %w", err)
+	_, values, similarities, ferr := store.Find(ctx, be, vec, 1)
+	if ferr != nil {
+		outcome = "find_error"
+		return 0, nil, false, fmt.Errorf("vector store find: %w", ferr)
 	}
 	if len(values) == 0 || len(similarities) == 0 {
+		outcome = "miss"
 		return 0, nil, false, nil
 	}
 	return float64(similarities[0]), values[0], true, nil
 }
 
-func (s *localVectorStore) Insert(ctx context.Context, vec []float32, payload []byte) error {
-	be, err := s.backend(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("vector store load: %w", err)
+func (s *localVectorStore) Insert(ctx context.Context, vec []float32, payload []byte) (err error) {
+	start := time.Now()
+	outcome := "ok"
+	defer func() {
+		s.recordTrace(start, "insert", len(vec), 0, outcome, err)
+	}()
+	be, berr := s.backend(ctx)
+	if berr != nil {
+		outcome = "backend_load_error"
+		return fmt.Errorf("vector store load: %w", berr)
 	}
-	return store.SetSingle(ctx, be, vec, payload)
+	if serr := store.SetSingle(ctx, be, vec, payload); serr != nil {
+		outcome = "insert_error"
+		return serr
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// recordTrace surfaces vector-store calls in /api/backend-traces, including
+// the backend-load-failure path that otherwise vanishes into an xlog.Warn.
+// modelName uses the store namespace (e.g. "router-cache-smart-router") so
+// admins can tell which router's cache misbehaved; the backend is always
+// "local-store" and can't disambiguate.
+func (s *localVectorStore) recordTrace(start time.Time, op string, vecDim int, sim float64, outcome string, err error) {
+	if s.appConfig == nil || !s.appConfig.EnableTracing {
+		return
+	}
+	trace.InitBackendTracingIfEnabled(s.appConfig.TracingMaxItems, s.appConfig.TracingMaxBodyBytes)
+	errStr := ""
+	if err != nil {
+		errStr = err.Error()
+	}
+	summary := op + " " + outcome
+	if op == "search" && outcome == "hit" {
+		summary = fmt.Sprintf("search hit (sim=%.3f)", sim)
+	}
+	data := map[string]any{
+		"op":         op,
+		"outcome":    outcome,
+		"vector_dim": vecDim,
+	}
+	// Only include similarity for a real neighbor — miss/empty_store would
+	// otherwise render "similarity: 0" and read as a measured value.
+	if op == "search" && outcome == "hit" {
+		data["similarity"] = sim
+	}
+	trace.RecordBackendTrace(trace.BackendTrace{
+		Timestamp: start,
+		Duration:  time.Since(start),
+		Type:      trace.BackendTraceVectorStore,
+		ModelName: s.storeName,
+		Backend:   model.LocalStoreBackend,
+		Summary:   summary,
+		Error:     errStr,
+		Data:      data,
+	})
 }
 
 func StoreBackend(sl *model.ModelLoader, appConfig *config.ApplicationConfig, storeName string, backend string) (grpc.Backend, error) {

core/backend/stores_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+package backend
+
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/config"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/trace"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/model"
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/system"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+// findVectorStoreTrace returns the most recent vector_store trace whose
+// model_name matches storeName, or nil if none was recorded. Used by
+// the specs below to assert the trace landed without relying on
+// ring-buffer ordering across other tests in the suite.
+func findVectorStoreTrace(storeName string) *trace.BackendTrace {
+	traces := trace.GetBackendTraces()
+	for i := range traces {
+		bt := &traces[i]
+		if bt.Type == trace.BackendTraceVectorStore && bt.ModelName == storeName {
+			return bt
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("localVectorStore tracing", func() {
+	// Pin the trace surface admins read from /api/backend-traces.
+	// The original failure mode that motivated these specs — the
+	// local-store backend not installed — was silent on every surface
+	// except a per-call xlog.Warn. With tracing wired in, the row
+	// appears next to the embedder/score traces for the same request.
+	BeforeEach(func() {
+		trace.ClearBackendTraces()
+	})
+
+	It("records a vector_store trace with outcome=backend_load_error when the backend can't be loaded", func() {
+		// nil ModelLoader → s.backend → StoreBackend → panics on load.
+		// Use a real-but-empty loader so the failure surfaces as an
+		// error instead, exercising the load-failure trace path the
+		// admin would hit when local-store isn't installed.
+		appCfg := &config.ApplicationConfig{
+			EnableTracing:       true,
+			TracingMaxItems:     16,
+			TracingMaxBodyBytes: 1024,
+		}
+		s := &localVectorStore{
+			loader:    model.NewModelLoader(&system.SystemState{}),
+			appConfig: appCfg,
+			storeName: "router-cache-test",
+		}
+
+		// Search must surface the error AND record a trace describing it.
+		_, _, _, err := s.Search(context.Background(), []float32{0.1, 0.2, 0.3})
+		Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+
+		Eventually(func() *trace.BackendTrace {
+			return findVectorStoreTrace("router-cache-test")
+		}).ShouldNot(BeNil())
+
+		bt := findVectorStoreTrace("router-cache-test")
+		Expect(bt.Backend).To(Equal(model.LocalStoreBackend))
+		Expect(bt.Data["op"]).To(Equal("search"))
+		Expect(bt.Data["outcome"]).To(Equal("backend_load_error"))
+		Expect(bt.Data["vector_dim"]).To(Equal(3))
+		// Error is the wrapped "vector store load: …" surfaced to the caller.
+		Expect(bt.Error).To(ContainSubstring("vector store load"))
+	})
+
+	It("does not record a trace when tracing is disabled", func() {
+		// Opt-out path: appConfig.EnableTracing=false must short-circuit
+		// before InitBackendTracingIfEnabled, so a workload with tracing
+		// turned off doesn't pay the channel-send cost per cache call.
+		appCfg := &config.ApplicationConfig{EnableTracing: false}
+		s := &localVectorStore{
+			loader:    model.NewModelLoader(&system.SystemState{}),
+			appConfig: appCfg,
+			storeName: "router-cache-disabled",
+		}
+		_, _, _, _ = s.Search(context.Background(), []float32{1})
+		Consistently(func() *trace.BackendTrace {
+			return findVectorStoreTrace("router-cache-disabled")
+		}).Should(BeNil())
+	})
+})

core/backend/tokenize.go

@@ -7,9 +7,23 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/schema"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/trace"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc"
+	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/model"
 )
 
+// tokenizeTokenCount returns the number of tokens in a backend response,
+// treating a nil response as zero. The gRPC client returns (nil, err) on
+// failure, and the tracing block below runs before that error is returned —
+// so the count must be read nil-safely here. Reading resp.Tokens on a nil
+// resp previously panicked the whole HTTP handler when tracing was enabled
+// (e.g. a transient tokenize failure during router probe-budget sizing).
+func tokenizeTokenCount(resp *pb.TokenizationResponse) int {
+	if resp == nil {
+		return 0
+	}
+	return len(resp.Tokens)
+}
+
 func ModelTokenize(s string, loader *model.ModelLoader, modelConfig config.ModelConfig, appConfig *config.ApplicationConfig) (schema.TokenizeResponse, error) {
 
 	var inferenceModel grpc.Backend
@@ -40,10 +54,7 @@ func ModelTokenize(s string, loader *model.ModelLoader, modelConfig config.Model
 			errStr = err.Error()
 		}
 
-		tokenCount := 0
-		if resp.Tokens != nil {
-			tokenCount = len(resp.Tokens)
-		}
+		tokenCount := tokenizeTokenCount(resp)
 
 		trace.RecordBackendTrace(trace.BackendTrace{
 			Timestamp: startTime,
@@ -64,8 +75,8 @@ func ModelTokenize(s string, loader *model.ModelLoader, modelConfig config.Model
 		return schema.TokenizeResponse{}, err
 	}
 
-	if resp.Tokens == nil {
-		resp.Tokens = make([]int32, 0)
+	if resp == nil || resp.Tokens == nil {
+		return schema.TokenizeResponse{Tokens: make([]int32, 0)}, nil
 	}
 
 	return schema.TokenizeResponse{

core/backend/tokenize_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package backend
+
+import (
+	pb "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/grpc/proto"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+var _ = Describe("tokenizeTokenCount", func() {
+	// Regression: the gRPC client returns (nil, err) when a tokenize call
+	// fails, and ModelTokenize's tracing block reads the token count before
+	// the error is returned. Dereferencing a nil response there panicked the
+	// HTTP handler (nil pointer dereference) — e.g. a transient tokenize
+	// failure while the router sized its probe-token budget.
+	It("returns zero for a nil response instead of panicking", func() {
+		Expect(tokenizeTokenCount(nil)).To(Equal(0))
+	})
+
+	It("returns zero when the response carries no tokens", func() {
+		Expect(tokenizeTokenCount(&pb.TokenizationResponse{})).To(Equal(0))
+	})
+
+	It("counts the tokens present on the response", func() {
+		Expect(tokenizeTokenCount(&pb.TokenizationResponse{Tokens: []int32{1, 2, 3}})).To(Equal(3))
+	})
+})

core/backend/tts.go

@@ -20,11 +20,32 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/utils"
 )
 
