feat: 0.5.0 Capture release — dictation, MCP, personalities

.bumpversion.cfg

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [bumpversion]
-current_version = 0.4.5
+current_version = 0.5.0
 commit = True
 tag = True
 tag_name = v{new_version}

.github/workflows/build-windows.yml

@@ -29,11 +29,14 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           cd backend
           python build_binary.py
+          python build_binary.py --shim
 
           PLATFORM=$(rustc --print host-tuple)
           mkdir -p ../tauri/src-tauri/binaries
           cp dist/voicebox-server.exe ../tauri/src-tauri/binaries/voicebox-server-${PLATFORM}.exe
+          cp dist/voicebox-mcp.exe ../tauri/src-tauri/binaries/voicebox-mcp-${PLATFORM}.exe
           echo "Built voicebox-server-${PLATFORM}.exe"
+          echo "Built voicebox-mcp-${PLATFORM}.exe"
 
       - name: Setup Bun
         uses: oven-sh/setup-bun@v2

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           cd backend
           python build_binary.py
+          python build_binary.py --shim
 
           # Get platform tuple
           PLATFORM=$(rustc --print host-tuple)
@@ -123,7 +124,9 @@ jobs:
 
           # Copy with platform suffix
           cp dist/voicebox-server.exe ../tauri/src-tauri/binaries/voicebox-server-${PLATFORM}.exe
+          cp dist/voicebox-mcp.exe ../tauri/src-tauri/binaries/voicebox-mcp-${PLATFORM}.exe
           echo "Built voicebox-server-${PLATFORM}.exe"
+          echo "Built voicebox-mcp-${PLATFORM}.exe"
 
       - name: Setup Bun
         uses: oven-sh/setup-bun@v2

.mcp.json

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+{
+  "mcpServers": {
+    "voicebox": {
+      "type": "http",
+      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:17493/mcp",
+      "headers": {
+        "X-Voicebox-Client-Id": "claude-code"
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -5,7 +5,90 @@
 
