Qwen TTS Runner

What it is

Qwen TTS Runner is a small LAN-only service on the Zenbook/Jarvis Windows host. It wraps a local Qwen text-to-speech model behind a simple HTTP API so project tools can request voice test clips without opening a GUI on the laptop.

It was built for Sakuga voice experiments first, but the more durable win is the runtime pattern: agent-accessible Windows host, scheduled task, health endpoint, artifacts directory, and a clean source-of-record repo.

Why I run it

Voice experiments need repeatable proof. A one-off notebook or manually launched script is fine for curiosity, but it is poor infrastructure. The runner makes local TTS a service I can smoke test, monitor, and call from other projects.

It also gives future agents a headless path into the Zenbook/Jarvis AI machine. That matters because the Zenbook is where the local model stack lives, but it is not a Proxmox guest.

How I use it

Sakuga treats it as a candidate voice lane: ask the runner for a short clip, fetch the generated WAV, and compare the result against other providers. The CPU smoke path produced a short WAV successfully, but fresh generation reliability and acceleration remain unproven.

For now, CPU smoke is the verified backend. AMD acceleration is interesting, but not proven for this path yet.

Setup notes

• Host: Zenbook/Jarvis, outside the Proxmox cluster.
• Runtime: Windows Scheduled Task starts the runner.
• Exposure: LAN-only HTTP API. No public proxy.
• Artifacts: generated audio and logs live on the Zenbook under a dedicated AI workspace.
• Known gaps: SoX, ffmpeg, ffprobe, and GPU acceleration are not proven in the runner environment yet.

Runbook

• Healthy looks like: SSH to the Zenbook works, /health returns OK, /models lists the available runner model, and a fresh smoke request writes a WAV artifact without timing out.
• Health is down: check the scheduled task first, then confirm the port listener exists.
• Audio generation fails: expect missing media-tool binaries before assuming the model is broken.
• Where logs live: the runner's log directory on the Zenbook.