+// newTTSRequest assembles the gRPC TTSRequest from the per-request inputs. The
+// optional instructions string is only attached when non-empty so backends can
+// distinguish "no per-request instruction" (fall back to YAML) from an explicit
+// empty one. params is forwarded as-is (nil when unset).
+func newTTSRequest(text, modelPath, voice, dst, language, instructions string, params map[string]string) *proto.TTSRequest {
+	req := &proto.TTSRequest{
+		Text:     text,
+		Model:    modelPath,
+		Voice:    voice,
+		Dst:      dst,
+		Language: &language,
+		Params:   params,
+	}
+	if instructions != "" {
+		req.Instructions = &instructions
+	}
+	return req
+}
+
 func ModelTTS(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	text,
 	voice,
-	language string,
+	language,
+	instructions string,
+	params map[string]string,
 	loader *model.ModelLoader,
 	appConfig *config.ApplicationConfig,
 	modelConfig config.ModelConfig,
@@ -74,13 +95,9 @@ func ModelTTS(
 		startTime = time.Now()
 	}
 
-	res, err := ttsModel.TTS(ctx, &proto.TTSRequest{
-		Text:     text,
-		Model:    modelPath,
-		Voice:    voice,
-		Dst:      filePath,
-		Language: &language,
-	})
+	ttsRequest := newTTSRequest(text, modelPath, voice, filePath, language, instructions, params)
+
+	res, err := ttsModel.TTS(ctx, ttsRequest)
 
 	if appConfig.EnableTracing {
 		errStr := ""
@@ -128,7 +145,9 @@ func ModelTTSStream(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	text,
 	voice,
-	language string,
+	language,
+	instructions string,
+	params map[string]string,
 	loader *model.ModelLoader,
 	appConfig *config.ApplicationConfig,
 	modelConfig config.ModelConfig,
@@ -177,12 +196,10 @@ func ModelTTSStream(
 	var totalPCMBytes int
 	snippetCapped := false
 
-	err = ttsModel.TTSStream(ctx, &proto.TTSRequest{
-		Text:     text,
-		Model:    modelPath,
-		Voice:    voice,
-		Language: &language,
-	}, func(reply *proto.Reply) {
+	// Streaming TTS writes to the HTTP response, not a file, so dst is empty.
+	ttsRequest := newTTSRequest(text, modelPath, voice, "", language, instructions, params)
+
+	err = ttsModel.TTSStream(ctx, ttsRequest, func(reply *proto.Reply) {
 		// First message contains sample rate info
 		if !headerSent && len(reply.Message) > 0 {
 			var info map[string]any

core/backend/tts_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+package backend
+
+// Specs for the TTSRequest assembly that carries the per-request
+// instructions/params from the OpenAI `instructions` field (and the LocalAI
+// `params` extension) through to the gRPC boundary. Before this plumbing the
+// instruction value was dropped before reaching the backend; these specs pin
+// that it now survives, and that the empty case stays backward compatible.
+
+import (
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+var _ = Describe("newTTSRequest", func() {
+	It("attaches the instructions when a per-request value is set", func() {
+		req := newTTSRequest("hi", "/m", "alloy", "/out.wav", "en", "cheerful narrator", nil)
+		Expect(req.Instructions).ToNot(BeNil())
+		Expect(req.GetInstructions()).To(Equal("cheerful narrator"))
+		Expect(req.GetText()).To(Equal("hi"))
+		Expect(req.GetVoice()).To(Equal("alloy"))
+		Expect(req.GetDst()).To(Equal("/out.wav"))
+		Expect(req.GetLanguage()).To(Equal("en"))
+	})
+
+	It("leaves instructions unset when empty so backends fall back to YAML", func() {
+		req := newTTSRequest("hi", "/m", "", "/out.wav", "", "", nil)
+		Expect(req.Instructions).To(BeNil())
+		Expect(req.GetInstructions()).To(Equal(""))
+	})
+
+	It("forwards per-request params through to the backend", func() {
+		params := map[string]string{"exaggeration": "0.7", "cfg_weight": "0.3"}
+		req := newTTSRequest("hi", "/m", "", "/out.wav", "", "", params)
+		Expect(req.GetParams()).To(HaveKeyWithValue("exaggeration", "0.7"))
+		Expect(req.GetParams()).To(HaveKeyWithValue("cfg_weight", "0.3"))
+	})
+
+	It("leaves params nil when none are supplied", func() {
+		req := newTTSRequest("hi", "/m", "", "/out.wav", "", "", nil)
+		Expect(req.GetParams()).To(BeNil())
+	})
+})

core/cli/agent_worker.go

@@ -52,10 +52,28 @@ type AgentWorkerCMD struct {
 	Subject string `env:"LOCALAI_AGENT_SUBJECT" default:"agent.execute" help:"NATS subject for agent execution" group:"distributed"`
 	Queue   string `env:"LOCALAI_AGENT_QUEUE" default:"agent-workers" help:"NATS queue group name" group:"distributed"`
 
+	NatsJWT         string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_JWT" help:"NATS user JWT override (defaults to nats_jwt from registration)" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsUserSeed    string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_USER_SEED" help:"NATS user seed override (defaults to nats_user_seed from registration)" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsServiceJWT  string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_JWT" help:"Fallback NATS service JWT when registration does not mint agent JWT" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsServiceSeed string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_SEED" help:"Fallback NATS service seed paired with LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_JWT" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsRequireAuth bool   `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_REQUIRE_AUTH" default:"false" help:"Require NATS JWT+seed to connect" group:"distributed"`
+	// DistributedRequireAuth is the umbrella switch; for the agent worker (which
+	// has no file-transfer server) it implies NATS auth is required.
+	DistributedRequireAuth bool   `env:"LOCALAI_DISTRIBUTED_REQUIRE_AUTH" default:"false" help:"Umbrella switch implying --nats-require-auth (agent workers have no file-transfer server)" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsTLSCA              string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_TLS_CA" type:"existingfile" help:"PEM file for NATS server CA (private PKI)" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsTLSCert            string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_TLS_CERT" type:"existingfile" help:"Client certificate for NATS mTLS" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsTLSKey             string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_TLS_KEY" type:"existingfile" help:"Client private key for NATS mTLS" group:"distributed"`
+
 	// Timeouts
 	MCPCIJobTimeout string `env:"LOCALAI_MCP_CI_JOB_TIMEOUT" default:"10m" help:"Timeout for MCP CI job execution" group:"distributed"`
 }
 
+// natsAuthRequired reports whether NATS JWT credentials must be present — the
+// granular flag or the umbrella (LOCALAI_DISTRIBUTED_REQUIRE_AUTH).
+func (cmd *AgentWorkerCMD) natsAuthRequired() bool {
+	return cmd.NatsRequireAuth || cmd.DistributedRequireAuth
+}
+
 func (cmd *AgentWorkerCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 	xlog.Info("Starting agent worker", "nats", sanitize.URL(cmd.NatsURL), "register_to", cmd.RegisterTo)
 
@@ -81,15 +99,30 @@ func (cmd *AgentWorkerCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 		registrationBody["token"] = cmd.RegistrationToken
 	}
 
-	nodeID, apiToken, err := regClient.RegisterWithRetry(context.Background(), registrationBody, 10)
+	// Context cancelled on shutdown — used by registration waits, heartbeat, and
+	// other background goroutines.
+	shutdownCtx, shutdownCancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	defer shutdownCancel()
+
+	// Acquire credentials via (re)registration. When the bus requires auth and no
+	// static fallback is configured, wait through admin approval until the
+	// frontend mints credentials rather than starting unauthenticated.
+	credMgr := workerregistry.NewNATSCredentialManager(
+		func(ctx context.Context) (*workerregistry.RegisterResponse, error) {
+			return regClient.RegisterFull(ctx, registrationBody)
+		},
+		cmd.natsAuthRequired() && cmd.NatsJWT == "" && cmd.NatsServiceJWT == "",
+	)
+	res, err := credMgr.Acquire(shutdownCtx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("registration failed: %w", err)
 	}
+	nodeID := res.ID
 	xlog.Info("Registered with frontend", "nodeID", nodeID, "frontend", cmd.RegisterTo)
 
 	// Use provisioned API token if none was set
 	if cmd.APIToken == "" {
-		cmd.APIToken = apiToken
+		cmd.APIToken = res.APIToken
 	}
 
 	// Start heartbeat
@@ -98,14 +131,40 @@ func (cmd *AgentWorkerCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 		xlog.Warn("invalid heartbeat interval, using default 10s", "input", cmd.HeartbeatInterval, "error", err)
 	}
 	heartbeatInterval = cmp.Or(heartbeatInterval, 10*time.Second)
-	// Context cancelled on shutdown — used by heartbeat and other background goroutines
-	shutdownCtx, shutdownCancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
-	defer shutdownCancel()
 
 	go regClient.HeartbeatLoop(shutdownCtx, nodeID, heartbeatInterval, func() map[string]any { return map[string]any{} })
 