 # Changelog
 
-## [Unreleased]
+## [0.5.0] - 2026-04-22
+
+**The Capture release.** Voicebox stops being just a voice-cloning studio and becomes a full AI voice studio. Hold a key anywhere on your machine, speak, release — the transcript lands in the focused text field. Flip the primitive around and any MCP-aware agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Spacebot — speaks back through an on-screen pill in one of your cloned voices. A local LLM sits between the two, so transcripts come out clean and voice profiles can carry a personality that reshapes what the agent says before it gets spoken.
+
+### Dictation — speak anywhere, paste anywhere
+
+- **Global hotkey capture.** Hold a customizable chord anywhere on your machine (defaults: right-Cmd + right-Option on macOS, right-Ctrl + right-Shift on Windows), speak, release. A floating on-screen pill walks through recording → transcribing → refining → done with a live elapsed timer. The transcript lands as clean text.
+- **Push-to-talk and toggle modes, each with its own chord.** The default toggle chord adds Space to the push-to-talk chord. Holding PTT and tapping Space mid-hold upgrades a hold into a hands-free session without a gap in the recording.
+- **Auto-paste into the focused app.** Once transcription finishes, Voicebox synthesizes a paste into whatever text field had focus when you started the chord — not wherever focus drifted while you were talking. Works across Dvorak / AZERTY layouts. Your clipboard is saved before and restored after.
+- **Chord picker UI.** Customize either chord from Settings → Captures by holding the keys you want. Left/right modifier badges show whether a key is the left or right variant.
+- **Defaults stay out of your way.** macOS defaults avoid left-hand Cmd+Option chords so the system shortcuts they collide with stay yours. Windows defaults route around AltGr collisions on German / French / Spanish layouts.
+- **Accessibility permission is scoped.** If macOS Accessibility isn't granted, dictation still runs and transcripts still land in the Captures tab — only synthetic paste is disabled. The permission prompt lives inline next to the auto-paste toggle, not as a global banner.
+
+### Personality — voice profiles that speak for themselves
+
+Voice profiles now carry an optional **personality** — a free-form description of who this voice is, up to 2000 characters. When set, two new controls appear next to the generate button, each powered by a new Qwen3 LLM running entirely locally:
+
+- **Compose** — the shuffle button drops a fresh in-character line into the textarea. Click again for variety, edit before speaking.
+- **Speak in character** — the wand toggle runs your input through the personality LLM before TTS, preserving every idea but delivering it in the character's voice.
+
+The same LLM doubles as the refinement model, so there's one local LLM in the app, not two.
+
+**API surface.** `POST /generate`, `POST /speak`, and the MCP `voicebox.speak` tool accept `personality: bool`. `POST /profiles/{id}/compose` powers the shuffle button. MCP client bindings carry a `default_personality: bool` that applies when `personality` isn't passed explicitly.
+
+### Agents — any MCP-aware agent gets a voice
+
+Voicebox ships a built-in **Model Context Protocol** server at `http://127.0.0.1:17493/mcp` so Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, VS Code MCP extensions — any MCP-aware agent — can call into your local Voicebox install. Four tools ship with dotted names:
+
+- **`voicebox.speak`** — speak text in any voice profile, with optional `personality: true` to run through the profile's personality LLM first
+- **`voicebox.transcribe`** — Whisper transcription of a base64 blob or an absolute local path. Path mode is restricted to loopback callers so a Voicebox bound on `0.0.0.0` doesn't double as an unauthenticated arbitrary-local-file read primitive.
+- **`voicebox.list_captures`** — recent captures with their transcripts
+- **`voicebox.list_profiles`** — available voice profiles (cloned + preset)
+
+- **Streamable HTTP as primary transport.** Cursor / Windsurf / VS Code / Claude Code all support it out of the box — drop a `mcpServers` block with the URL and an `X-Voicebox-Client-Id` header.
+- **Stdio shim for clients that don't speak HTTP MCP.** A `voicebox-mcp` binary ships inside the app bundle as a Tauri sidecar. The Settings page renders the install snippet with the right absolute path pre-filled.
+- **Per-client voice binding.** Pin Claude Code to Morgan, Cursor to Scarlett, Cline to its own voice — the `X-Voicebox-Client-Id` header resolves to a bound voice whenever `speak` is called without an explicit `profile`. Managed in **Settings → MCP**.
+- **Profile resolution precedence.** Explicit `profile` arg (name or id, case-insensitive) → per-client binding → global default from `capture_settings.default_playback_voice_id` → error with a pointer to Settings.
+- **Speaking pill.** Agent-initiated speech surfaces the same on-screen pill as dictation, in a `speaking` state with the profile name and an elapsed timer. Silent background TTS is a trust hazard — the pill always shows what's coming out of your machine.