-	// Connect to NATS
-	natsClient, err := messaging.New(cmd.NatsURL)
+	// Resolve NATS credentials with precedence: explicit env override, then
+	// frontend-minted (auto-refreshed before expiry), then service fallback.
+	// Each static source must supply JWT and seed together.
+	natsTLS := messaging.TLSFiles{CA: cmd.NatsTLSCA, Cert: cmd.NatsTLSCert, Key: cmd.NatsTLSKey}
+	var natsOpts []messaging.Option
+	switch {
+	case cmd.NatsJWT != "" || cmd.NatsUserSeed != "":
+		if (cmd.NatsJWT == "") != (cmd.NatsUserSeed == "") {
+			return fmt.Errorf("LOCALAI_NATS_JWT and LOCALAI_NATS_USER_SEED must be set together")
+		}
+		natsOpts = append(natsOpts, messaging.WithUserJWT(cmd.NatsJWT, cmd.NatsUserSeed))
+	case credMgr.HasCredentials():
+		natsOpts = append(natsOpts, messaging.WithUserJWTProvider(credMgr.Provider()))
+		go func() {
+			if err := credMgr.RefreshLoop(shutdownCtx); err != nil {
+				xlog.Error("NATS credential refresh permanently failed; shutting down agent worker", "error", err)
+				shutdownCancel()
+			}
+		}()
+	case cmd.NatsServiceJWT != "" || cmd.NatsServiceSeed != "":
+		if (cmd.NatsServiceJWT == "") != (cmd.NatsServiceSeed == "") {
+			return fmt.Errorf("LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_JWT and LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_SEED must be set together")
+		}
+		natsOpts = append(natsOpts, messaging.WithUserJWT(cmd.NatsServiceJWT, cmd.NatsServiceSeed))
+	case cmd.natsAuthRequired():
+		return fmt.Errorf("NATS JWT+seed required: enable frontend minting or set LOCALAI_NATS_* env vars")
+	}
+	if natsTLS.Enabled() {
+		natsOpts = append(natsOpts, messaging.WithTLS(natsTLS))
+	}
+	natsClient, err := messaging.New(cmd.NatsURL, natsOpts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("connecting to NATS: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -183,17 +242,25 @@ func (cmd *AgentWorkerCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 
 	xlog.Info("Agent worker ready, waiting for jobs", "subject", cmd.Subject, "queue", cmd.Queue)
 
-	// Wait for shutdown
+	// Wait for an OS signal or an internal fatal condition (e.g. NATS
+	// credentials became unrenewable), so the worker restarts and re-acquires
+	// rather than lingering unable to serve.
 	sigCh := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
 	signal.Notify(sigCh, syscall.SIGINT, syscall.SIGTERM)
-	<-sigCh
+	var runErr error
+	select {
+	case <-sigCh:
+	case <-shutdownCtx.Done():
+		runErr = fmt.Errorf("agent worker shutting down: NATS credentials unavailable")
+		xlog.Error("Internal shutdown requested", "error", runErr)
+	}
 
 	xlog.Info("Shutting down agent worker")
 	shutdownCancel() // stop heartbeat loop immediately
 	dispatcher.Stop()
 	mcpTools.CloseAllMCPSessions()
 	regClient.GracefulDeregister(nodeID)
-	return nil
+	return runErr
 }
 
 // handleMCPToolRequest handles a NATS request-reply for MCP tool execution.

core/cli/chat/chat.go

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"io"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+type Options struct {
+	Model   string
+	BaseURL string
+	APIKey  string
+	In      io.Reader
+	Out     io.Writer
+}
+
+func Run(ctx context.Context, opts Options) error {
+	if opts.In == nil {
+		opts.In = strings.NewReader("")
+	}
+	if opts.Out == nil {
+		opts.Out = io.Discard
+	}
+
+	session, err := newChatSession(ctx, newLocalAIChatClient(opts.BaseURL, opts.APIKey), opts.Model)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return runTerminalChat(ctx, session, opts.In, opts.Out)
+}

core/cli/chat/chat_suite_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+func TestChat(t *testing.T) {
+	RegisterFailHandler(Fail)
+	RunSpecs(t, "Chat Suite")
+}

core/cli/chat/chat_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
+	"strings"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+var _ = Describe("Run chat", func() {
+	It("streams a single chat response", func() {
+		var capturedModel string
+		var capturedAuth string
+		server := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+			if r.URL.Path == "/v1/models" {
+				w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+				writeResponse(w, `{"object":"list","data":[{"id":"test-model","object":"model"}]}`)
+				return
+			}
+
+			Expect(r.URL.Path).To(Equal("/v1/chat/completions"))
+			capturedAuth = r.Header.Get("Authorization")
+
+			var body struct {
+				Model    string `json:"model"`
+				Messages []struct {
+					Role    string `json:"role"`
+					Content string `json:"content"`
+				} `json:"messages"`
+			}
+			Expect(json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&body)).To(Succeed())
+			capturedModel = body.Model
+			Expect(body.Messages).To(HaveLen(1))
+			Expect(body.Messages[0].Role).To(Equal("user"))
+			Expect(body.Messages[0].Content).To(Equal("hello"))
+
+			w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/event-stream")
+			writeResponse(w, "data: {\"choices\":[{\"index\":0,\"delta\":{\"content\":\"hi\"}}]}\n\n")
+			writeResponse(w, "data: {\"choices\":[{\"index\":0,\"delta\":{\"content\":\"!\"}}]}\n\n")
+			writeResponse(w, "data: [DONE]\n\n")
+		}))
+		defer server.Close()
+
+		var out bytes.Buffer
+		err := Run(GinkgoT().Context(), Options{
+			Model:   "test-model",
+			BaseURL: server.URL + "/v1",
+			APIKey:  "secret",
+			In:      strings.NewReader("hello\n/exit\n"),
+			Out:     &out,
+		})
+
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		Expect(capturedModel).To(Equal("test-model"))
+		Expect(capturedAuth).To(Equal("Bearer secret"))
+		Expect(out.String()).To(ContainSubstring("assistant: hi!"))
+		Expect(out.String()).To(ContainSubstring("bye"))
+	})
+
+	It("auto-selects the only available model", func() {
+		server := chatTestServer([]string{"solo"}, nil)
+		defer server.Close()
+
+		var out bytes.Buffer
+		err := Run(GinkgoT().Context(), Options{
+			BaseURL: server.URL + "/v1",
+			In:      strings.NewReader("/exit\n"),
+			Out:     &out,
+		})
+
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		Expect(out.String()).To(ContainSubstring("LocalAI chat (solo)"))
+	})
+
+	It("returns an actionable error when no models are installed", func() {
+		server := chatTestServer(nil, nil)
+		defer server.Close()
+
+		err := Run(GinkgoT().Context(), Options{
+			BaseURL: server.URL + "/v1",
+			In:      strings.NewReader(""),
+		})
+
+		Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("no chat models are installed"))
+		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("local-ai models install <model>"))
+	})
+
+	It("returns an actionable error when multiple models are available without a selection", func() {
+		server := chatTestServer([]string{"alpha", "beta"}, nil)
+		defer server.Close()
+
+		err := Run(GinkgoT().Context(), Options{
+			BaseURL: server.URL + "/v1",
+			In:      strings.NewReader(""),
+		})
+
+		Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("multiple models are available"))
+		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("--model"))
+		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("alpha"))
+		Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("beta"))
+	})
+
+	It("lists and switches models inside the chat", func() {
+		requestedModels := []string{}
+		server := chatTestServer([]string{"alpha", "beta"}, func(model string) {
+			requestedModels = append(requestedModels, model)
+		})
+		defer server.Close()
+
+		var out bytes.Buffer
+		err := Run(GinkgoT().Context(), Options{
+			Model:   "alpha",
+			BaseURL: server.URL + "/v1",
+			In:      strings.NewReader("/models\n/model beta\nhello\n/exit\n"),
+			Out:     &out,
+		})
+
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		Expect(out.String()).To(ContainSubstring("* alpha"))
+		Expect(out.String()).To(ContainSubstring("  beta"))
+		Expect(out.String()).To(ContainSubstring("switched to beta; conversation cleared"))
+		Expect(requestedModels).To(Equal([]string{"beta"}))
+	})
+})
+
+func chatTestServer(models []string, onChat func(model string)) *httptest.Server {
+	return httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		switch r.URL.Path {
+		case "/v1/models":
+			w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+			writeResponse(w, `{"object":"list","data":[`)
+			for i, model := range models {
+				if i > 0 {
+					writeResponse(w, ",")
+				}
+				writeResponsef(w, `{"id":%q,"object":"model"}`, model)
+			}
+			writeResponse(w, `]}`)
+		case "/v1/chat/completions":
+			var body struct {
+				Model string `json:"model"`
+			}
+			Expect(json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&body)).To(Succeed())
+			if onChat != nil {
+				onChat(body.Model)
+			}
+			w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/event-stream")
+			writeResponse(w, "data: {\"choices\":[{\"index\":0,\"delta\":{\"content\":\"ok\"}}]}\n\n")
+			writeResponse(w, "data: [DONE]\n\n")
+		default:
+			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
+		}
+	}))
+}
+
+func writeResponse(w io.Writer, text string) {
+	_, err := fmt.Fprint(w, text)
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+}
+
+func writeResponsef(w io.Writer, format string, args ...any) {
+	_, err := fmt.Fprintf(w, format, args...)
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+}

core/cli/chat/client.go

@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+
+	openai "github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai"
+)
+
+type chatClient interface {
+	ListModels(ctx context.Context) ([]string, error)
+	StreamChat(ctx context.Context, model string, messages []chatMessage, out io.Writer) (string, error)
+}
+
+type localAIChatClient struct {
+	client *openai.Client
+}
+
+func newLocalAIChatClient(baseURL string, apiKey string) *localAIChatClient {
+	cfg := openai.DefaultConfig(apiKey)
+	cfg.BaseURL = baseURL
+	return &localAIChatClient{client: openai.NewClientWithConfig(cfg)}
+}
+
+func (c *localAIChatClient) ListModels(ctx context.Context) ([]string, error) {
+	resp, err := c.client.ListModels(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	models := make([]string, 0, len(resp.Models))
+	for _, model := range resp.Models {
+		if model.ID != "" {
+			models = append(models, model.ID)
+		}
+	}
+	sort.Strings(models)
+	return models, nil
+}
+
+func (c *localAIChatClient) StreamChat(ctx context.Context, model string, messages []chatMessage, out io.Writer) (string, error) {
+	stream, err := c.client.CreateChatCompletionStream(ctx, openai.ChatCompletionRequest{
+		Model:    model,
+		Messages: openAIChatMessages(messages),
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", friendlyChatError(err, model)
+	}
+	defer func() {
+		_ = stream.Close()
+	}()
+
+	var answer strings.Builder
+	for {
+		resp, err := stream.Recv()
+		if errors.Is(err, io.EOF) {
+			break
+		}
+		if err != nil {
+			return answer.String(), friendlyChatError(err, model)
+		}
+		if len(resp.Choices) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		token := resp.Choices[0].Delta.Content
+		if token == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		answer.WriteString(token)
+		if _, err := fmt.Fprint(out, token); err != nil {
+			return answer.String(), err
+		}
+	}
+
+	return answer.String(), nil
+}
+
+func openAIChatMessages(messages []chatMessage) []openai.ChatCompletionMessage {
+	converted := make([]openai.ChatCompletionMessage, len(messages))
+	for i, message := range messages {
+		converted[i] = openai.ChatCompletionMessage{
+			Role:    message.Role,
+			Content: message.Content,
+		}
+	}
+	return converted
+}
+
+func friendlyChatError(err error, model string) error {
+	var apiErr *openai.APIError
+	if errors.As(err, &apiErr) {
+		switch apiErr.HTTPStatusCode {
+		case 404:
+			return fmt.Errorf("model %q is not available. Run `local-ai models list`, install a model with `local-ai models install <model>`, or switch with `/model <name>`", model)
+		case 403:
+			return fmt.Errorf("model %q is disabled. Enable it from LocalAI settings or choose another model with `/model <name>`", model)
+		}
+		if apiErr.Message != "" {
+			return errors.New(apiErr.Message)
+		}
+	}
+
+	msg := err.Error()
+	if strings.Contains(msg, "model") && strings.Contains(msg, "not found") {
+		return fmt.Errorf("model %q is not available. Run `local-ai models list`, install a model with `local-ai models install <model>`, or switch with `/model <name>`", model)
+	}
+
+	return err
+}

core/cli/chat/models.go

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+package chat
+
+import "strings"
+
+func formatChatModelList(models []string, current string) string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, model := range models {
+		prefix := "  "
+		if model == current {
+			prefix = "* "
+		}
+		b.WriteString(prefix)
+		b.WriteString(model)
+		b.WriteByte('\n')
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}

core/cli/chat/session.go

@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+const (
+	chatRoleUser      = "user"
+	chatRoleAssistant = "assistant"
+)
+
+type chatMessage struct {
+	Role    string
+	Content string
+}
+
+type chatSession struct {
+	client   chatClient
+	model    string
+	models   []string
+	messages []chatMessage
+}
+
+func newChatSession(ctx context.Context, client chatClient, requestedModel string) (*chatSession, error) {
+	models, err := client.ListModels(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("list models: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	model, err := resolveChatModel(requestedModel, models)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	return &chatSession{
+		client: client,
+		model:  model,
+		models: models,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (s *chatSession) CurrentModel() string {
+	return s.model
+}
+
+func (s *chatSession) Models() []string {
+	models := make([]string, len(s.models))
+	copy(models, s.models)
+	return models
+}
+
+func (s *chatSession) Clear() {
+	s.messages = nil
+}
+
+func (s *chatSession) SwitchModel(model string) error {
+	if !modelExists(s.models, model) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("model %q is not available. Use /models to see installed models", model)
+	}
+	s.model = model
+	s.Clear()
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (s *chatSession) Send(ctx context.Context, prompt string, out io.Writer) error {
+	s.messages = append(s.messages, chatMessage{
+		Role:    chatRoleUser,
+		Content: prompt,
+	})
+
+	answer, err := s.client.StreamChat(ctx, s.model, s.messages, out)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	s.messages = append(s.messages, chatMessage{
+		Role:    chatRoleAssistant,
+		Content: answer,
+	})
+	return nil
+}
+
+func resolveChatModel(requested string, models []string) (string, error) {
+	switch {
+	case requested == "" && len(models) == 0:
+		return "", errors.New(`no chat models are installed.
+
+Install a model first, for example:
+  local-ai models list
+  local-ai models install <model>
+  local-ai run
+
+Then start a chat session:
+  local-ai chat --model <model>`)
+	case requested == "" && len(models) == 1:
+		return models[0], nil
+	case requested == "" && len(models) > 1:
+		var b strings.Builder
+		b.WriteString("multiple models are available; choose one with --model:\n")
+		b.WriteString(formatChatModelList(models, ""))
+		return "", errors.New(b.String())
+	case !modelExists(models, requested):
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("model %q is not available. Use `local-ai models list` and `local-ai models install <model>`, or pass an installed model with --model", requested)
+	default:
+		return requested, nil
+	}
+}
+
+func modelExists(models []string, name string) bool {
+	for _, model := range models {
+		if model == name {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}

core/cli/chat/session_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"io"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+var _ = Describe("Chat session", func() {
+	It("keeps model switching and message history out of the terminal adapter", func() {
+		client := &fakeChatClient{
+			models: []string{"alpha", "beta"},
+			answer: "pong",
+		}
+
+		session, err := newChatSession(context.Background(), client, "alpha")
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		Expect(session.CurrentModel()).To(Equal("alpha"))
+
+		Expect(session.SwitchModel("beta")).To(Succeed())
+		Expect(session.CurrentModel()).To(Equal("beta"))
+		Expect(session.Send(context.Background(), "ping", io.Discard)).To(Succeed())
+
+		Expect(client.requests).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(client.requests[0].model).To(Equal("beta"))
+		Expect(client.requests[0].messages).To(HaveLen(1))
+		Expect(client.requests[0].messages[0].Content).To(Equal("ping"))
+	})
+})
+
+type fakeChatClient struct {
+	models   []string
+	answer   string
+	requests []fakeChatRequest
+}
+
+type fakeChatRequest struct {
+	model    string
+	messages []chatMessage
+}
+
+func (c *fakeChatClient) ListModels(context.Context) ([]string, error) {
+	return c.models, nil
+}
+
+func (c *fakeChatClient) StreamChat(_ context.Context, model string, messages []chatMessage, out io.Writer) (string, error) {
+	copied := make([]chatMessage, len(messages))
+	copy(copied, messages)
+	c.requests = append(c.requests, fakeChatRequest{model: model, messages: copied})
+	if _, err := io.WriteString(out, c.answer); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return c.answer, nil
+}

core/cli/chat/terminal.go

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+package chat
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+func runTerminalChat(ctx context.Context, session *chatSession, in io.Reader, out io.Writer) error {
+	scanner := bufio.NewScanner(in)
+	scanner.Buffer(make([]byte, 0, 64*1024), 4*1024*1024)
+
+	if err := writeChat(out, "LocalAI chat (%s)\n", session.CurrentModel()); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if err := writeChat(out, "Type /exit to quit, /clear to reset the conversation, /models to list models.\n"); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	for {
+		if err := writeChat(out, "\n> "); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if !scanner.Scan() {
+			break
+		}
+
+		prompt := strings.TrimSpace(scanner.Text())
+		switch prompt {
+		case "":
+			continue
+		case "/bye", "/exit", "/quit":
+			return writeChat(out, "bye\n")
+		case "/clear":
+			session.Clear()
+			if err := writeChat(out, "conversation cleared\n"); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			continue
+		case "/models":
+			if err := printChatModels(out, session.Models(), session.CurrentModel()); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			continue
+		}
+
+		if nextModel, ok := strings.CutPrefix(prompt, "/model "); ok {
+			nextModel = strings.TrimSpace(nextModel)
+			if nextModel == "" {
+				if err := writeChat(out, "usage: /model <name>\n"); err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+				continue
+			}
+			if err := session.SwitchModel(nextModel); err != nil {
+				if writeErr := writeChat(out, "%s\n", err); writeErr != nil {
+					return writeErr
+				}
+				continue
+			}
+			if err := writeChat(out, "switched to %s; conversation cleared\n", session.CurrentModel()); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			continue
+		}
+
+		if err := writeChat(out, "assistant: "); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if err := session.Send(ctx, prompt, out); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if err := writeChat(out, "\n"); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
+	return scanner.Err()
+}
+
+func printChatModels(out io.Writer, models []string, current string) error {
+	if len(models) == 0 {
+		return writeChat(out, "no models installed\n")
+	}
+	return writeChat(out, "%s", formatChatModelList(models, current))
+}
+
+func writeChat(out io.Writer, format string, args ...any) error {
+	_, err := fmt.Fprintf(out, format, args...)
+	return err
+}