+- **`POST /speak` REST wrapper.** Same code path and voice resolution for shell scripts, ACP, A2A, GitHub Actions, or anything else that isn't MCP-native.
+
+**Claude Code one-liner:**
+
+```
+claude mcp add voicebox --transport http --url http://127.0.0.1:17493/mcp --header "X-Voicebox-Client-Id: claude-code"
+```
+
+### Refinement
+
+A clean transcript needs more than Whisper. Each capture flows through a small Qwen3 LLM that strips fillers, fixes punctuation, and optionally rewrites self-corrections — all on-device.
+
+- **Loop-stripping before the LLM sees the transcript.** Whisper's "thanks for watching thanks for watching thanks for watching…" hallucination loops are collapsed at a six-identical-tokens threshold (case-insensitive) so a small refinement model can't echo them back. Coverage spans single-word runs, multi-word phrases, CJK character runs, and Japanese emphasis patterns; legitimate repetition ("no, no, no, no, no") doesn't cross the threshold.
+- **Per-capture flag snapshot.** `smart_cleanup`, `self_correction`, and `preserve_technical` are stored on each capture, so refinement can be re-run later with different flags without losing the raw transcript.
+- **Model picker** — Qwen3 0.6B (400 MB, very fast), 1.7B (1.1 GB, fast), 4B (2.5 GB, full quality). 0.6B is the default; 1.7B is the sweet spot for transcripts with code identifiers.
+
+### Captures tab + settings
+
+Settings → Captures is now the home for the whole dictation flow:
+
+- **Dictation**: global shortcut toggle, push-to-talk chord picker, toggle chord picker, live pill preview, auto-paste into focused field (with inline accessibility prompt).
+- **Transcription**: model picker (Whisper Base / Small / Medium / Large / Turbo), language lock.
+- **Refinement**: auto-refine toggle, model picker, smart cleanup, remove self-corrections, preserve technical terms.
+- **Playback**: default voice for the Captures tab's "Play as" action — picking a voice from the split-button persists the choice across tab switches and restarts.
+- **Storage**: captures folder quick-open.
+
+### Stories — timeline editor
+
+The Stories tab graduates from a TTS sequencer into a real timeline editor. Same generation-row backing, but clips now compose with imported audio, per-clip levels, and a flexible track stack.
+
+- **Import external audio.** Drag a music file onto the story content area or pick one from the new "Import audio" entry in the add-clip popover. Accepted formats: wav / mp3 / flac / ogg / m4a / aac / webm, capped at 200 MB. Imported clips show their filename instead of a profile name and skip the regenerate / version-picker controls — there's nothing to regenerate.
+- **Per-clip volume.** A `Volume2` icon in the clip-edit toolbar opens a 0–200% slider. Adjustments apply live and to exports. Split and duplicate carry the volume forward into the new clips.
+- **Regenerate** from both the clip's chat-list dropdown and the track-editor toolbar. Re-runs the underlying generation through the same path the History tab uses, with completion tracked in the global pending set.
+- **Add empty tracks above or below the timeline** via tiny `+` strips at the top of the topmost label cell and the bottom of the bottommost. Sticky in the label column so they follow horizontal scroll.
+- **Zoom bar tracks the project.** Min scope is 10 seconds visible (zoomed in cap), max is the entire project (zoomed out cap), default lands on 60 s. Both the +/− buttons and the scrollbar edge-drag handles clamp to those dynamic bounds.
+
+### Interface
+
+- **Theme selector.** Light / dark / system in **Settings → General**, persisted across sessions. System mode listens for OS-level appearance changes and flips live without a restart.
+- **Scrubbable waveform player on captures.** The capture detail card now embeds a WaveSurfer waveform with click-to-seek and a current / total timestamp pair, replacing the static duration label.
+- **Capture pill light mode.** The on-screen pill gets a dedicated light palette so it stays legible against bright windows.
+- **Readiness checklist in the Captures settings sidebar.** The same six-gate checklist the Captures empty state uses mirrors into Settings → Captures so a red gate can't hide behind a green toggle. Hidden once every gate is green. macOS-only rows (Input Monitoring, Accessibility) hide entirely on Windows and Linux.
+
+### Windows parity
+
+Same dictation flow on Windows. Right-hand default chord (Ctrl+Shift) avoids AltGr collisions on layouts where Ctrl+Alt is the compose key. Focus is captured at chord-start so paste lands in the original field even if focus drifts during transcribe/refine.
 
 ## [0.4.5] - 2026-04-22
 
@@ -657,7 +740,7 @@ The first public release of Voicebox — an open-source voice synthesis studio p
 
 Tauri v2, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, FastAPI, Qwen3-TTS, Whisper, SQLite
 
-[Unreleased]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.5...HEAD
+[0.5.0]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.5...v0.5.0
 [0.4.5]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.4...v0.4.5
 [0.4.4]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.3...v0.4.4
 [0.4.3]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.2...v0.4.3