core/cli/chat_cmd.go

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+package cli
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+
+	chatcli "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/cli/chat"
+	cliContext "github.com/mudler/LocalAI/core/cli/context"
+)
+
+type ChatCMD struct {
+	Model    string `short:"m" help:"Model name to use. Defaults to the only model returned by the server when exactly one is available"`
+	Endpoint string `env:"LOCALAI_CHAT_ENDPOINT" default:"http://127.0.0.1:8080" help:"LocalAI server endpoint. The /v1 path is added automatically when omitted"`
+	APIKey   string `env:"LOCALAI_API_KEY,API_KEY" help:"API key to use when the LocalAI server requires authentication"`
+}
+
+func (c *ChatCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
+	return chatcli.Run(context.Background(), chatcli.Options{
+		Model:   c.Model,
+		BaseURL: chatAPIBaseURL(c.Endpoint),
+		APIKey:  c.APIKey,
+		In:      os.Stdin,
+		Out:     os.Stdout,
+	})
+}

core/cli/chat_cmd_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package cli
+
+import (
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+var _ = Describe("Chat command wiring", func() {
+	Describe("chatAPIBaseURL", func() {
+		It("adds /v1 to a root endpoint", func() {
+			Expect(chatAPIBaseURL("http://127.0.0.1:8080")).To(Equal("http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1"))
+		})
+
+		It("keeps endpoints that already include /v1", func() {
+			Expect(chatAPIBaseURL("http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1")).To(Equal("http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1"))
+			Expect(chatAPIBaseURL("http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1/")).To(Equal("http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1"))
+		})
+
+		It("adds a default http scheme", func() {
+			Expect(chatAPIBaseURL("127.0.0.1:8080")).To(Equal("http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1"))
+		})
+
+		It("preserves non-root paths before /v1", func() {
+			Expect(chatAPIBaseURL("http://127.0.0.1:8080/localai")).To(Equal("http://127.0.0.1:8080/localai/v1"))
+		})
+	})
+})

core/cli/chat_endpoint.go

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package cli
+
+import (
+	"net/url"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+func chatAPIBaseURL(endpoint string) string {
+	if !strings.Contains(endpoint, "://") {
+		endpoint = "http://" + endpoint
+	}
+
+	u, err := url.Parse(endpoint)
+	if err != nil {
+		return strings.TrimRight(endpoint, "/") + "/v1"
+	}
+
+	path := strings.TrimRight(u.Path, "/")
+	if path == "" {
+		u.Path = "/v1"
+	} else if path != "/v1" && !strings.HasSuffix(path, "/v1") {
+		u.Path = path + "/v1"
+	} else {
+		u.Path = path
+	}
+	u.RawQuery = ""
+	u.Fragment = ""
+	return u.String()
+}

core/cli/cli.go

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ var CLI struct {
 	cliContext.Context `embed:""`
 
 	Run             RunCMD             `cmd:"" help:"Run LocalAI, this the default command if no other command is specified. Run 'local-ai run --help' for more information" default:"withargs"`
+	Chat            ChatCMD            `cmd:"" help:"Open an interactive chat session against a running LocalAI server"`
 	Federated       FederatedCLI       `cmd:"" help:"Run LocalAI in federated mode"`
 	Models          ModelsCMD          `cmd:"" help:"Manage LocalAI models and definitions"`
 	Backends        BackendsCMD        `cmd:"" help:"Manage LocalAI backends and definitions"`

core/cli/run.go

@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ type RunCMD struct {
 	ModelArgs []string `arg:"" optional:"" name:"models" help:"Model configuration URLs to load"`
 
 	ExternalBackends             []string      `env:"LOCALAI_EXTERNAL_BACKENDS,EXTERNAL_BACKENDS" help:"A list of external backends to load from gallery on boot" group:"backends"`
+	WebRTCNAT1To1IPs             []string      `env:"LOCALAI_WEBRTC_NAT_1TO1_IPS,WEBRTC_NAT_1TO1_IPS" help:"IPs advertised as the host ICE candidates for /v1/realtime WebRTC instead of every local interface. Set to the reachable host/LAN IP when running under Docker host networking or NAT, where pion otherwise offers unreachable bridge addresses and the connection drops after ICE consent checks fail." group:"api"`
+	WebRTCICEInterfaces          []string      `env:"LOCALAI_WEBRTC_ICE_INTERFACES,WEBRTC_ICE_INTERFACES" help:"Restrict /v1/realtime WebRTC ICE candidate gathering to these network interfaces (e.g. eth0), filtering out docker0/veth noise." group:"api"`
 	BackendsPath                 string        `env:"LOCALAI_BACKENDS_PATH,BACKENDS_PATH" type:"path" default:"${basepath}/backends" help:"Path containing backends used for inferencing" group:"backends"`
 	BackendsSystemPath           string        `env:"LOCALAI_BACKENDS_SYSTEM_PATH,BACKEND_SYSTEM_PATH" type:"path" default:"/var/lib/local-ai/backends" help:"Path containing system backends used for inferencing" group:"backends"`
 	ModelsPath                   string        `env:"LOCALAI_MODELS_PATH,MODELS_PATH" type:"path" default:"${basepath}/models" help:"Path containing models used for inferencing" group:"storage"`
@@ -154,11 +156,21 @@ type RunCMD struct {
 	StorageAccessKey          string `env:"LOCALAI_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY" help:"S3 access key ID" group:"distributed"`
 	StorageSecretKey          string `env:"LOCALAI_STORAGE_SECRET_KEY" help:"S3 secret access key" group:"distributed"`
 	RegistrationToken         string `env:"LOCALAI_REGISTRATION_TOKEN" help:"Token that backend nodes must provide to register (empty = no auth required)" group:"distributed"`
+	RegistrationRequireAuth   bool   `env:"LOCALAI_REGISTRATION_REQUIRE_AUTH" default:"false" help:"Fail startup when distributed mode is enabled but LOCALAI_REGISTRATION_TOKEN is empty (node endpoints and worker file-transfer server would otherwise be unauthenticated)" group:"distributed"`
+	DistributedRequireAuth    bool   `env:"LOCALAI_DISTRIBUTED_REQUIRE_AUTH" default:"false" help:"Umbrella switch: require BOTH NATS JWT credentials and a registration token when distributed mode is enabled (implies --nats-require-auth and --registration-require-auth)" group:"distributed"`
 	AutoApproveNodes          bool   `env:"LOCALAI_AUTO_APPROVE_NODES" default:"false" help:"Auto-approve new worker nodes (skip admin approval)" group:"distributed"`
 	DistributedPrefixCache    bool   `env:"LOCALAI_DISTRIBUTED_PREFIX_CACHE" default:"true" help:"Enable prefix-cache-aware routing in distributed mode (default true). When false, routing falls back to round-robin." group:"distributed"`
 	DistributedPrefixCacheTTL string `env:"LOCALAI_DISTRIBUTED_PREFIX_CACHE_TTL" help:"Idle-timeout for prefix-cache index entries; also drives the background eviction cadence (every TTL/2). Default 5m." group:"distributed"`
 	BackendInstallTimeout     string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_BACKEND_INSTALL_TIMEOUT" help:"NATS round-trip timeout for backend.install requests sent to worker nodes (default 15m). Increase for slow links pulling multi-GB images." group:"distributed"`
 	BackendUpgradeTimeout     string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_BACKEND_UPGRADE_TIMEOUT" help:"NATS round-trip timeout for backend.upgrade requests (default 15m)." group:"distributed"`
+	NatsAccountSeed           string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_ACCOUNT_SEED" help:"NATS account signing seed (SU...) used to mint per-node worker JWTs at registration" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsServiceJWT            string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_JWT" help:"NATS user JWT for the frontend (and agent workers) to publish control-plane messages" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsServiceSeed           string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_SEED" help:"NATS user signing seed (SU...) paired with LOCALAI_NATS_SERVICE_JWT" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsWorkerJWTTTL          string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_WORKER_JWT_TTL" help:"Lifetime of minted per-node NATS JWTs (e.g. 24h, default 24h)" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsRequireAuth           bool   `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_REQUIRE_AUTH" default:"false" help:"Require NATS JWT credentials (service JWT + account seed) when distributed mode is enabled" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsTLSCA                 string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_TLS_CA" type:"existingfile" help:"PEM file for NATS server CA (private PKI); use with tls:// in --nats-url" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsTLSCert               string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_TLS_CERT" type:"existingfile" help:"Client certificate for NATS mTLS" group:"distributed"`
+	NatsTLSKey                string `env:"LOCALAI_NATS_TLS_KEY" type:"existingfile" help:"Client private key for NATS mTLS" group:"distributed"`
 	ExposeNodeHeader          bool   `env:"LOCALAI_EXPOSE_NODE_HEADER" default:"false" help:"Set the X-LocalAI-Node response header on inference responses (OpenAI chat/completions/embeddings, Anthropic /v1/messages, Ollama /api/chat,/api/generate,/api/embed) with the ID of the worker that served the request. Disabled by default: the node ID reveals internal topology and should not be exposed on a public endpoint. Best-effort: under heavy concurrency the header may reflect a recent routing decision rather than this exact request's." group:"distributed"`
 
 	Version bool
@@ -215,6 +227,8 @@ func (r *RunCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 		config.WithApiKeys(r.APIKeys),
 		config.WithModelsURL(append(r.Models, r.ModelArgs...)...),
 		config.WithExternalBackends(r.ExternalBackends...),
+		config.WithWebRTCNAT1To1IPs(r.WebRTCNAT1To1IPs...),
+		config.WithWebRTCICEInterfaces(r.WebRTCICEInterfaces...),
 		config.WithOpaqueErrors(r.OpaqueErrors),
 		config.WithEnforcedPredownloadScans(!r.DisablePredownloadScan),
 		config.WithSubtleKeyComparison(r.UseSubtleKeyComparison),
@@ -283,6 +297,40 @@ func (r *RunCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 	if r.RegistrationToken != "" {
 		opts = append(opts, config.WithRegistrationToken(r.RegistrationToken))
 	}
+	if r.RegistrationRequireAuth {
+		opts = append(opts, config.EnableRegistrationRequireAuth)
+	}
+	if r.DistributedRequireAuth {
+		opts = append(opts, config.EnableDistributedRequireAuth)
+	}
+	if r.NatsAccountSeed != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsAccountSeed(r.NatsAccountSeed))
+	}
+	if r.NatsServiceJWT != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsServiceJWT(r.NatsServiceJWT))
+	}
+	if r.NatsServiceSeed != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsServiceSeed(r.NatsServiceSeed))
+	}
+	if r.NatsWorkerJWTTTL != "" {
+		d, err := time.ParseDuration(r.NatsWorkerJWTTTL)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("invalid LOCALAI_NATS_WORKER_JWT_TTL %q: %w", r.NatsWorkerJWTTTL, err)
+		}
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsWorkerJWTTTL(d))
+	}
+	if r.NatsRequireAuth {
+		opts = append(opts, config.EnableNatsRequireAuth)
+	}
+	if r.NatsTLSCA != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsTLSCA(r.NatsTLSCA))
+	}
+	if r.NatsTLSCert != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsTLSCert(r.NatsTLSCert))
+	}
+	if r.NatsTLSKey != "" {
+		opts = append(opts, config.WithNatsTLSKey(r.NatsTLSKey))
+	}
 	if r.AutoApproveNodes {
 		opts = append(opts, config.EnableAutoApproveNodes)
 	}
@@ -608,12 +656,12 @@ func (r *RunCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 // waitForServerReady polls the given address until the HTTP server is
 // accepting connections or the context is cancelled.
 func waitForServerReady(address string, ctx context.Context) {
-	// Ensure the address has a host component for dialing.
-	// Echo accepts ":8080" but net.Dial needs a resolvable host.
 	host, port, err := net.SplitHostPort(address)
 	if err == nil && host == "" {
 		address = "127.0.0.1:" + port
 	}
+	ticker := time.NewTicker(250 * time.Millisecond)
+	defer ticker.Stop()
 
 	for {
 		select {
@@ -621,11 +669,17 @@ func waitForServerReady(address string, ctx context.Context) {
 			return
 		default:
 		}
+
 		conn, err := net.DialTimeout("tcp", address, 500*time.Millisecond)
 		if err == nil {
 			conn.Close()
 			return
 		}
-		time.Sleep(250 * time.Millisecond)
+
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return
+		case <-ticker.C:
+		}
 	}
 }

core/cli/tts.go

@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ func (t *TTSCMD) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 	options.Backend = t.Backend
 	options.Model = t.Model
 
-	filePath, _, err := backend.ModelTTS(context.Background(), text, t.Voice, t.Language, ml, opts, options)
+	filePath, _, err := backend.ModelTTS(context.Background(), text, t.Voice, t.Language, "", nil, ml, opts, options)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}

core/cli/worker/worker_vllm.go

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ func (r *VLLMDistributed) Run(ctx *cliContext.Context) error {
 			FrontendURL:       r.RegisterTo,
 			RegistrationToken: r.RegistrationToken,
 		}
-		nodeID, _, regErr := regClient.RegisterWithRetry(context.Background(), r.registrationBody(), 10)
+		nodeID, _, _, _, regErr := regClient.RegisterWithRetry(context.Background(), r.registrationBody(), 10)
 		if regErr != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("registering with frontend: %w", regErr)
 		}

core/cli/workerregistry/client.go

@@ -58,65 +58,77 @@ func (c *RegistrationClient) setAuth(req *http.Request) {
 
 // RegisterResponse is the JSON body returned by /api/node/register.
 type RegisterResponse struct {
-	ID       string `json:"id"`
-	APIToken string `json:"api_token,omitempty"`
+	ID           string `json:"id"`
+	Status       string `json:"status,omitempty"` // "pending" until an admin approves the node
+	APIToken     string `json:"api_token,omitempty"`
+	NatsJWT      string `json:"nats_jwt,omitempty"`
+	NatsUserSeed string `json:"nats_user_seed,omitempty"`
 }
 
-// Register sends a single registration request and returns the node ID and
-// (optionally) an auto-provisioned API token.
-func (c *RegistrationClient) Register(ctx context.Context, body map[string]any) (string, string, error) {
+// RegisterFull sends a single registration request and returns the full
+// response (node ID, approval status, and optional API token / NATS creds).
+// Re-registration is idempotent: the frontend preserves the node row and mints
+// a fresh NATS JWT each call, so this doubles as the credential-refresh call.
+func (c *RegistrationClient) RegisterFull(ctx context.Context, body map[string]any) (*RegisterResponse, error) {
 	jsonBody, _ := json.Marshal(body)
 	url := c.baseURL() + "/api/node/register"
 
 	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodPost, url, bytes.NewReader(jsonBody))
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("creating request: %w", err)
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("creating request: %w", err)
 	}
 	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
 	c.setAuth(req)
 
 	resp, err := c.httpClient().Do(req)
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("posting to %s: %w", url, err)
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("posting to %s: %w", url, err)
 	}
 	defer resp.Body.Close()
 
 	if resp.StatusCode < 200 || resp.StatusCode >= 300 {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("registration failed with status %d", resp.StatusCode)
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("registration failed with status %d", resp.StatusCode)
 	}
 
 	var result RegisterResponse
 	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&result); err != nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("decoding response: %w", err)
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("decoding response: %w", err)
 	}
-	return result.ID, result.APIToken, nil
+	return &result, nil
+}
+
+// Register sends a single registration request and returns the node ID and
+// optional credentials (API token for agent workers, NATS JWT when configured).
+func (c *RegistrationClient) Register(ctx context.Context, body map[string]any) (nodeID, apiToken, natsJWT, natsSeed string, err error) {
+	res, err := c.RegisterFull(ctx, body)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", "", "", "", err
+	}
+	return res.ID, res.APIToken, res.NatsJWT, res.NatsUserSeed, nil
 }
 
 // RegisterWithRetry retries registration with exponential backoff.
-func (c *RegistrationClient) RegisterWithRetry(ctx context.Context, body map[string]any, maxRetries int) (string, string, error) {
+func (c *RegistrationClient) RegisterWithRetry(ctx context.Context, body map[string]any, maxRetries int) (nodeID, apiToken, natsJWT, natsSeed string, err error) {
 	backoff := 2 * time.Second
 	maxBackoff := 30 * time.Second
 
-	var nodeID, apiToken string
-	var err error
-
 	for attempt := 1; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++ {
-		nodeID, apiToken, err = c.Register(ctx, body)
+		nodeID, apiToken, natsJWT, natsSeed, err = c.Register(ctx, body)
 		if err == nil {
-			return nodeID, apiToken, nil
+			return nodeID, apiToken, natsJWT, natsSeed, nil
 		}
 		if attempt == maxRetries {
-			return "", "", fmt.Errorf("failed after %d attempts: %w", maxRetries, err)
+			return "", "", "", "", fmt.Errorf("failed after %d attempts: %w", maxRetries, err)
 		}
 		xlog.Warn("Registration failed, retrying", "attempt", attempt, "next_retry", backoff, "error", err)
 		select {
 		case <-ctx.Done():
-			return "", "", ctx.Err()
+			return "", "", "", "", ctx.Err()
 		case <-time.After(backoff):
 		}
 		backoff = min(backoff*2, maxBackoff)
 	}
-	return nodeID, apiToken, err
+	return nodeID, apiToken, natsJWT, natsSeed, err
 }
 
 // Heartbeat sends a single heartbeat POST with the given body.

core/cli/workerregistry/credentials.go

@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
+package workerregistry
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"sync"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/natsauth"
+	"github.com/mudler/xlog"
+)
+
+// statusPending mirrors nodes.StatusPending. It is duplicated rather than
+// imported so the lightweight registration client does not pull in the nodes
+// package (and its gorm/DB dependencies).
+const statusPending = "pending"
+
+// defaultMaxAttempts bounds how many times Acquire registers (and how many
+// consecutive times RefreshLoop may fail) before giving up. It is high enough
+// to ride out a slow admin approval or a transient frontend outage, but finite
+// so an unauthorized/unapprovable worker exits and surfaces the problem (via a
+// non-zero exit and the resulting restart) rather than waiting forever.
+const defaultMaxAttempts = 100
+
+// RegisterFunc performs one idempotent registration round-trip.
+type RegisterFunc func(ctx context.Context) (*RegisterResponse, error)
+
+// NATSCredentialManager acquires NATS credentials at startup — waiting through
+// admin approval when required — and refreshes them before the minted JWT
+// expires, by re-registering (which mints a fresh JWT). The live NATS
+// connection adopts a refreshed JWT on its next reconnect via Provider. Safe
+// for concurrent use.
+//
+// It addresses two failure modes: a worker that needs credentials but registers
+// while still pending approval (it would otherwise give up and never connect),
+// and a long-running worker whose 24h JWT expires with no way to renew it.
+type NATSCredentialManager struct {
+	register     RegisterFunc
+	requireCreds bool // block until credentials are present (frontend minting in use)
+
+	// Tunables; defaults set by NewNATSCredentialManager, overridable in tests.
+	initialBackoff time.Duration
+	maxBackoff     time.Duration
+	maxAttempts    int     // bound on Acquire attempts / consecutive refresh failures (<=0 = unlimited)
+	refreshLead    float64 // refresh once this fraction of the JWT lifetime has elapsed
+	refreshRetry   time.Duration
+	expiryOf       func(jwt string) (time.Time, bool)
+
+	mu     sync.RWMutex
+	jwt    string
+	seed   string
+	nodeID string
+}
+
+// NewNATSCredentialManager builds a manager over register. When requireCreds is
+// true, Acquire blocks until the node is approved and credentials are minted.
+func NewNATSCredentialManager(register RegisterFunc, requireCreds bool) *NATSCredentialManager {
+	return &NATSCredentialManager{
+		register:       register,
+		requireCreds:   requireCreds,
+		initialBackoff: 2 * time.Second,
+		maxBackoff:     30 * time.Second,
+		maxAttempts:    defaultMaxAttempts,
+		refreshLead:    0.75,
+		refreshRetry:   30 * time.Second,
+		expiryOf:       jwtExpiry,
+	}
+}
+
+// jwtExpiry decodes the expiry of a minted user JWT. ok is false when the token
+// is empty/undecodable or carries no expiry (e.g. a non-expiring service JWT).
+func jwtExpiry(token string) (time.Time, bool) {
+	if token == "" {
+		return time.Time{}, false
+	}
+	uc, err := natsauth.DecodeUserClaims(token)
+	if err != nil || uc.Expires == 0 {
+		return time.Time{}, false
+	}
+	return time.Unix(uc.Expires, 0), true
+}
+
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) store(res *RegisterResponse) {
+	m.mu.Lock()
+	defer m.mu.Unlock()
+	m.nodeID = res.ID
+	if res.NatsJWT != "" && res.NatsUserSeed != "" {
+		m.jwt, m.seed = res.NatsJWT, res.NatsUserSeed
+	}
+}
+
+// Current returns the latest NATS credentials (both empty until acquired).
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) Current() (jwt, seed string) {
+	m.mu.RLock()
+	defer m.mu.RUnlock()
+	return m.jwt, m.seed
+}
+
+// NodeID returns the node ID from the most recent registration.
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) NodeID() string {
+	m.mu.RLock()
+	defer m.mu.RUnlock()
+	return m.nodeID
+}
+
+// Provider returns a callback compatible with messaging.WithUserJWTProvider,
+// supplying the current credentials on each (re)connect.
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) Provider() func() (string, string) {
+	return m.Current
+}
+
+// HasCredentials reports whether complete NATS credentials have been obtained.
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) HasCredentials() bool {
+	jwt, seed := m.Current()
+	return jwt != "" && seed != ""
+}
+
+// Acquire registers and, when requireCreds is set, keeps re-registering with
+// exponential backoff until the node is approved (status != pending) and
+// credentials are minted. Without requireCreds it returns the first successful
+// response (the historical one-shot behavior, preserved for anonymous NATS).
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) Acquire(ctx context.Context) (*RegisterResponse, error) {
+	backoff := m.initialBackoff
+	var lastReason error
+	for attempt := 1; m.maxAttempts <= 0 || attempt <= m.maxAttempts; attempt++ {
+		res, err := m.register(ctx)
+		switch {
+		case err != nil:
+			lastReason = err
+			xlog.Warn("Registration failed, retrying", "attempt", attempt, "next_retry", backoff, "error", err)
+		case !m.requireCreds:
+			m.store(res)
+			return res, nil
+		case res.Status == statusPending:
+			lastReason = fmt.Errorf("node %s still pending admin approval", res.ID)
+			xlog.Info("Node pending admin approval; waiting", "node", res.ID, "attempt", attempt, "next_retry", backoff)
+		case res.NatsJWT == "" || res.NatsUserSeed == "":
+			lastReason = fmt.Errorf("node %s approved but NATS credentials not minted", res.ID)
+			xlog.Info("Node approved but NATS credentials not yet minted; waiting", "node", res.ID, "attempt", attempt, "next_retry", backoff)
+		default:
+			m.store(res)
+			return res, nil
+		}
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return nil, ctx.Err()
+		case <-time.After(backoff):
+		}
+		backoff = min(backoff*2, m.maxBackoff)
+	}
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("giving up acquiring NATS credentials after %d attempts: %w", m.maxAttempts, lastReason)
+}
+
+// RefreshLoop re-registers to mint a fresh JWT before the current one expires,
+// updating the credentials returned by Current/Provider so the NATS connection
+// adopts them on its next reconnect. It returns nil when ctx is cancelled or
+// when the current credential has no expiry (nothing to refresh), and a non-nil
+// error after maxAttempts consecutive refresh failures — letting the caller
+// exit the worker so it restarts and re-acquires (or surfaces the outage)
+// rather than silently drifting toward an expired, unrenewable JWT.
+func (m *NATSCredentialManager) RefreshLoop(ctx context.Context) error {
+	failures := 0
+	for {
+		jwt, _ := m.Current()
+		exp, ok := m.expiryOf(jwt)
+		if !ok {
+			xlog.Debug("NATS credential has no expiry; refresh loop exiting")
+			return nil
+		}
+		wait := max(time.Duration(float64(time.Until(exp))*m.refreshLead), 0)
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return nil
+		case <-time.After(wait):
+		}
+
+		res, err := m.register(ctx)
+		if err == nil && res.NatsJWT != "" && res.NatsUserSeed != "" {
+			m.store(res)
+			failures = 0
+			xlog.Info("Refreshed NATS credentials", "node", res.ID)
+			continue
+		}
+		failures++
+		if err != nil {
+			xlog.Warn("NATS credential refresh failed; will retry", "attempt", failures, "error", err)
+		} else {
+			xlog.Warn("NATS credential refresh returned no credentials; will retry", "attempt", failures)
+		}
+		if m.maxAttempts > 0 && failures >= m.maxAttempts {
+			return fmt.Errorf("NATS credential refresh failed %d times in a row", failures)
+		}
+		// Back off before retrying so a persistent failure near expiry does not spin.
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return nil
+		case <-time.After(m.refreshRetry):
+		}
+	}
+}

core/cli/workerregistry/credentials_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,198 @@
+package workerregistry
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"sync"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pkg/natsauth"
+	"github.com/nats-io/nkeys"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+func TestWorkerRegistry(t *testing.T) {
+	RegisterFailHandler(Fail)
+	RunSpecs(t, "WorkerRegistry")
+}
+
+// fakeRegister returns a sequence of canned responses/errors, one per call, and
+// records how many times it was invoked. The last entry repeats once exhausted.
+type fakeRegister struct {
+	mu    sync.Mutex
+	steps []step
+	calls int
+}
+
+type step struct {
+	res *RegisterResponse
+	err error
+}
+
+func (f *fakeRegister) fn() RegisterFunc {
+	return func(context.Context) (*RegisterResponse, error) {
+		f.mu.Lock()
+		defer f.mu.Unlock()
+		i := f.calls
+		f.calls++
+		if i >= len(f.steps) {
+			i = len(f.steps) - 1
+		}
+		return f.steps[i].res, f.steps[i].err
+	}
+}
+
+func (f *fakeRegister) count() int {
+	f.mu.Lock()
+	defer f.mu.Unlock()
+	return f.calls
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("NATSCredentialManager", func() {
+	approved := func(jwt, seed string) *RegisterResponse {
+		return &RegisterResponse{ID: "node-1", Status: "healthy", NatsJWT: jwt, NatsUserSeed: seed}
+	}
+	pending := &RegisterResponse{ID: "node-1", Status: "pending"}
+
+	Describe("Acquire (#4 — wait through admin approval)", func() {
+		It("keeps re-registering until the node is approved and credentials are minted", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{
+				{res: pending},                     // not approved yet
+				{res: approved("", "")},            // approved but JWT not minted yet
+				{res: approved("jwt-1", "seed-1")}, // finally minted
+			}}
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), true /* requireCreds */)
+			m.initialBackoff = time.Millisecond
+			m.maxBackoff = time.Millisecond
+
+			res, err := m.Acquire(context.Background())
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(res.ID).To(Equal("node-1"))
+			Expect(f.count()).To(Equal(3))
+
+			jwt, seed := m.Current()
+			Expect(jwt).To(Equal("jwt-1"))
+			Expect(seed).To(Equal("seed-1"))
+			Expect(m.HasCredentials()).To(BeTrue())
+			Expect(m.NodeID()).To(Equal("node-1"))
+		})
+
+		It("returns immediately on the first success when credentials are not required (anonymous NATS)", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{{res: pending}}}
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), false /* requireCreds */)
+
+			res, err := m.Acquire(context.Background())
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(res.Status).To(Equal("pending"))
+			Expect(f.count()).To(Equal(1))
+			Expect(m.HasCredentials()).To(BeFalse())
+		})
+
+		It("aborts when the context is cancelled while waiting for approval", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{{res: pending}}}
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), true)
+			m.initialBackoff = 10 * time.Millisecond
+
+			ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+			cancel()
+			_, err := m.Acquire(ctx)
+			Expect(err).To(MatchError(context.Canceled))
+		})
+
+		It("gives up after a bounded number of attempts so the worker exits and alerts", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{{res: pending}}} // never approved
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), true)
+			m.initialBackoff = time.Millisecond
+			m.maxBackoff = time.Millisecond
+			m.maxAttempts = 5
+
+			_, err := m.Acquire(context.Background())
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("after 5 attempts"))
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(ContainSubstring("pending admin approval"))
+			Expect(f.count()).To(Equal(5))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Describe("RefreshLoop (#5 — renew before the JWT expires)", func() {
+		It("re-registers before expiry and updates the credentials served to new connections", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{{res: approved("jwt-2", "seed-2")}}}
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), true)
+			m.refreshLead = 0.5
+			m.refreshRetry = time.Millisecond
+			// jwt-1 expires soon; jwt-2 is long-lived so the loop then idles.
+			m.expiryOf = func(jwt string) (time.Time, bool) {
+				switch jwt {
+				case "jwt-1":
+					return time.Now().Add(40 * time.Millisecond), true
+				case "jwt-2":
+					return time.Now().Add(time.Hour), true
+				default:
+					return time.Time{}, false
+				}
+			}
+			m.store(approved("jwt-1", "seed-1"))
+
+			ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+			defer cancel()
+			go func() { _ = m.RefreshLoop(ctx) }()
+
+			Eventually(func() string {
+				jwt, _ := m.Current()
+				return jwt
+			}, "2s", "10ms").Should(Equal("jwt-2"))
+		})
+
+		It("returns an error after the bounded number of consecutive failures so the caller can exit", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{{err: context.DeadlineExceeded}}} // refresh always fails
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), true)
+			m.refreshLead = 0.5
+			m.refreshRetry = time.Millisecond
+			m.maxAttempts = 3
+			m.expiryOf = func(string) (time.Time, bool) { return time.Now().Add(time.Millisecond), true }
+			m.store(approved("jwt-1", "seed-1"))
+
+			errCh := make(chan error, 1)
+			go func() { errCh <- m.RefreshLoop(context.Background()) }()
+			Eventually(errCh, "2s").Should(Receive(MatchError(ContainSubstring("3 times in a row"))))
+		})
+
+		It("exits promptly when the current credential has no expiry (nothing to refresh)", func() {
+			f := &fakeRegister{steps: []step{{res: approved("x", "y")}}}
+			m := NewNATSCredentialManager(f.fn(), true)
+			m.expiryOf = func(string) (time.Time, bool) { return time.Time{}, false }
+			m.store(approved("static", "seed"))
+
+			done := make(chan struct{})
+			go func() { _ = m.RefreshLoop(context.Background()); close(done) }()
+			Eventually(done, "1s").Should(BeClosed())
+			Expect(f.count()).To(Equal(0)) // never tried to re-register
+		})
+	})
+
+	Describe("jwtExpiry default", func() {
+		It("decodes the expiry of a real minted worker JWT", func() {
+			akp, err := nkeys.CreateAccount()
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			seed, err := akp.Seed()
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+
+			cfg := natsauth.Config{AccountSeed: string(seed), WorkerJWTTTL: time.Hour}
+			token, _, err := cfg.MintWorkerJWT("node-1", "backend")
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+
+			exp, ok := jwtExpiry(token)
+			Expect(ok).To(BeTrue())
+			Expect(exp).To(BeTemporally("~", time.Now().Add(time.Hour), 2*time.Minute))
+		})
+
+		It("reports no expiry for an empty or undecodable token", func() {
+			_, ok := jwtExpiry("")
+			Expect(ok).To(BeFalse())
+			_, ok = jwtExpiry("not-a-jwt")
+			Expect(ok).To(BeFalse())
+		})
+	})
+})

core/config/application_config.go

@@ -12,10 +12,19 @@ import (
 )
 
 type ApplicationConfig struct {
-	Context                             context.Context
-	ConfigFile                          string
-	SystemState                         *system.SystemState
-	ExternalBackends                    []string
+	Context          context.Context
+	ConfigFile       string
+	SystemState      *system.SystemState
+	ExternalBackends []string
+
+	// WebRTCNAT1To1IPs, when set, are advertised as the host ICE candidates for
+	// /v1/realtime WebRTC instead of every local interface address. Needed when
+	// the routable address differs from what pion gathers — e.g. Docker host
+	// networking (where pion also offers unreachable bridge IPs) or NAT.
+	WebRTCNAT1To1IPs []string
+	// WebRTCICEInterfaces, when set, restricts ICE candidate gathering to these
+	// network interfaces (e.g. eth0), filtering out docker0/veth noise.
+	WebRTCICEInterfaces                 []string
 	UploadLimitMB, Threads, ContextSize int
 	F16                                 bool
 	Debug                               bool
@@ -56,7 +65,7 @@ type ApplicationConfig struct {
 	//
 	//   patterns:
 	//     - id: email
-	//       action: route_local      # downgrade default mask -> route_local
+	//       action: allow            # downgrade default mask -> allow (log only)
 	//     - id: ssn
 	//       action: block            # upgrade default mask -> block
 	//
@@ -81,7 +90,6 @@ type ApplicationConfig struct {
 	// file is mode 0600.
 	MITMCADir string
 
-
 	// PIIPatternOverrides applies persisted per-id deltas (action,
 	// disabled) to the live redactor at startup. Loaded from
 	// runtime_settings.json and applied right after pii.NewRedactor.
@@ -116,11 +124,11 @@ type ApplicationConfig struct {
 	// --require-backend-integrity / LOCALAI_REQUIRE_BACKEND_INTEGRITY.
 	RequireBackendIntegrity bool
 
-	SingleBackend           bool // Deprecated: use MaxActiveBackends = 1 instead
-	MaxActiveBackends       int  // Maximum number of active backends (0 = unlimited, 1 = single backend mode)
-	WatchDogIdle bool
-	WatchDogBusy bool
-	WatchDog     bool
+	SingleBackend     bool // Deprecated: use MaxActiveBackends = 1 instead
+	MaxActiveBackends int  // Maximum number of active backends (0 = unlimited, 1 = single backend mode)
+	WatchDogIdle      bool
+	WatchDogBusy      bool
+	WatchDog          bool
 
 	// Memory Reclaimer settings (works with GPU if available, otherwise RAM)
 	MemoryReclaimerEnabled   bool    // Enable memory threshold monitoring
@@ -311,6 +319,18 @@ func WithExternalBackends(backends ...string) AppOption {
 	}
 }
 
+func WithWebRTCNAT1To1IPs(ips ...string) AppOption {
+	return func(o *ApplicationConfig) {
+		o.WebRTCNAT1To1IPs = ips
+	}
+}
+
+func WithWebRTCICEInterfaces(interfaces ...string) AppOption {
+	return func(o *ApplicationConfig) {
+		o.WebRTCICEInterfaces = interfaces
+	}
+}
+
 func WithMachineTag(tag string) AppOption {
 	return func(o *ApplicationConfig) {
 		o.MachineTag = tag
@@ -702,7 +722,6 @@ func WithMITMCADir(dir string) AppOption {
 	}
 }
 
-
 func WithDynamicConfigDir(dynamicConfigsDir string) AppOption {
 	return func(o *ApplicationConfig) {
 		o.DynamicConfigsDir = dynamicConfigsDir